Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Iti National Park
We drove to Iti national park fully expecting to go for a walk in the mountain range. Initially we went a bit wrong whilst in the town of Lamia and ended up going the wrong way. In order to recover this problem we ended up in a small village and followed the convenient signs for the place we wanted, however we ended up on a road that looked for all intents and purposes like a dried river bed. Thinking this could not be right we asked another driver who said, in Greek, that it was definitely the way to go. So we followed the road a bit further and indeed there were more signs showing it was in fact a road and not a watercourse. Following the hand signals of the Greek, because lets face it I don’t understand a word of Greek and he didn’t speak any English, we found the mountain road.
A short way up the wind road we came across a pretty waterfall bringing icy water down from the mountain, definitely worthy of a few photos. Further up again we came across a sight one would not normally expect to see on the side of a mountain; a fighter jet parked up on some concrete blocks! Someone had thoughtfully placed a rickety chair next to a wing so we could climb all over it. It was a jet designed for an aircraft carrier so it had a hook for catching the arresting wires in the landing area. We continued on up the road and drove through a few single-track villages, in one village we were met by 4 horses in the middle of the road that grudgingly moved out of our way.
We were probably expecting too much, hoping for a welcome to Iti national park sign or some other indication that we had reached our destination but after a further hour of driving on small windy roads we gave up the walking idea and decided to get back down the mountain. This sounded quite easy! However we ended up on a barely single unmade track, thankful once again for having a 4x4. We steered around fallen trees, rocks and potholes and traversed small streams flowing over the road. There were a couple of moments when a large rock had to be traversed where Jon was leaning out the passenger window stating “Yes plenty of room, there is at least 2 inches to the edge!’ I’m not entirely convinced he was joking. Max is made with a nervous disposition and was fretting away, enough for the whole family and stated numerous times that “Daddy should be driving”. Huh such a vote of confidence. Cadan and Jory were enjoying the whole thing although Cadan did feel the need to tell me on one occasion, “We are too close to the edge Mummy!” I couldn’t help but agree with him! Once past the worst of the track we met a long horned cow coming the other way, we skirted each other nicely and carried on our way both confused about what we had just seen. We eventually made it back down the mountain where we were rewarded with a White Stork on top of a telegraph pole and a Goshawk (we think) on a tree. We were a little disappointed we had not managed a walk but regaled each other with our adventures for the drive home.
The following day after such great adventures we decided to enjoy the thermal springs at Thermopylae. The water was just like stepping into a bath, although slightly too hot for the boys, they were very pink when they got out! Max took the longest to get in the water but when it was time to go he didn’t want to get out. We were all pink faced and thought it was great, the boys stating they definitely want to go back.
1.2 Athens
Thursday 29th March
We took off for Athens and stayed in a campsite on the outskirts. Friday we ventured into Athens taking the bus and then the metro which was the height of excitement for the boys. We had to change trains and so took the opportunity to have lunch, we found a very small patch of green where we undertook to eat our picnic much to the amusement of most passers-by. Near the end of our meal we were regaled by a zealot stating this little bit of green was not for public use and belonged to the ministry of agriculture, or something like that! Whilst packing away our things and rounding up the children, who typically then decided to trample through the flower beds, this man kept going on. In the end Jon told him the international words for go away and he reluctantly took the hint. On exiting the green we came across a policeman who had been standing close by but hadn’t felt the need to turf us off!
After this we made our way to the Acropolis and climbed the steep incline to reach the Panthenon at the top. The Acropolis is going through major reconstruction and so the view is spoiled slightly by the scaffolding and machinery. However they have left ½ of the building unspoiled and it is really a true marvel, especially when you consider the little engineering tricks they used to overcome the problem of perspective when creating a completely symmetrical building. Of course getting the children to understand what 2,500 years old means is next to impossible. I knew I was failing when Cadan asked “how old was I mummy?” Far more interesting to the boys was the fact that some of the stones were very slippery and the dog fast asleep on his back with his paws in the air attracting just as many photos as the Panthenon itself. The view of Athens from the top is spectacular with buildings stretching away into the distant hills.
We were about to go into the museum at the top but they were closing, shortly after we were also ushered off the Acropolis as it was closing time. We felt that we were just getting into the old building and architecture thing too! Unfortunately in our removal from the real world we had not realised that the clocks had gone forward one hour so had arrived at the Acropolis near to closing time, although the ticket people didn’t feel a need to point this out!
We drove to Iti national park fully expecting to go for a walk in the mountain range. Initially we went a bit wrong whilst in the town of Lamia and ended up going the wrong way. In order to recover this problem we ended up in a small village and followed the convenient signs for the place we wanted, however we ended up on a road that looked for all intents and purposes like a dried river bed. Thinking this could not be right we asked another driver who said, in Greek, that it was definitely the way to go. So we followed the road a bit further and indeed there were more signs showing it was in fact a road and not a watercourse. Following the hand signals of the Greek, because lets face it I don’t understand a word of Greek and he didn’t speak any English, we found the mountain road.
A short way up the wind road we came across a pretty waterfall bringing icy water down from the mountain, definitely worthy of a few photos. Further up again we came across a sight one would not normally expect to see on the side of a mountain; a fighter jet parked up on some concrete blocks! Someone had thoughtfully placed a rickety chair next to a wing so we could climb all over it. It was a jet designed for an aircraft carrier so it had a hook for catching the arresting wires in the landing area. We continued on up the road and drove through a few single-track villages, in one village we were met by 4 horses in the middle of the road that grudgingly moved out of our way.
We were probably expecting too much, hoping for a welcome to Iti national park sign or some other indication that we had reached our destination but after a further hour of driving on small windy roads we gave up the walking idea and decided to get back down the mountain. This sounded quite easy! However we ended up on a barely single unmade track, thankful once again for having a 4x4. We steered around fallen trees, rocks and potholes and traversed small streams flowing over the road. There were a couple of moments when a large rock had to be traversed where Jon was leaning out the passenger window stating “Yes plenty of room, there is at least 2 inches to the edge!’ I’m not entirely convinced he was joking. Max is made with a nervous disposition and was fretting away, enough for the whole family and stated numerous times that “Daddy should be driving”. Huh such a vote of confidence. Cadan and Jory were enjoying the whole thing although Cadan did feel the need to tell me on one occasion, “We are too close to the edge Mummy!” I couldn’t help but agree with him! Once past the worst of the track we met a long horned cow coming the other way, we skirted each other nicely and carried on our way both confused about what we had just seen. We eventually made it back down the mountain where we were rewarded with a White Stork on top of a telegraph pole and a Goshawk (we think) on a tree. We were a little disappointed we had not managed a walk but regaled each other with our adventures for the drive home.
The following day after such great adventures we decided to enjoy the thermal springs at Thermopylae. The water was just like stepping into a bath, although slightly too hot for the boys, they were very pink when they got out! Max took the longest to get in the water but when it was time to go he didn’t want to get out. We were all pink faced and thought it was great, the boys stating they definitely want to go back.
1.2 Athens
Thursday 29th March
We took off for Athens and stayed in a campsite on the outskirts. Friday we ventured into Athens taking the bus and then the metro which was the height of excitement for the boys. We had to change trains and so took the opportunity to have lunch, we found a very small patch of green where we undertook to eat our picnic much to the amusement of most passers-by. Near the end of our meal we were regaled by a zealot stating this little bit of green was not for public use and belonged to the ministry of agriculture, or something like that! Whilst packing away our things and rounding up the children, who typically then decided to trample through the flower beds, this man kept going on. In the end Jon told him the international words for go away and he reluctantly took the hint. On exiting the green we came across a policeman who had been standing close by but hadn’t felt the need to turf us off!
After this we made our way to the Acropolis and climbed the steep incline to reach the Panthenon at the top. The Acropolis is going through major reconstruction and so the view is spoiled slightly by the scaffolding and machinery. However they have left ½ of the building unspoiled and it is really a true marvel, especially when you consider the little engineering tricks they used to overcome the problem of perspective when creating a completely symmetrical building. Of course getting the children to understand what 2,500 years old means is next to impossible. I knew I was failing when Cadan asked “how old was I mummy?” Far more interesting to the boys was the fact that some of the stones were very slippery and the dog fast asleep on his back with his paws in the air attracting just as many photos as the Panthenon itself. The view of Athens from the top is spectacular with buildings stretching away into the distant hills.
We were about to go into the museum at the top but they were closing, shortly after we were also ushered off the Acropolis as it was closing time. We felt that we were just getting into the old building and architecture thing too! Unfortunately in our removal from the real world we had not realised that the clocks had gone forward one hour so had arrived at the Acropolis near to closing time, although the ticket people didn’t feel a need to point this out!
