Ludwig's Odyssey: Northern Greece

After lots of sightseeing in Bulgaria, we crossed the border and headed to the beaches of Northern Greece, to do, well you know, not a lot really.
On our way towards Halkidiki, we stopped over at a very helpful VW garage in Thessaloniki to get some work done on a few parts that needed replacing, nothing major, just wear and tear stuff (although we would have to return a couple of days later to get the work finished), someone spoke great english so that really helped.

We found a place to camp for the night, not too far away at Potamos beach near the small town of Epanomi. Being a Saturday It was very busy with folk from Thessaloniki and we had difficulty finding a place to park, we thought we’d found one but it turned out to be a sand trap and we got stuck.
After no help whatsoever from our breakdown company (again) and it being late on a Saturday afternoon, we almost resigned ourselves to being stuck in for a couple of days. Various friendly and willing locals tried to help us but the van wouldn’t budge. After a couple of hours we were rescued by a very helpful off duty fireman and his 4x4. Luckily I had found some fishing rope and it was strong enough for him to pull us out. Phew!

So that wasn’t the start we had in mind, but undeterred we found a spot that was much firmer and ended up staying at Potamos Beach for five nights. There are showers and toilets for all to use, so it was perfect really and the sea is gorgeous to swim in. In the morning, the sun shone on the Olympus Mountains and we could just see the very top.

Eventually, we decided to move on to Halkidiki, for a change of scene, and headed for Sithonia, one of the three peninsulars.
The nearest peninsular to Thessaloniki, Kassandra, is flat and filled with resorts, so not really for us. Sithonia on the other hand is remote, very hilly and rugged, with little resorts at all, mostly campsites and awesome beaches. The third peninsular is mostly inaccessible to us mere mortals. Mount Athos it’s actually an autonomous republic, filled with lots of monasteries and some 1700 monks. Visiting is complicated and must be planned months in advance to get a special permit, even so, if you are not of the Orthodox faith it’s tough as only a handful get in daily, and if you are female, it’s even harder as you are forbidden to enter…We could see it from Sithonia with our binoculars and that was enough for us.
So we spent four nights at a campsite on the west coast in a small village called Sikias. It was very quiet and the beach was in a beautiful bay. One afternoon we did drive back up to Orange beach, a famous beach some 15km from the campsite, which was way to busy for the size of it, but it was very good for snorkelling.

After nine days of being beach bums, we decided that perhaps we should do something else. We made our way back and visited the second biggest city in Greece, Thessaloniki.
There is little left of the old stuff in the downtown area these days, a devastating fire in 1917 saw to that. There was then further damage during WWII and then an earthquake in 1978. But, even after all that, there are still some interesting Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman remains dotted around, and up on the hill the old plaster houses that once filled the whole city still exist.
It’s a very cosmopolitan city with a friendly vibe with lots of places to eat, drink and shop of course. You could happily spend a couple of days here and enjoy the nightlife on offer, but we decided to just spend a few hours walking around, enjoyed some falafel pitas, and then headed south to stop over the night at a nature reserve.

We only came to the nature reserve as it was the nearest place we could find near the city to stay over for the night, but it was a good choice, and in the morning a kind lady opened up the bird hide/tower and we had wonderful views of White Pelicans, Flamingoes, Pygmy Cormorants, Marsh Harriers etc…
After an hour so, we carried on south to the castle of Platamonas, a crusader castle of strategic importance back in the day. Now, there is an imposing tower at the top of this hill surrounded by a complete wall, which is great to look at and also offers wonderful views over the beaches below and the Olympus mountains. It’s amazing how we can spend over an hour in a place that you can probably walk around in just 20 mins! We just love a good castle.
This is slightly off the beaten track and there were hardly any tourists, however we decided to go down to the beach below for a quick swim and shower and there were a few more people here of course!
From there, we then drove up the Olympus Mountain Range to find a wonderful place to spend the night. A picnic area 900m up the mountain with lots of fresh water and a chill in the air, it was actually cool at night for a change.
What a great day that was, birdwatching, a castle, a swim in the sea and then a drive up the mountain with amazing views to stay at a beautiful spot, that really was one of the best so far.
Normally we move on early-ish but here we decided to have a long leisurely breakfast and eventually after midday, we drove further up the mountain to see if we could spot the highest point, Mount Mytikas but there was too much cloud cover—perhaps if we had got our finger out earlier, we would have seen it…Hey-ho.
We had considered walking up to the peak (2917m) but it’s a two day hike with an overnight stay in a refuge and we didn’t have the gear to do it.
We continued on and drove for an other couple of hours inland to an area known as Meteora to find another picnic spot to wildcamp for the night.

Meteora is one of the most visited sites in Greece, and rightly so.
In the late 1300s, a monk from Athos founded the first monastery here and twenty-three more followed, although only six remain today. These are not just ordinary monasteries built on normal land, but rather they have been built on sandstone pinnacles, and from afar seem inaccessible unless you are dropped down by helicopter. They are a huge feat of engineering, even more so considering when they were built. It’s an amazing sight to behold and to be honest I can’t really do justice to them by explaining how they look, the photos do a better job! The rocks on their own would be impressive enough, let alone with buildings atop. You most probably have seen a picture of these before and you certainly would have seen them if you have ever watched the James Bond film, ‘For Your Eyes Only’.
We went into two of the six, and to be honest, if you go into the biggest one, Megalou Meteorou (which we did) you get the picture of what they are all about. Of course we also had to go into the James Bond one, Ayias Triadhos.
We couldn’t take photos inside the actual monastery themselves, just the outdoor complex and indoor passages, but they were similar to the ones we saw in Bulgaria, just with slightly different frescoes.
If you ever come to Greece, this is a must see.

And now back south we go and towards the coast again, time for another swim!

Potamos Beach