After our refreshing swim, time to get serious and head up to the Monastery at the top of hill behind Piso Lavadi. We considered going cross country which should be shorter but wisely decided against it and followed the road. This meant walking to Marpissa, next village and following the road that spirals around the extinct volcano to the top. It was easy to find and fairly steep. Spectacular views the reward for the hard work. Wild flowers in abundance every where. Hot and bothered at the top an elderly warden in the church gave us some Turkish Delight (do the Greeks make it too?) and a small glass of brandy in exchange for a donation to look at the church and monastery. The small church is so different to those we saw on our Camino in 2016 which I find to excessive in every way. I much prefer the simple painting and decoration of this church. I didn’t realise that we had permission to take photos so I have no photos of it. We spent ages looking at the views at the top and coming down. I think we probably only walked around 10kms but were out almost 7 hours, much to our surprise. We had, had quite a few stops including doing some more shopping. Looking at the display of local olives and discussing which to choose at supermarket in Marpissa, the shop assistant asked us if we are Australian? We were pretty impressed and asked how she knew, she replied that we sounded like her uncles in Melbourne! The olives were excellent and we days later we went back for more but she wasn’t working. Our first evening meal in Greece was had at Mango Pizzeria. Very Greek, not. We did have excellent Greek beer called Mamos with our pizza. We had noticed that many houses and shops houses were being painted and cleaned up, we asked the waiter why? This is when I discovered that we’d arrived for Orthodox Easter celebrations and huge weekend for the Greeks. The only concern is that we hadn’t booked our ferry to Athens the following Monday!
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AuthorMy interests are photography and family history research. And I like to cycle and travel. We are walking the Archives
May 2019
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