Our experience in Greece in the province of Thessaly
October 2018, after the holiday season ended, we took off for Athens, where we set off to see the Corinth Canal we had heard a lot about. We tasted a bit of the Peloponnese and decided that this area would be our destination on the next trip.
This time we are on our way to a spectacular holiday, between beaches and mountains, forests and villages - to the district of Thessaly.
This is the mountainous Greece, in an area about 350 kilometers north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki (about two and a half hours drive). To the east - the Aegean Sea and the western part of the continent. The Thassalia region includes the Magnesia subdivision, where the Pelion Peninsula is located to the east and the port city of Volos, the capital of Magnesia, is the highest and most famous mountain in Greece in the north of the province and the suspended monasteries of Meteora and the city of Kalambaka in the western part of the province.
Above the town of Kalambaka, Meteora is the site of the hanging monasteries. We were all here (and perhaps more than once), but when you're in northern Greece, you have to visit again. Meteora means "middle of the sky." The place is a cluster of Orthodox monasteries located in the center of the Taslia plain. The site contains some 60 bedrock pillars, on the basis of which isolated monasteries were built during the Middle Ages.
Six of them are open to the general public. A tour of the car through a spectacular view around the monasteries and constipation in places of observation of all this beauty - will complete the experience.
Thanks to the spectacular natural phenomena that fascinate the eye and interest, as well as the unique culture of Meteora, it was declared in 1988 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We went on to the Pelion Peninsula, which is actually a mountain with a thick forest surrounded by enchanting turquoise beaches, magnificent sea coves and dozens of villages, some of them fishing villages, along with its long coastline. Within the villages of Pelion are taverns with excellent food. Within the forests are dozens of springs and waterfalls and a huge variety of fruit trees. In addition to these there are a large variety of nature trails and many attractions such as boating, horseback riding, cooking workshops and more. We chose a cooking workshop where we baked local breads, learned how to prepare a real tzatziki, how to properly season a Greek salad and how to fry the delicious local cheeses.
The hospitality at the agricultural farm in the beautiful location where the workshop took place and the hospitable hosts made our vacation a dream ....
The Pelion Peninsula has 24 large authentic villages and dozens of smaller villages. On the western side of Pelion there are two villages that must be visited, Portaria and close to it from Makrinitsa. They feature mountain and sea views with churches with spiers, winding alleys and flowery squares.
We went on to Thessaloniki to discover fascinating details in the Jewish community archive in Thessaloniki as part of a journey of roots after the mother of a friend who took part in a trip with us.
All this experience was in a fun atmosphere and accompanied by a local guide who upgraded everything and got from us a hug from the land of the bears.
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