The Rio Bridge across the Gulf of Corinth is one of the most impressive looking bridges we've ever seen. The toll is impressive, too: almost $15!!, but it's still cheaper than the ferry crossing for two people and a car. We had only a vague idea of how we would spend our week on the mainland. Our must see sites were Meteora, Delphi and Cape Sounion. Almost every town has a historic or picturesque site and there are hundreds of little sites along the roads, marked by small brown signs. Every place supposedly has an ancient ruin, a kastro (castle), or monastery. Most aren't worth stopping to see--assuming you can actually find them. Often the ruins are nothing more than a few rocks covered over by grass.

For Rick (who had been to Greece three times previously), Meteora was the highlight of the week (if not the entire trip)! We took a couple of days to get there, visiting Dodoni, Ioannina, and the Perama Caves along the way. We called ahead and reserved the last room at the Hotel Meteora in Kalambaka for one night. There are over 30 monasteries a top the cliffs at Meteora. There are roads from the towns of Kastaki and Kalambaka up to all of them. There's also a hiking and climbing path all the way up!!! The proprietor of the hotel advised us that visiting just 3 of them would more than suffice and recommended which three we should see. We were glad he did, because 1) we might have spent day visiting them all and 2) three turned out to be more than enough and we saw the most impressive ones. Megalou Meteorou monastery was, by far, the most impressive and had the most extensive visitor area. These are active monasteries. There're standards for dress (women must cover their arms and legs. Wrap-around skirts are available to cover pants and shorts.) After visiting this awesome (and I don't use that word lightly) site with its monasteries atop the sheerest cliffs, we thought about staying another night (but didn't). From here, we visited the town of Litohoro at the foot of Mt. Olympus, staying in a "suite" at the Villa Pantheon for a very reaonable 80E a night. Litohoro (and Mt. Olympus) is one of those places you "can't get to from here". You have to go somewhere else first. In this case, east, all the way to the Themaikas Gulf and then west again. The room was beautiful and the view from our large balcony was magnificent. We stayed two nights here, the second ruined when Rick got sick from eating bad souvlaki! There's a wonderful walk along the gorge and, if you want, you can drive (forever) up to Mt. Olympus. We gave up after getting about a third of the way. The air gets pretty thin for that part of the world, and it made us sleepy. We had to stop and take a nap on the way back.

From Litohoro we drove to Delphi--Rory drove; Rick still wasn't feeling well. We stayed overnight and the next morning visited the ruins at Delphi and the famous oracle and the archeological museum (worth the visit). The ancient site and the museum are bundled in the price of your admission ticket. From Delphi, we stopped at the monastery at Osiou Louka, where Rick had been twice before (1978 and 1987). Each time he's noticed the degree of restoration. In 1978, almost no one visited here and it showed. As more and more visitors have come, the amount of restoration has increased. Unfortunately this now includes a large parking area for tour buses. When we were there, the place was overrun by elementary school kids running around and generally destroying the serenity of the place.

The roads from Meteora to Litohoro to Delphi were quite good and we made excellent time. They got better (and crazier) as we approached and bypassed Athens. For our last night on the mainland, we stayed in the shadow of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. There aren't many places to stay (or eat here). We lucked out with a 140E room. Could have been much worse; we met a couple who spent 360E for ONE night just down the road. The fotel was quite nice: comfy bed, balcony overlooking the Aegean Sea, and a great bathroom with plenty of hot water!!!! After dinner, we drove up to the Temple to watch the sunset. Everyone who comes to Greece should see it and there are plenty of tours out of Athens for a fraction of the cost of a luxury hotel room.

If you recall, when we were in Athens we purchased our ferry tickets to Tinos. The beauty of renting from Swift is that they drove us to the prot of Pireaus and made sure we were at the right pier. We didn't have to worry about negotiating the metro with our luggage or trying to figure out where to meet our ferry. The port of Pireaus is incredibly busy. There are huge cruise ships, numerous ferries, and scores of commercial ships everywhere. It all seems like it was plunked down in the center of a crowded metropolis. We were glad we didn't have to drive here. We spent the afternoon at a dockside cafe, reading and watching the action all around us. Our ferry, a high speed jet cat, pulled a few minutes late, and after pushing and shoving our way on board and stowing our luggage, found our comfortable reserved seats and settled in for the 4 hour trip to Tinos.

To get the most out of the photos below, we suggest you check out our Central Greece journal. Otherwise, just click on any photo below to enlarge it. (Note that they are not necessarily presented in the order they were taken.)