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Home         Back          Next My Scottish friends; Kath & John, was touring Greece in May 2010, and they send me daily reports, here they are;   "Hello We are connected! Here is the first “report” of our Greek adventure trip to Skopelos. On Thursday morning 6th May we were very anxious because we did not know if we would get away from Edinburgh. The Scottish airports had been closed for various spells during the previous days because of the return of the ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland that nobody can pronounce. We were lucky the airport had been reopened. We left Edinburgh about an hour late and only just made our connection in London. This was mainly because we had been told in Edinburgh to make sure we checked with Aegean in London that our luggage would be transferred. And we could not find out who to talk to in London about this. Eventually someone told us all OK and our luggage would be sent on. Then our Aegean airways flight from London to Athens sat on the ground for an hour before taking off. It was a good flight on a nice clean plane and we had good seats with extra leg room. We were a little late in Athens but we flew to Thessaloniki and arrived just 15 minutes late. Then we waited for our luggage – and we waited, but no sign of it. By now we were panicking a little and we asked a man about it. Ah! He said, yes, Robertson “I have your case in my office. It came on the earlier flight” We were very relieved and got to our hotel eventually at 10.30pm. We had left our house in Edinburgh at 6.45am. The Davitel Tobacco Hotel is very nice clean and has good sized rooms. And it is very reasonable. But it is a few streets behind the front. A 15/20 minute walk to Aristoteleos Square. But for anyone who does not mind the walk we would recommend it. This morning, Friday, we were walking in Thessaloniki and met our friend Vangelis from the Blue Bar in Skopelos. That was really nice and we sat and had a coffee with him. Thessaloniki is very nice but prices in the centre for coffees and beers are very expensive – for instance, in Aristoteleos square, 2 small beers cost €11.   Here is today's offering; Saturday 8th May It is 7.30 in the evening and we are sitting in the lobby of our hotel. Soon we will go and eat at the taverna that you recommended. We found it this morning when we explored the agora. We had a lovely meal in Agioli, the sister restaurant to Agioli in Skopelos. Later we had a beer at a wonderful, very Greek little café bar hidden away in the backstreets. Beer there is much cheaper than down at the front. Today we went first of all to the Church of Agiou Dimitriou and visited the crypt. If you haven’t been there you must go. It is from Roman times and absolutely amazing. Then it rained! We visited the Agora, the church of Agia Sofia, where there was a christening, and the White Tower. Also we were walking along Mitropoleo and by chance we met Maria, the ex-wife of Vangelis from the Blue Bar. We will see her in Skopelos. She goes there tomorrow, Sunday. Isn’t it lovely to have friends from different places? We then went for a coffee with Vangeli and he gave us our directions to drive to Veria tomorrow. In the afternoon we went shopping to Kotsovolos (mini Hi-Fi), a gyros & siesta. So, now we will go out to eat and tomorrow we will get our car and head off for Veria around lunchtime. We hope all is well with you and will send some more when we can get internet access again. Sunday 9th May – 7.30pm We had a lovely meal last night at Opta Pyri. Thessaloniki has been quiet with few signs of the troubles we have all read about. But there were a lot of police in the centre last night with armed guards at important public buildings. This morning our hired car was delivered on time and we left Thessaloniki and drove to Veroia. Apart from a little difficulty finding our way out of Thessaloniki, when we had to do a 3 point turn in the middle of a Thessaloniki street (not to be recommended), the journey went well and we didn’t have to do any further battles with Greek drivers. But although I drove at close to the speed limit I was very much one of the slowest drivers on the road. We were going to visit Vergina before finding our hotel in Veroia but because of the opening times in Vergina we came to the hotel first. We will go to Vergina tomorrow. Veroia is a very nice Greek town with a friendly, open feel to it. And we have struck gold with our hotel here. It is simply one of the most characterful hotels that we have ever seen and to find it in a Greek town is a treasure. It is called Kokkino Spiti. There is a web site and it is well worth checking out if ever anyone should want to visit Veroia. Our room is featured in the gallery of pictures on the site. The hotel overlooks the River Tripotamos and is a converted Jewish Merchants house. Only 9 rooms in total each individually decorated. It really is stunning but tomorrow we must move on via Vergina to Kalambaka (for Meteora) Well that is today’s update. Will try to check in again tomorrow. Our love Tuesday 11th May Lovely meal again last night and today we have been blown away with the sights of Meteora. We visited 2 monasteries – Agios Stephanos & Agia Triada.  At the latter we were fortunate to see the monk crossing the chasm from the monastery to the road in his ramshackle little cable car. He then disappeared into a building with his briefcase and emerged from the other side driving a nice new silver car! And later we saw two people climbing one of the rock pinnacles - very scary. The scenery here is just fantastic. No pictures really do it justice. Tomorrow we will visit the Grand Meteora Monastery in the morning and then on to our next stop – Volos. We will try to send some photos tomorrow. Scottish report; Wednesday 12th May We have arrived safely in Volos and writing this whilst drinking a Mythos that mysteriously appeared in our hotel fridge! That was much appreciated. It was a warm drive – we saw a temperature of 33 on a sign. This morning we went to the Grand Monastery in Meteora. We have really enjoyed fantastic views in this magical place. Returned to our hotel to check out and were given gifts by the owners. How kind people are. The Dellas Hotel in Kastraki has been another excellent base for us. Kath did the drive down from Meteora to Volos. And we stopped off at IKEA south of Larissa on the way. Now in Aegli Hotel with a nice room and lovely views. Shortly we will explore a little and find somewhere to eat. Tomorrow I think we will relax a little, have a coffee and see a little of Volos. Thursday 13th May It’s hard to believe that we have now been in Greece for a week. We spent a pleasant evening last night but we have both got our first mosquito bites. No trouble at all until we reached Volos but we went out last night without anti-mozzy protection and today Kath has a few & John about 12! We now have our mozzy stuff on for going out tonight. Today we did what we thought. Relaxed and looked around Volos. We were going to go to the museum but it was shut by the time we got there. We had spent too long over our frappes. So we went and sat in a tsipourathika & had lunch. Very nice. And we keep meeting people we know. At lunchtime it was Nassos from Platanos Square in Skopelos. We stopped and had a chat – all in Greek! Bravo. The last Scottish report; Having our our last beer in the Aegli before we come home tomorrow. Have had a wonderful time but looking forward to Skopelos now. See you soon - here are our last 2 reports. Friday 14th May Only 3 more mozzy bites. Checked out of Aegli Hotel in Volos this morning. As we are returning on Saturday they have kindly kept some things for us. We had managed to get our car in their underground car park on Thursday morning so after retrieving it we set off for the Pelion part of our trip. First a drive up to Makrinitsa where we stopped for coffee in an old traditional kafeneio/taverna with magnificent views. Then on via Portaria, Anili to Kissos where we stopped for lunch. Kissos is a lovely village, quiet & very peaceful. All the countryside & scenery here is stunning. Onward then to Tsagarada and our hotel/guest house. We had to phone to find the place as it is not well signposted but when we arrived well – what a place! Only 5 rooms and we have the place to ourselves. Beautiful gardens and on the ground floor a fantastic living room for us to use as we wish. We were warmly welcomed by Iannis, the owner and given coffee out on the terrace. Although the weather is very hot the inside of the old house is very cool. Name of the place is Kastanies (It was meant to be) and although not extensive it does have a web site that is worth checking out. We can see this will be more accommodation that we don’t want to leave. Unfortunately we don’t have internet access here so this report will be sent later. Saturday 15th May Lovely dinner last night in Tsagarada close to the massive plane tree in the square of Agia Paraskevi. The plane tree has a branch so big it is supported by a column of concrete blocks. Woke up this morning to pouring rain. We were going to look at a couple of beaches and have a leisurely drive back through some villages stopping off here and there and maybe having a coffee. Instead we only stopped at Milies but we drove very carefully and enjoyed the wonderful scenery. We are now back in the Aegli Hotel and have dropped off the hired car. We have had a really memorable 10 days or so but we just look forward now to home – Skopelos. Very windy here today so hopefully it will calm down a bit so we don’t have to go into Agnondas. Anyway Express Skiathos tomorrow morning at 9am here we come. Filakia Kath & John http://www.kastanies.com/index.html Thanks a lot, and welcome to Skopelos! HostGator.com Web Hosting  ***** skopelitissa@live.no  Home         Back          Next   © Skopelítissa.com 2003 - 2012