The Old Villages of Thessaly

Our port of Thessaloniki is one of the largest in Greece, next to Piraeus, and has been so for thousands of years throughout the extensive maritime heritage of this part of Greece. It is not far from the mountain range that includes Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, and sits in the Thermaic Gulf, which is a very well protected natural area. We actually flew over Thessaloniki on our way into Athens and I saw the town and the gulf from the plane.

Our tour today took us into the hills near the shore but about 80 kilometres from the town. We were headed back into history, in the village of Palaios Panteleimonas. The houses are all built of stone from the Olympus area, and the village dates back to the late 14th Century, and is a protected traditional settlement under the European Union.

Views toward Mount Olympus on our drive

Looking down over the area and the Castle of
Platamonas. We weren't even all the way up to the village yet!

This small community was left in ruins after World War II, and many previous residents moved down from the hills to form Neos Panteleimonas, or New Panteleimonas, to be less isolated. It was left that way until the early 1980s when an influx of Armenian stonemason immigrants started to rebuild the houses, as they had been constructed in a similar method to the buildings of their home country.

Since the village's rebirth, it has become a jumping off point for people exploring the Olympus foothills and the area between Thessaloniki and Volos. It is full of small restaurants, tiny boutique hotels and artisan workshops and shops. We had a walking tour of the village, and then had tea or coffee and a sweet treat particular to the area called 'spoon sweets', a sort of fruit compote. We tried the cherry and fig versions of these.

The view from the restaurant where we had
our coffee and sweet

Inside - decorated in the old traditional fashion

Our bowls of fig and cherry 'spoon sweet'

The village is very picturesque and the views are all spectacular. The village streets are too small for anything but the smallest cars and vans, so we had to walk from the parking lot just outside.

View of some of the houses from the parking area

The roadway is all cobblestone and the buildings
are all made of stone and wood with terracotta tile roofs

Each one of these signs points to a bar, restaurant or
small hotel

One of the traditional buildings with a
lovely wisteria on the wall in front

Another traditional stone house

This is an overlook from just in front of the restaurant
where we had our tea break

I found this restaurant terrace - imagine sitting out
here on a summer evening....although it is a little cool
at 450 metres elevation!

A cute display of coloured lanterns

One of the shops sold these little
ceramic houses

After our time in Palaios Panteleimonas, we were taken to the town of Litochoro in the foothills of Mount Olympus to have lunch. We had been expecting to see some old buildings in part of the town, but our tour guide decided we needed a short hike to experience nature in the Enipeas Gorge. The problem was that she didn't tell us that's what we were doing ahead of time. The trail is lovely, but could be a little dangerous as there are very few railings to keep you from falling off. We ultimately ended up at a small and not overly exciting waterfall, had 5 minutes to look and take a photo or two, and then we had to march back to the restaurant for lunch.

Our lunch was very good, and surprisingly a departure from the standard lamb. Along with a coleslaw and tzatziki we had chicken with Greek style potatoes. Dessert was Greek yogurt with some apricot preserves.

I think these are zucchini keftedes - deep fried
balls of zucchini dough

After our late (2 p.m. sit down) lunch, we climbed back into the bus for our one hour drive back to the port. We ended up being the last tour group back before they hauled up the gangway. We would probably have enjoyed just as much a little more time to explore Palaios Panteleimonas and maybe have our lunch there before going back to the ship. We didn't get very much out of the stop at Litochoro as it seemed very rushed and there wasn't much historically significant or interesting to see. That should change tomorrow with the visit to the monasteries at Meteora, actually not all that far away from here.