Epirus LX Palace Ioánnina

... museum: paintings mainly. Note how all pictures show very swarthy-skinned people... including Christ & Mary. Also, many e.g.'s of silversmithing, which flourished in this region.
As we get back to camper, it begins to rain... and continues to do so all night! 
This evening, we get down to our penultimate DVD...

... hours. We had the chance to visit Tositsa Museum and then walk in the square of the village.



The village is known for its nice cheese and butter, and it has many souvenir shops.

The buildings really remind me of Swiss, and it is also very popular in winter for ski and all sorts of winter sports.

... interesting and worth visiting.

It is the most important natural ecosystem.

In there you can see the emergence of the stalactite.



THE CAVE



It is one of the rarest caves in the world. It is located only 4 kilometres away from the city, in Perama of Ioannina.

The cave occupies an ...

... let me see how they fry these legs. Just one person from our friends dare taste one.

(Good for me). The menu costs 8.5 euros. It is just the fried legs though without even some chips or anything else.



The last boat leaves for Ioannina at 11pm so after dinner we caught the 10 pm boat as we had to be met by some friends who live here.

VIKOS GORGE

The Vikos Gorge lies in the North Pindus Mountains in the historic area of Epirus, 30 kilometers north of Ioannina and 24 miles from the Albanian border. The area, called the Zagori, has 44 villages called the Zagorohoria. The 12-kilometer gorge itself can be hiked in two or three parts: Monodendri north to Vikos; Vikos to ...

MONODENDRI

This beautiful Zagori village we visit todayy is about 41 km from the city of Ioannina.
It maintains intact the traditional stone-built architecture.
The Church of Agios Athanasios in the central square is of significan historical value.

We come here for lunch. From here are are going to visit the Gorge, but also I have a stroll in the village to take some photos and admire the architecture.

... to the different rooms are something unbelievable here! Pity I was not allowed to take even one photo as there are cameras watching.

Persons who are clistrophobean should not enter.

This museum is a MUST for people visiting Ioannina.

... that are still inhabited today. The small island on the lake adds more beauty in the City, and attracts many visitors and tourists.



Today Ioannina is famed for its silverware, brassware and wood carvings, thus keeping alive traditions from past eras through finely worked objects that are sold in shops situated in the historical centre of the city.

... possible. We plan to do a train/bike combo tour of Albania and Montenegro before getting back to our original itinerary in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Apparently Albania had a half-million guns go unaccounted for after the Balkan crisis in the mid-nineties - an interesting tidbit of information Ainaz reminds me of hourly. That, and that cross-country trains (to Dubrovnik, for example) are very cheap in this part of the world. As this may be our last Greek entry, I'll leave a quick ...

People here are beginning to prepare for Christmas. We saw Christmas cards on Santorini, a 1.5 metre tall snowman and smaller Santa outside a shop in Athens, simple lights are being hung across streets, and store windows are every bit as festive as any you would see in Canada. It still seems like the beginning of fall, because most of the leaves are copper and bronze, with splashes of magenta. There are so many evergreens and trees that are still ...