I am glad I decided to stop over in Athens again this winter.

Since I wrote about the town last year in these blog posts I am not trying to describe Athens more. Just some comments about living here this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This place was pretty shocking when I arrived one year ago. Now the city has improved a lot with a year of Economic recovery. This is still a poor country and it shows. But the graffiti is down by half, the streets and the sidewalks are being swept and the trash hauled. There are new shops and a great deal of new lipsticking of existing ones. And the taxis are clean. All good signs.

The weather has been very fine until the last days when after a rain it plunged into the 50s. (smile)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This makes the visit even better because the town has an endless number of nice restaurants for al fresco dining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athens has many nice areas. I do not live in one.

I live (you guessed it) just beside the fish market!!

 

 

 

 

 

In an OK but overpriced hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have the impression that all hotels in Athens are overpriced. But prices are wanky here. A taxi from the airport costs 48 dollars. But I can buy a good dinner with wine anywhere for 20 dollars. Pay 5 dollars for a huge, absolutely fresh fish and pay 3 dollars to have someone charcoal grill it.

 

 

 

 

 

Actually I like the area of my hotel because from here I can walk every day up through the ancient historic area, around the hill of the forum, and back through a maze of nice quiet streets.  Almost traffic free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along side the fish marker there just happens to be a meat market, and if one were to jig instead of jog.. well .. what the hell (??!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

This happened to me. But I was rewarded by learning a valuable life lesson.

The system of buying critters and then taking them into a restaurant (I learned this in Hong Kong where it is very popular) and paying someone to cook them .. opens one to the risk of error.

And so, I learned the probably valuable but nonetheless disappointing lesson that there actually certainly is a mistake size serving of lamb chops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have decided to spend next week checking out a few Greek islands. Mr. Theodoros Consolas has advised me on how to use the ferry system and upon where go in a week, and I am excited to be off at o-dark-thirty tomorrow.

As you see from this map, since leaving Catania and Syracuse on the east coast I have been circumnavigating the island in a clockwise manner: Ragusa, Agrigento, Marsala, Segesta, Cefalu, Taorminia.

 

 

 

 

 

Agrigento The current town sits above a very large area of ruins that was once the ancient city of Akragas. Founded by the Greeks in the 500’s BC it was a very successful colony having at one time a population estimated in the hundreds of thousands. But this was ground zero in the Punic wars when the two superpowers, Carthage and Rome struggled for dominance of the Mediterranean. The city exchanged hands several times. At one point the Romans besieged the city, sacked it, and sold the entire population into slavery.
Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marsala. I wanted to make it to the west coast, but probably chose Marsala just because the name strikes such a happy chord with me, like Veal Marsala or Chicken Marsala. The town is small. It was founded by the Carthagenians, but for some reason the Romans spared it in the Punic wars. It has a very nice little old town. It also has a lot of newish buildings mainly because the Americans bombed the poop out of it in WWII.
Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cefalu. A picture perfect tourist town. With an absolutely gorgeous medieval old town. I came here to visit the Cathedral which was originally Norman but modified by the Arabs. Along with a number of similar buildings in the area, collectively a World Heritage site.
Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taormina. This is a pretty and prosperous town, hundreds of hotels and restaurants. I guess a lot of tourists come here since it is very close to the ferry terminal across from the boot.

The land rises high and very steeply out of the sea here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main attraction is the large Greek theater right on the edge of town. Actually only the foundations date from the earliest Greeks 2500 years or so ago. What is standing is the remains of the theater from the Romans rebuilding it 500 years later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some misc. notes on travelling in Sicily.

Truly fine fish, olive oil and wines. Good restaurant food, but best away from the popular tourist sites. A repeat picture but I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

The island is not pretty but has its own scenic beauty. The North is more scenic than the south, particularly the areas around Trapani and Cefalu. This is an old land. Barren denuded hills. Not so many trees. Although plenty of Olive trees.

Lots of smoking, trash, dog poop.

A fair amount of English. Curiously ALL restaurants are playing English popular music/songs.

The motor-ways are tricky, the secondary roads difficult, the towns really scary. 30% of the drivers on the roads are maniacal. All drivers of German cars are suicidal. The speed limits go up and down in very short distances, but everyone ignores them, they also ignore no passing signs, lane markers, etc. etc. Driving here was very stressful.

Breakfast in the hotels are long on sweets.

Advance your normal daily schedule by 3 and a half hours to get onto their time.

They like this primitive characteristic pottery.

 

 

 

 

 

In the mornings all the open places are full of heavily dressed old men sitting around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me there were many small and fun surprises, like the technology this travelling vegetable salesman is using:

 

 

 

 

 

There are ruins everywhere. This little Norman church is a curiosity. About 900 years old, it was built on an island. But is now connected to the shore by lava flowing from Mount Etna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And speaking of her. I am leaving tomorrow, but shouldn’t someone be concerned that the volcano is smoking ????

The car I hired a few days ago is one with a newfangled navigation system that talks to me. And I will never drive in a foreign country again without one. It is great. Even with it I keep getting off course. But there are aggressive drivers here and narrow streets through the towns and it allows me to watch the road. I would never in 3 hours have found my hotel in Ragusa without it.

Anyway, I have driven over into the area called Val di Noto and visited Modica and the twin cities of Ragusa. These hill towns date from the Neolithic era and were inhabited when the Greeks arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

The 1693 eruption of Mount Etna was so huge that it devastated the entire east of the island of Sicily. And the towns that were rebuilt were all done in the “Baroque Sicily” style. Here in the Val di Noto, Eight towns are together designated a UNESCO World Heritage site “representing the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe”.

Baroque Sicily, a little gallery from these towns:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Except for the few major through streets these are quiet towns. I wonder about their future. Probably only tourist attractions. The narrow streets, all the stone, the endless up and down steps seem to me to be serious barriers to modernization. Speaking to this I looked into it and the population of Ragusa today is roughly the same as in 1911.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking about Art, how about this:

 

 

 

 

And regarding food, it is difficult to have a real dinner here. The restaurants open at 7:30 or 8PM, and if you have dinner then you have it in an empty restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus if you go out and have a drink to wait for the restaurants to open, then you are faced with the array of free food the bar offers, which is almost impossible (for me) to resist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading west tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Syracuse.   What a famous name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the equal of Athens in population, prestige and power.

There must be some lesson here in how the great fall. Syracuse today is a medium sized/small city on the coast of Sicily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An island juts into the sea with a fine natural harbor. The island, Ortygia. was surely settled when the Greeks came here 2700 years ago. But many also settled against these limestone cliffs just inland.

 

 

 

 

 

Building in the valleys and boring into the cliffs themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later the settlement spread across the adjacent high limestone plateau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They carved the altar for the temple directly out of the stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And best of all the grand theater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly there is a lot of water running through fissures in the limestone. Here, at the very top of the theater one of the springs still flows robustly.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a Roman city here for centuries, but there are few remains. In the 1200’s the stones were mined to build fortifications for the city.  And so ancient Syracuse is gone. Except for the rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The island of Ortygia is interesting, but very small. It has a few ancient places, like the temple of Apollo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has some historic sites and plenty of Baroque buildings dating from the rebuilding after the great Mount Etna eruption in the 1600’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some medieval areas that look like Siena might have before it became beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stayed in a grand old hotel dating from 1862, which some of my friends found interesting, and so I include a few pictures here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Honoring Genius
Sometimes I think about how we humans throughout history have on rare occasions produced super intelligent children, only to have them die quickly from war or disease or starvation. Or to live in some remote place only to do superior craft work and think a lot about things.

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But every once in a great while one is in the right place and time to give us a giant boost in our knowledge and subsequently our prosperity.

Newton

Leonardo
Einstein
Tesla
Mendeleev

And perhaps the greatest of them all:   Archimedes.

I leave it to you to read about all of his work. But I will say: He worked with exponents, derived square roots. Told us the formula for simple geometric figures: circles, the surface and volume of a sphere, a cylinder. Sections of parabolas. Used a system anticipating the invention of calculus to quantify key numbers with great accuracy. Improved simple tools such as the compound pulley. And on and on. Some even say he built a model of the sun, earth and moon that rotated correctly using differential gearing.

I spent a lot of time trying to find his tomb to pay my homage. Cicero came here for the same reason. He reported that he did find the tomb and that it was adorned with the sphere and the cylinder just as Archimedes had requested. But that was a long time ago.
Here I am within 50 meters of it, but the area is no longer open for visiting. Maybe here. Or here. A disappointment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Anyway, a BIG FISH STORY.

I am only eating one meal today and it was lunch. Here is my little story.

For two days at lunch I sat at the plastic table-clothed tables down in the fish market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was not really a hardship. They grill vegetables, sausages and whole fish on charcoal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since they have been doing it for thousands of years I thought I could learn some things. Such as, they salt the peppers heavily and repeatedly and burn them black but when they come to the table they are not salty, but sweet and delicious.

On the third day, just for the absolute hell of it I took the head waiter across the square and we bought a giant fish. It had to be marched back across the square for the chef to decide if it would fit on the grill. This is not a grand procession. This is a fish market and the characters are dressed in sweatshirts.

After the chef blesses the fish we go back for it to be cleaned. They ask a ridiculous price which I immediately agree to. I can see from their eyes that they think that I am a silly tourist who does not know how to bargain. But they do not know that I will never be in this time and place again and that my time is now.

Usually they cut three cuts across the thickest part of the fish. On each side. To the bone. For this guy they also cut a long cut down the backbone.

 

 

 

 

 

On the grill they salt heavily and then as the fish cooks they nurse the cuts with olive oil. Near the end of the cooking they have a pan of oil, lemon, vinegar and they apply this to the fish with a brush made of oregano sprigs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fish reaches the plate totally charcoal black, but absolutely delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

Various passerbyers commented as the fish was on the grill and later the plate. They seemed to enjoy the spectacle.  The fish was great.

 

Catania sits under brooding Mount Etna, the biggest volcano in Europe. The volcano has buried the city 17 times in recorded history.

 

 

 

 

 

The Greeks were here 2700 years ago, attracted by the fine harbor. Then the Romans, Ottomans, Normans, etc. But not much remains. There is a ruined Roman Greek theater, and the remains of other Roman works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the attraction of Catania comes from its destruction in 1693, when it was rebuilt in an opulent Baroque style. The entire downtown is a World Heritage Site. Here are some views of the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This grand 1700’s Cathedral was built on the ruins of an old Norman church.

 

 

 

 

 

It, and other Cathedrals here enclose huge spaces but are curiously stark and simple inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having just arrived here from London, where the Norman “William the Conqueror” is still big news, I was puzzled as to the presence of the Normans way down here in the middle of the Mediterranean. And interested to learn that starting from around 1060 or so they began to take over areas of Sicily and within a few hundred years controlled all of the island and the lower third of the Italian peninsula. This was not a big land grab like William’s. Apparently different bands of mercenaries were fighting for pay in the area and decided that this was not only easy pickings, but a nice place and set themselves up with fiefdoms. Which eventually united.

The entire town seems to be constructed from blocks of lava.

The symbol of the city is this little Elephant. Sculpted in lava.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The elephant symbol even carries on down to the manhole covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why an elephant is unclear. But curiously Sicily in prehistory had pigmy elephants, and it is believed that this is the source of the tale of the Cyclops. When the Greeks found pigmy elephant skulls, about twice the size of a human head, and mistook the hole for the trunk for a central eye.

The city is very gritty. Literally since the lava stone erodes easily, shedding plaster and paint coatings. And figuratively. The city is poor and some areas not so clean.

The markets cover city blocks, with shoes, clothing, household goods, and fresh vegetables and fruits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And seafood by the acre. (seriously).

 

 

 

 

 

There are seafood restaurants all over the city, and of course it is the confluence of a World Heritage Site and great food that always attracts your humble correspondent.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok Ok. And good local wine. Here, the sands of Etna.

 

I first arrived in London in 1971, here in Grosvenor Square, adjacent to the American Embassy, and stayed in this hotel. There are statues of Roosevelt and Regan in the square as this has always been the center for Americans in London. There are now three Marriott properties nearby.

I am staying in one on Marriott “points” or I would not be here in Mayfair which today is full of wealthy Arabs and expensive beyond my means ..  in these post expense account days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London was fascinating to me but a sad place in the early 70’s. All the buildings were black and the street lighting was poor. Everyone wore black clothes. London was cheap for an American.

Today London is super wealthy. And expensive. Russians and Arabs and Indians and other superrich store their money here in the leading financial capital of the world. The city is crowded with tourists, very multinational, and clean and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

They even have American Burgers.

 

 

 

 

 

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You can easily walk all around London.  And use the underground system. It is easy to master and will take you anywhere. Today they have stored value (Oyster) cards so you simply press the card on a reader to enter and exit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London has so many truly historic sites and they all are worth a visit.  To name a few:

The Tower. Seat of power for the royalty since the time of William the Conqueror and his Normans.

 

 

 

 

 

St. Paul’s Cathedral. Christopher Wren’s masterpiece.

He also built numerous local churches to replace those destroyed in the great fire of 1666. And they are worth tracking down.

 

 

 

 

Westminster Abbey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 900 year old houses of Parliament buildings. Plus Big Ben. (not my photo)

 

 

 

 

Greenwich. And the Royal Observatory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This city is ground zero for Play enthusiasts. Unfortunately, they are no longer inexpensive. But you can go down to Leicester Square in the afternoon and buy half priced tickets for shows that have not sold out for that evening.

The plays can run for up to 2 and a half hours, and the evening performances finish quite late. I like to go to the afternoon matinees, get out between 4 and 5, and have a pint to decompress and discuss the experience and then have dinner.
There are over a hundred plays on offer in London as I write this. We saw three this visit. All excellent with “The Ferryman” being the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CAMarchand is on her own today with plans to visit three art museums. This old Engineer could never endure such an exposure to art.  But I do love two of the Museums here:

The British Museum (World History)

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The Victoria and Albert Museum (Natural History)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there is history everywhere here that you can absorb simply walking around.

Famous persons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Military History

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The construction of the city itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Some things that occupied me this week included a few pre-reformation churches.
One here that was the local church of Samuel Pepys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here one still displaying the coat of arms of Charles the First.

 

 

 

 

 

Every one holds some surprise. Here quite by chance where Robert Browning was married.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting little pubs are everywhere. In fact still everywhere in the country.

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And of course, endless shopping. Like on Saville Row.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Or, just enjoy the many peculiarities of the British

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Two little personal anecdotes just for the fun of remembering them.

I stood outside my hotel in Grosvenor square in a three-piece suit happy with the high 70’s weather until my new director arrived with his wife to meet me over dinner. His tie askew he informed me of the relentless and terrible heat wave underway. Funny like Alisdair Cooke’s recalling his all time favorite British weather news headline: “80 again today. No relief in sight”

Living in the UK, I travelled on business throughout Europe. After 4 years all of my clothes were wool and totally unsuitable for the Ohio river valley where I showed up to supervise the manufacture of Neoprene .. in a hand-made suit with huge lapels and bell bottomed trousers, two tone shoes, a rabbit fur coat and a natty brown leather purse.  The plant manager took me to lunch and drank milk. We each thought that the other had beamed in from mars.

 

The British had the first global Empire, immense power and wealth, and keen interest in the history and cultures of the world.

They virtually invented archeology,  poking into and recording information, and studying historical and unfamiliar cultural sites around the world. And they carried off all of the best of the best objects to the British Museum in London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole walls of carvings from ancient cities. Room after room each describing with their objects an ancient civilization.

An overwhelming display of objects from ancient Egypt.

On and on. Prehistory. The history of Europe, Greece, Rome .. The Vikings, the Saxons .. Japan, China, India, Africa, even little New Zealand.

 

You get the idea. Except to add a mention of ever changing special exhibitions .. the development of writing ..  ceramics .. the Scythians ..

Plenty of gold, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the greatest objects known. To name a few..

The Rosetta stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The swimming reindeer (from 11,000 BC). On loan. Sorry.

 

The Standard of Ur.    2500 BC

 

 

 

 

 

The Reliquary holding a thorn from the crown of Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mechanical galleon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too much under one roof for a morning visit. But don’t come to London without a stop here.

I even had a chance to research for an upcoming trip to Sicily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In London, travelling with CAMarchand.

Spent the day with a tour of the Tower.  When William of Normandy came over to this island to increase his real-estate holdings he first of all defeated the Saxon army at Hastings. The defeated army retreated to the old Roman town of London, so William (now the Conquerer) followed them to complete his hold.  He immediately razed some of the old Roman walls on the bank of the River Thames, and began to build the white tower. The first construction at the assembly of buildings known as “the Tower”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William moved in immediately.  This construction soaring over the town of one or two story buildings was meant to communicate the wealth and power of the new overlords.

Here is a picture of William’s private chapel, still being used after 900 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now a major World Heritage tourist site, the Tower is regarded along with Westminster as the soul of England.  It has housed royalty, the mint, an armory, a repository for the crown jewels, and served as a prison .. for which it  is mostly remembered.

The white tower today houses an exhibition of weapons and armor from the past 500 years.  The crown jewels and gold plate etc. are also exhibited in the Tower.

Most of the executions at the Tower (actually up the hill at the site of the current Tower tube station) occurred in the 1500’s during the period when England vacillated back and forth between Catholics and Protestants who killed one another.

Here is some graffiti carved during the 1500’s by religious captives waiting for torture and the axe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Famous persons may or may not have been treated better.  Thomas Beckett languished here for years but had his own apartment with his books and papers and food and servants.

Sir Walter Raleigh had his own rooms. Here is his office.

 

 

 

 

 

Henry the Eighth, of 6 wives, had two of them beheaded here.  For both he did them the courtesy of allowing the beheading to take place more privately inside the Tower grounds. He even imported a special swordsman from France each time who could take their head with one stroke, axes being more hit and miss.

Perhaps appropriately the Tower is permanently inhabited by Ravens.

 

 

 

 

Athens covers a huge area. There is no downtown with high rise buildings. The city just flows up from the seafront in a continuous wave of shops and cafes and coffee houses.

 

 

 

 

 

Divides to go around the hill of the Acropolis.

 

 

 

 

 

Fills the valley, and splashes onto the distant hills to the North. 

 

 

 

 

The Acropolis is the main tourist attraction.  It broods over the city in every direction. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vertical, defensible hill the Acropolis sits on had natural springs and caves, attractive real estate from the most ancient times.  Here is what the hill top looked like at its height of power, rendered through the miracle of legos.

 

 

 

 

 

And some photos of the hill top today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is, of course, history literally lying all around Athens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It gets almost humorous to read the inscriptions on the well-marked sites: we were building an air duct for the subway and found this .. we were excavating to build this building and found this .. we built this museum and found all this, which we are still studying ..

The area west and northwest of the Acropolis is one giant ancient historical site with ruins everywhere, just out in the open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are good museums.  They make you marvel at how advanced and wealthy the Greeks were both so long ago and for so long.  They make you sad that mainly only fragments cross time to reach us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athens today.

Bright blue skys.  Troups of tourists, even in December.  Crowded streets. Grand open spaces. Significant buildings. Parks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a long quiet avenue up to the Acropolis that affords a good walk. It goes all along the west and south sides. Around the area of the ancient ruins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best area of the city is east and north east of the Acropolis, a nicely crowded area of clean streets, cafes, shopping of all kinds.

The area near the waterfront has quiet residential areas, boulevards and plenty of city.  For me it was not particularly interesting nor compelling. This is not really a European city. I kept feeling that I was perhaps in South America. The waterfront itself is blocked off from the city by a limited access motorway.

The new investment of the recovery is happening to the west of the downtown.  New office buildings, distribution. Big box shopping, auto showrooms.  All automobile based.

There are some very bad areas in this city.  Some in the North.  One around the central market and in both directions downhill.  Broken black dirty pavement. Trash. Graffiti everywhere. Goods hanging above and stacked out into the sidewalk like a bazaar. Seriously impoverished people wandering around.  My hotel is in this area. The first night I arrived after dark and wandered out to look for some dinner and into this area and was shaken by the poverty and dirt.

Café life is big here. Especially on the avenues where the tourists are likely to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My hotel was a quiet retreat up above the streets.

 

 

 

 

 

The only restaurants I could walk to were either fast food and or low grade tourist fare.  So, many days I would go through the fish market, buy a fish and take it to one of the restaurants that would charcoal grill it.  Simple and fresh and delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s about it. My little 2016 sojourn south through the Balkans is coming to a close. I am heading home for Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for coming along this Fall. 

Stopped in Larissa heading south.  The train passes the mountains that include Mount Olympus, here through a very dirty train window.  I think the ancient sacred mountain is actually on the other side of these out of view.

 

 

 

 

Not many tourists come to Larissa.  I am told that when it comes to Greece the islands are everything.  Still, I like to go to real places off of the tourist circuit as well as the main attractions.  And I’m glad I stopped here. Larissa is a lively and funky town. Had really good hotel rooms, which always makes a place seem better.  Right on the ancient center, as this view from my balcony shows.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

This theater was used for about 400 years before being made unusable by an earthquake. It looks like some restoration work is in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

But I like Larissa for what it is today.  With less than 200,000 people it is a very manageable size. Almost all of the downtown is pedestrian friendly, and it is busy through the day. There are many many bars and restaurants and coffee houses mingled in with the shopping. I do not even have to squint to think I might be on the left bank in Paris 30 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first impression walking around in the morning after I arrived was that there is no way this town could ever fill all of the available seats. The answer is that everyone of every age and dress and orientation or whatever comes out for some time during the day and into who knows when in the night.  For coffee and cigarettes, drinks and cigarettes, meals at all times.

The shops, strangely, are only open between 9 and 2PM, and then two evenings a week between 6 and 8:30.  And there is a lot here.  Upscale shopping. Specialty shops for bread, meats, cheeses, pastries, cookies, flowers etc. Markets and hardware and household shops for everyday living. And old fashioned shops we no longer see, like tailors, key shops, repair shops.

As you would expect the food and wines are good. 

 

 

 

 

 

There is some good walking along the river.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the kind of town I could spend a lot of time in.

 

 

 

 

 

Except that this one in particular is very far away.  And there is not much English. None on my hotel TV.  And I think I would get tired of the smoking and the horrific graffiti.

No, I have my train ticket down to Athens, my last stop on this fall tour.