Metsovo and Kalambaka

Thursday, May 9

This is a good news/bad news post for blog readers.  As most of our day was spent in the car traveling from Delphi to Kalambaka (and most of that on new and efficient, but not especially interesting) highways, there is little to write about (the good news), and very few photo ops (the bad). 

Leaving Delphi, we backtracked westward along the Gulf of Corinth, and then headed north to Ioannina, where we were not far from Corfu and the Albanian border.  From Ioannina, we headed east through green and beautiful countryside – mountains, valleys and a bit of farming other than the olive groves and vineyards we’ve seen so much of previously.  

We stopped in Metsovo, yet another lovely town arrayed on the side of a mountain.  The residents are mostly Vlachs, descendants of a sheep-herding people who’d been granted special privileges by the Ottomans in exchange for guarding the nearby high mountain pass through the Pindus Mountains.  The area is still known for its locally produced cheeses, which are available in many of the small shops that fill the town center.  We had a few samples and then chose one, which we decided to snack on for lunch.  The wooden-trimmed stone houses, many with slate roofs, cobbled lanes, and steep stairways between streets seem from another era, but the 21^st century arrives each day with busloads of tourists.  

Then, it was on to today’s destination, and our base for three nights, Kalambaka, a modern town that serves as a “bedroom community” for Meteora, one of the most-visited places in Greece.  The high stone pinnacles, topped with impossibly perched monasteries, loom over the area.  We enjoyed our happy hour and dinner on the patio of our apartment, looking out at the amazing scene.