Olympic Riviera. Outdoor trips of a family of sloths. About the distant region
Oh, Vorobeichikov does not lie down and sit quietly, he does not rest. He doesn’t walk around the neighboring villages and gardens either. Give them long trips. . .
The beginning of the description of out-of-hotel trips from the resort-beach reservation Bomo Platamon Cronwell Resort 5* in the previous part - "Olympic Riviera. Outdoor trips of a family of sloths. About the nearest district”.
By some miracle, in Platamonas we stumbled upon the only working travel agency, in Leptokarya a year ago, I remember, they could not be found. Strangely, no booklet with prices has been preserved, usually I don’t throw away such things, at least until writing reports. In general, we used her services and went to Meteora with the whole family. My daughter and I have already been there during our last visit to the Olympic Riviera, this time we persuaded our men as well. In addition, this business cost two times cheaper than with Mouzenidis, which is at the hotel. This fact outweighed the cup of men's doubts : ).
Yes, there were some nuances: a combined multilingual group, an old bus. But the guide told everything very well, controlled the sightseers. There were a majority of Russian speakers, so everything went quite comfortably. They bring them to the same icon shop and the same restaurant for a snack as Mouzenidis. Unlike them, on the way to Meteora we made a stop at the Church of St. Paraskeva in the Tempi Gorge.
According to legend, it was here, in the gorge, that the Christian martyr Paraskeva was captured and arrested in the 3rd century. Already in the 20th century, various miracles were observed. During the construction of the railway, the miraculous icon of Paraskeva was found in the lake. The water began to heal. A chapel was built, to which, naturally, pilgrims were drawn. I personally do not believe do not understand such things, so I do not observe miracles. And there are no normal photos. And the decoration of that church - yes, beautiful!
Ah, Meteors!
The husband was skeptical (however, as always) was set up, they say, well, rocks, well, monasteries... And what will I see so unusual... Yes, the photo is quite cute, but no more...
But. . . I was truly amazed and amazed by what I saw.
Girls won't give bad advice : )). Completely laconic in ordinary life, the uncle very emotionally shared his impressions of this trip later at various friendly gatherings. You look, it will become more talkative, we will visit a couple more iconic places on the planet. . .
Children's protest : )) Yes, it happens like this:
More about this fabulous and mysterious place - the Meteora rocks, about your own feelings - in last year's story "No fur coat - come on Meteors! : ))". I won't repeat myself.
Even on my last trip to these parts, I really wanted to look at Thessaloniki. Still, the second largest and most important city in Greece. And then all the villages, but the fortresses... Well, you need to plunge into civilization, see what the townspeople live and breathe, so to speak.
It is convenient that near the hotel there is a railway station Neo Pori, from where you can get to the city by train. But we thought about it and decided to use the services of the same agency (I don’t remember the name, but the charming and very talkative lady who works in it is called Lydia). Firstly, the cost was much more pleasant. On the train, the cost of an adult one-way ticket is 12.5 euros, and the agency paid 30 euros for a round-trip trip to Thessaloniki for a family. Secondly, it's just more comfortable when the bus picks up and returns from / to the hotel. Yes, and the time is more convenient.
The program included a sightseeing group tour and then shopping in one of the shopping centers. But when we arrive at White Tower we immediately agreed with the escort on the bus that we would take a walk ourselves and arrive at the designated time of departure to the shopping center. Well, yes, it turned out just a transfer.
Since we are at the White Tower, and this is the symbol of Thessaloniki, we decided to start our knowledge of the city from it. Now it houses an exposition dedicated to the history of the city. By the way, do you know that the first president of Turkey was born and raised in Thessaloniki Mustafa Kemal Ataturk?
Very interesting, but for adults. There is an audio guide in Russian. The children were more interested in manipulating the audio guide buttons when moving from expand to expand : )
And at the top, as befits decent towers, there is an observation deck:
Here, at the tower, sightseeing double-decker buses plying around the main sights of the city stop. We even relied on a discount on it from our agency. But with children, the pleasure is doubtful.
The bus routes in Thessaloniki were previously studied. By the way, Maps. me shows the numbers of buses stopping at this stop, you need to click on the stop icon.
In other cities in this application, this has not yet been seen, the maximum is the name of the stop. So even without a particularly deep preliminary study of public transport routes, you can find out how to get to the desired point.
I suggested taking bus number 50 to Upper Town (Ano Poli), and from there to go down. It is in the Upper Town that the old buildings with wonderful houses and intricate streets have been preserved.
Views from Upper Town:
But my comrade said that in two hours he took a bus, and let's go, he says, so... straight... by the shortest route.
I tried to explain, they say, high and far, and I will not be to blame for this feat. And he: “Oh, come on... they didn’t take a lot of heights. ” Well, it's my job to warn you. In general, it was hard)).
And the children? And the children were initially not enthusiastic about the proposed trip to Thessaloniki. They asked to leave them at the hotel, promised not to quarrel and even dine, swore that they would not leave the room, well, except perhaps for some yummy. No, I'm not ready for such a deal yet. So the children's half of humanity resigned themselves to their fate as tourists and almost without whims (yeah, trained already) accompanied their parents. Not without extortion, of course, in the form of ice cream or cola or their madly loved bagel.
We had a nice walk:
Rated the main attractions:
Arch of Galeria
Roman Agora
Basilica of St. Demetrius
We also walked along non-tourist trails:
But the city did not evoke any particularly vivid feelings. A city, like a city. . . Although, no. . . It has its own peculiarity in appearance - a very close neighborhood of ancient ruins and modern buildings.
Yes, yes, that's what he was remembered for. . . Here are the signs by which he will be identified in memory. . .
Church of Panagia Halkenon
But this city did not open its soul to us. You know, this is how it happens: whether you want or don't want to meet again, there is a feeling of the unrecognized or somehow not interesting any more... Thessaloniki undoubtedly you should visit, being in those places. A rich history, an explosive mixture of cultures. . . But again, I think it's unlikely. Anyway, while such feelings, but still may change.
The implementation of one Wishlist has been postponed indefinitely - this is the direction Edessa-Aridea, I would call it a water direction. Edessa is an ancient town and, they say, the most gorgeous waterfalls. And not far from the town of Aridea there is a whole complex of thermal springs, both cultivated for money and free in the bosom of nature. I really wanted to, but our family laziness prevailed here - we were too lazy to go to the village one evening to buy this excursion, and the last trip of that season was already scheduled for tomorrow. Eh. . .
But, as they say, there is a reason to return to the divine shores of the Olympic Riviera : ))
