Friday 14 September - Thessaloniki to Volos

Sunrise: Thessaloniki        7:07am

Sunset:   Volos                  7:38pm

Steps:                               12,216

Travel day today.  Main luggage out before I went down to breakfast just after 7 and I chose to wheel it to the bus, as it appeared just as I was heading that way. We were all loaded up and on our way shortly after 9am.

First up was a drive around with the 1st stop at the White Tower and then we walked to the Alexander The Great statue. I got much better photos this time. Nena was still with us for this mornings activities.

From there we starting driving through the old town, viewing the Rotunda, some of the old walls and visiting the Church of St. Demetrius, which is a pilgrimage church. 
The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, dating from a time when it was the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire.

After that visit, we then visited the top of the town which has a great view of Thessaloniki.  I love the Greek Orthodox architecture

The ancient Rotunda in the midst of modern Thessaloniki

After that stop, we were then on our way to visit the Archealogical Site at Vergina, where the Grave of Phillip II of Macedonia was found late last century.

Philip II of Macedon was the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.  We were not allowed to take any photos within the site, which is also a museum. The artifacts that they have recovered are amazing, to say the least.  I found the visit to be extremely interesting. We visited there from about midday to 1pm, when we said farewell to Nena.  Plenty of time for some lunch, as we weren't meeting up again until 2:30pm

As we traveled towards Volos, Christina filled us in on other aspects of the tour, that she wouldn't do while we had Nena with us.

We passed through another fertile area, this one with more fruit trees growing. And vines.

We stopped around 4pm at a roadside outlet somewhere near Larisa, for a short break. I invested in a cooling ice cream and also bought some water from Dimitri.
They were quite a lot of solar farms that I could see after that stop. The countryside is very flat but surrounded by hills.  At one point, we had a fairly good view of Mt Olympus.

We arrived at the hotel just on 5:30.  Room 207 Volos Palace Hotel

 and after checking in, arranged with Christina to meet again at 6pm in the foyer, for an orientation walk.

Yachts Galore

Restaurant's Galore 

A church across the bay, at the end of the Promenade

After going for a walk along the water front promenade I then headed back to the hotel, having decided that I only wanted something light for dinner.

I thought some roasted vegetables would be very light. What arrived what a huge plate of roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, onion, eggplant, green peppers, zucchini and mushrooms.  Delicious as it was, I certainly couldn't finish it all.

That's it for today. Oh, the temp reach 31c today. Very warm when out in the direct sun, but for the most part, as pleasant day.  Tomorrow we are heading into the hills.  Night all