From 19. - 20. 7. we spent 2 very nice days in Misano Adriatico between RICCIONE and Cattolica at Camp Misano
and made a motor scooter tour to SAN MARINO
and even picked mussels at the rocks of the beach
to cook "Spaghetti de le Cozze"
On July, 21st we left Misano Adriatico with a nice stop at Gradara Castle
and then drove about 60 km further south to the ferry port of ANCONA
We could park our campingbus in the waiting line at the dock and had some hours time to explore the city
Unfortunately, the ferry boat was 2h late and we had a lot of time to spent...
But finally at 20:00 we left Ancona and soon slept well in our tiny cabin on board.
Ancona
17 hours later we finally reached GREECE ! in the port of Igoumenitsa
We followed the new highway over mountain ranges and through tunnels to IOANNINA
to make a late lunch break at the beautiful lake with pastries from the local bakery.
Then we headed on along the highway and not much later along a windy local road to METEORA
There we spent 2 nights on the nice family run, Camp Vrachos in Kastraki - with a beutiful pool in front of the bizzar rock formations and wonderful local food!...and tortoises in the field behind the camp!
On the second day in Meteora we visited the famous monasteries with our bikes and along a beautiful hiking path:
On the next day we left Kastraki to head north east through West and east Makedonia along the highway (without rest areas;-P) towards Thessaloniki.
We just made a short lunch break in THESSALONIKI at the waterfront near the White Tower
Then we followed the motorway towards Chalkidiki
We passed by the 1st (very touristic) finger Kassandra and crossed over to the 2nd (beautiful in nature) finger, called SITHONIA.
There we drove along a beautiful, but windy road along the west coast to the southern end near Toroni and Porto Koufo
to end up in the beautiful remoted bay of the Thalatta Camping Village south of Kalamitsi
the view to Mount Athos from our cristal clear beach
Our 2nd seafood cooking experiment:
After 3 days of snorcheling, SUP and canoe tours and wonderful dinner at a beach restaurant in Kalamitsi
we left Sithonia along the east coast and then crossed back through Chalkidiki and the Thessaloniki bay area to drive further south along the Greek east coast towards Mount Olympus. Litohoro village
After a nice lunch break in Litohoro and more tunnels and toll stations along the highway we reached VOLOS. It was easy to navigate through the city towards the PILION peninsuala. 17km later along the Pilion south coast we arrived in the very beautiful and well organisied Camp Sikia between the tiny villages of Kato Gatzea and Kala Nera.
We experienced a very warm welcome and were offered the perfect terrace pitch under olive trees, with a view over the bay - the perfect place to stay for 4 days!
We tried wonderful local food and traditions,
...found nice help to repair Julian's bicycle and (with some complications) rented a scooter for a day trip over the beautiful green PILION peninsula.
visiting the Pilion train in Milies and Ano Lechonia
and then we drove down to the south coast to visit Damouchari and Papa Nero
typical Pilion houses
visiting Katerina's house in Kissos
and the Pilion Ski resort
and we visited VOLOS twice (once on a Sunday - totally quiet and closed and once on a lively evening)
After 4 wonderful days we left the Pilion peninsula and drove further south towards Lamia and around the big flat bay area with a stop at the "Thermophylen" (the battle field, hot sulfur spring and the Leonidas monument)
And then we reached the province of Attika and soon navigated through ATHENS. It was easier than expected to find "Camp Athens" (in a Wstern suburb of Athens, on the road to Korinthos) - a simple, but safe place for 2 nights. First we visited the old harbour of PIRÄUS:
The Akropolis hill:
the guards of the Parliament
2 days in Athens were enough (very hot and humid - and the rest of the city is not very beautiful) and we moved on towards KORINTHOS. We left the highway right before the channel crossing to visit ISTHMA - the village on the east end of the channel...
...with a very special bridge:
we parked the car on the mainland and with joy and curiosity crossed the bridge
...that some minutes later disappeared in the water...
...and just came back after 1,5h !!!
(what a naive tourist mistake! ;-P)
we crossed the channel of Korinthos on the old national road:
to spend some wonderful time on the "island" of PELOPONNES!
On our way south on Peloponnes we first visited the ancient archeological site of MYKENE and it's lion gate:
Our next stopp was at the coast of NAFPLIO in Ancient Assini at the beautiful "Camp Kastraki"
The camp was situated next to a small rocky peninsula with an ancient archeological site east of the lively tourist village TOLO.
We stayed there for 3 days and spent one evening in NAFPLIO (with the public bus) - finally a beautiful greek town ;-)
850 steps in the evening heat to climb the castle hill
...with an amazing view !
3 days later we crossed the Peloponnes
along new and almost empty highways via SPARTI to visit the extra ordinary beautiful and preserved medieval settlement of MYSTRAS:
From Mystras we crossed over to KALAMATA and to our next stopp near PYLOS at "Camp Erodios" in a shallow lagoon area with thousand of olive trees!
On the 2nd day we made a bike trip across the lagoons to visit the "caribbean like" dream beach in Omega shape: Voidokilia beach
Our next stop on tour was the ancient archeological site OLYMPUS:
And after a nice lunch stop in the village we drove further north along the Peloponnes west coast towards KYLINI and decided to stay for 2 nights on the very beautiful "Camp Fournia":
The camp was situated on top of the cliffs....and we could walk and climb to more beautiful remoted beaches:
and we visited (C)Hlemoutsi Castle with the bicycles (hot uphill tour!)
Then we had to say Goodbye again to this beautiful place and drove further north (passing by Kalogria) towards PATRAS. We crossed over to the main land on the new suspension bridge and then along the new highway A5 further north along the west coast.
There were again a lot of lagoons and lakes and a beautiful town called ARTA. From there we crossed over to the sea front with a short stop in Ammoudia at the Archeron River Delta.
Our last planned stop was not far from there. "Camp Lichnos", in a small bay between beautiful cliffs and just some kilometers away from PARGA.
This bay was a wonderful place for SUP tours and snorckeling adventures. We even found a deep "grotta azurra"
On the 2nd evening we took the taxi boat (with a nice and talkactive "Captain") along the beautiful rough coast to visit
PARGA:
And then, in the evening of August 11th we left Camp Lichnos and drove about 50 more kilometers north to the ferry port in IGOUMENITSA.
The check in and parking in the line was easy (we could leave for some hours for a last good greek dinner) - but then it was again very long and boring to wait for the ferry boat! It had a delay of 2hours (without any message this time) and it was already August 12th, 1:00 in the morning when we could finally board the ship. We then just slept long in our cabin and arrived in Ancona/Italy aroung 17:00.
We directly "hit the road" for about 650km (with just some toilet and snack stops along the highway) to reach Spittal/Drau a bit after midnight. After breakfast with Opa Sepp we easily managed the last tour through beautiful Styria home to Vienna!
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