Enastron Dhimitsana

... started to make Brian even more upset. I could just tell he was reliving all of the times he&#8217;d encouraged me to replace this while we were in France, but I had refused. <br><br>A few meters down the road, Brian notices that his back tire is starting to get a bit flat. Not at all what he needed right now! I thought he was going to loose it. First me, then my bike, then his, and not some rain! Argh!<br><br ...

... this is supposed to be the off season! Fighting through the crowds of colour-coded name-tag wearing tourists rushing to follow their banner-carrying leader to get to the bus before it leaves. <br><br>But once we were inside the complex, the area was huge ! And all the tourists inside kept huddled closely to their leaders so as not to get lost. <br><br>This is an area of amazing beauty ...

... around, Brian drempt that he was washed down the cliff and carried under the waves&#8230;<br><br>The morning was not much better. The rain lightened enough for us to pack up, nicely waiting to downpour until we started cycling. And did it ever! Reminiscent of days gone by, I began to wonder &#8216;why?&#8217;. Why are we doing this? Why do we keep putting ourselves through this? We&#8217 ...

... the Olympic Torch is lit before being sent to Athens and then on to the host city. The most recognizeable monuments are the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Zeus. There is a very nice Olympic Museum on the grounds that has a relief of what the original site looked like. It also houses several statues, mostly headless and ancient relics from the Olympics.

... might have been a stairwell. <br><br>As we admired the building (and Paul marvelled at the stack of firework debris scattered all around the site), we were struck by the massively loud music - traditional Greek - which seemed to be travelling up the hill toward the village. It was really incredibly loud! enough to wake everyone in the village... we later found out (when it passed by the rooms and when we passed by it at the ...

... road from Atsiholo into the gorge as being metalled, but it definitely wasn't! It was a semi-metalled gravelly track and the Bongo took it Very Gently Indeed. Initially, we parked by the Lousios Gorge map at the turning for Prodhromou monastery - cue some very grumbly noises from the Bongo as I attempted to reverse into position uphill on gravel - but then found a great shady parking area further downhill for ancient Gortys, and moved the van ...

... itself awake as we were there - but we knew our way around from previous visits and achieved our two objectives safely and swiftly. It was pleasing to feel a bit at home in the old place!<br><br>We then headed west into the hills again. We had a briefly scary excursion into the reserved area of the mighty electrical power station which dominates the landscape to the west of the city, but managed to turn and beat a hasty retreat in time ...

... helped. <br><br>According to my best research, this castle was on the slopes or top of a hill marked on our map as 'Agios Georgios', about four kilometres out of the village. Thanks to our Anavasi atlas, we could clearly see the paths tending towards this particular hill. Taking plenty of water, we struck out from the village on the path signposted to the High Panayia - this is a church perched high on a hill and clearly visible from Karytaina. Our hill was to the ...

... a national celebration of some kind. On the mountain roads there were a few stalls selling bit and pieces; one old lady reared up before us in quite a startling fashion, brandishing a handful of eggs - afterwards, we wished we had stopped for her, but it was all I could manage to avoid her and her little stall!<br><br> Having successfully negotiated the twisty and precipitous gorge road, we arrived at Langadhia after about two ...

... for a camp spot - the urban sprawl went on for a long way - even through an Albanian shanty town which I didn't expect to see in Greece. It had been destroyed in 1986 by a massive earthquake and rebuilt. It showed. Planning their escape when the bird flu hits What a diverse range of sea life - now sea food. The coast road One of my many food stops - delicious bread ...