Mountainous Countryside of Greece

Tuesday May 30 - 4th day of the Rick Steves tour.  

We headed into the Peloponnese which is in the southwest half of  Greece.  Since I didn’t know Greece at all, I assume most people reading this would not either.  One of the pictures today will show where we are in the country.  

We headed out of Delphi today and continued our westward journey along the Gulf of Corinth coastline.  Our guide called this our nature day.

After crossing a very modern bridge that was built for all the travelers coming for the 2004 Olympics we stopped in a small mountain town called Diakopton and hopped on a cog wheel train for an hour trip up the mountain to a ski town called Kalavryta.  The trip was fun with beautiful scenery.  There were mountains, a river gorge lots of trees and sometimes a little scary of a train ride on the side of a cliff.  

We ate lunch at a picturesque mountain village with a beautiful stream running through it called Planitero.  I don’t know if Christine has described it yet, but Greek people like to eat.  We started the meal with baked cheese, Greek salad, boiled greens, taziki dip and French fries.   Then for the main meal we ate trout raised and caught in the local stream and a desert that was some sort of spiced walnut cake!  Yes….that was lunch!

Our day ended with a fun evening in the village of Lagkadia, high up in the Menalon mountains eating a dinner of lamb, and learning how to Greek folk dance.  Afterwards we walked around the town and snapped a few pictures as it got dark.  All in all a great day.  We were in the bus almost 6 hours, but with all the stops and with the great scenery, and fun at the end of the day, it didn’t seem like it.  

Our trip for today started at Delphi and ended at Lagkadia

Leaving the cute town of Delphi. 

Christine took a picture of me taking a picture or the cool bridge. 

We thought our brother Tom would like this bridge. 

Above picture is our tour group waiting for the cog wheel train.  The dog in the picture below would lay on the tracks until he felt the rumbling of the train (I assume), then he would get up and move. 

Me at the start of the train ride. 

The next 4 pictures were taken from the train.

Look closely, you will see a cave. 

River gorge.

Waterfalls

Mountains from the train.

Yes - she ate that trout!  But not the head!

I put this picture in to show the feta that the restaurant that fed us the fish makes.  It is homemade and they make enough for the year for their family and the Rick Steves tour groups only. 

Mountain stream outside of our lunch restaurant. 

This is a picture of how all the cemeteries in the mountains look. They are all sparking white and they sit a bit outside of the town, rather than in the churchyards.

Village of Lagkadia clock tower 

Above, Christine is waiting to learn all about Greek dancing! The pictures below all show the Greek dancing demonstration as well as the group of us attempting it! 

The 3 pictures below were all taken of Lagkadia at dusk while we were trying to walk off our dinner.  The pictures don’t show it, but it was quiet, peaceful and magical.  

……..see you in Olympia!!!!!!

Mary