We weren't planning on traveling for Spring Break, afterall, it feels like we just arrived to Kyiv! But then there was a crazy deal on airfare and a bit of research showed that spring in Greece is the best time to visit (if you want to avoid the heat and crowds), not to mention that Funny Guy is a walking encyclopedia of Greek mythology (thanks Rick Riordan), so we decided, why not?!
Athens is less than 3 hours from Kyiv, but it took us a bit longer to fly up to Thessaloniki where we rented a car to drive down to our Airbnb rental in Leptokarya, at the base of Mount Olympus.
We stopped for dinner on the beach before heading to the house for bed. That was when we discovered that Darling Daughter had forgotten to bring her sweatshirt. And I had grossly underestimated how cold the wind chill would be. Still, it was beautiful and we soaked in the waves, the castle up on the hill, the sunset. We were really in Greece!
The next morning, we split up. We dropped My Man off to meet a group of paragliders, then the kids and I drove up into Mt. Olympus National Park to hike part of the Mt. Olympus summit trail.
The weather was cool and threatening rain, but we set off anyway, undeterred.
Originally I'd hoped to hike from the trailhead in Prionia down to Litochoro, but realized that might be too ambitious for the younger kids.
Instead, we opted to hike from Prionia on the E4 trail to the old Monastery and then back. It was perfect and allowed plenty of time for stopping to climb rocks, look at bugs, and take pictures. (For someone with even smaller hikers and two adults, it would be possible to drop off hikers at Prionia, then drive back down to the monastery and leave the car there, hiking up to meet the rest of the group to make the hike even shorter.)
The trail was gorgeous, along a raging creek, through forest, with lots of rocks to climb and flowers to admire and interesting terrain.
By the time we got to the monastery, sadly ruined by Nazis in WWII, but undergoing some renovations now, Funny Guy was starting to tire and the rain that had been threatening all day began to fall more seriously.
Cold, wet, and a little tired, we opted to head back on the road for a shorter trip and were rewarded by seeing several dramatically colored newts (which Young Man gallantly scooped from the road to save from unhappy martyrdom by the cars). One was so grateful for the help that he climbed right up Young Man's leg.
The kids were real troopers and didn't complain at all in spite of the cold rain. I guess it was a small price to pay to hike on Zeus' mountain. It may have helped that we played one million games of I Spy and Contact and laughed and laughed and laughed. I may also have resorted to a super secret stash of Cadbury chocolate eggs, AKA energy capsules, to help ward off melt-downs. By the time we got back to the car, this was our view:
Still, when asked if they would do it again, all three kids gave a resounding "YES!" and so would I. In fact, I hope I have the chance to go back some day and hike the full trail, hopefully not in the rain.
Meanwhile, the weather hadn't cooperated for My Man either. He and the other paragliders had a chance to check out the launch and got one quick flight but then the rain interrupted any plans to fly more so My Man was forced to enjoy a delicious lunch with a gorgeous ocean view.
By the time we got back home, though, the sky was starting to clear, so we joined My Man to head back up to the local paragliding launch. At the top of the hill there is an old church, more than 600 years old actually. "That's older than the United States!" My Man exclaimed. His instructor laughed and said, "Everything in Greece is older than the United States!" As if to prove the point, My Man ran off the mountain, then flew off toward the beach, circling around a beautiful old castle along the way.
That evening, Funny Guy and I took a walk to the beach, where we spent the rest of the evening watching the sun set and practicing skipping rocks into the calm water. It was beautiful.
The next morning, the kids and I had to leave before the crack of dawn to drive inland to Meteora, a collection of old monasteries perched dramatically and sometimes precipitously on giant rock outcrops.
After some interesting GPS instructions, we managed to arrive just in time to join our hiking tour. It was fantastic.
The guide had grown up in the area and knew every legend, story, and trail.
He pointed out interested old trees, told stories about the wild boars in the area, and pointed out good photo ops.
He put up with the sibling squabbling that accompanied our three kiddos and told so many good stories that Funny Guy forget to get tired until the 5-hour tour was finished.
We saw several of the old monasteries and went inside the Great Meteoron Monastery.
Although I probably would have explored more extensively if I'd been there on my own, the kids were ready to head home after our tour, understandably tired out after two days of hiking. It was a great outing, though, and we all highly recommend the
Visit Meteora tours. The day was beautiful, warm and sunny, no evidence of the previous day's rain, so after we got home, we prepared an early picnic dinner to eat outside. After a few minutes, we heard My Man. What? The kids started looking around to see where he was. I looked up.
Sure enough, there he was soaring high above our picnic on his way to a beach landing. Funny Guy and I hopped in the car to go pick him up. Incredibly, he was finishing an epic cross-country flight from the other side of Mt. Olympus!
It was the longest flight of his career, and arguably the coolest. I couldn't believe that he managed to fly directly over our house from so far away! And landing on the beach, with the beautiful red poppies waving in the breeze and the beautiful blue ocean behind was really the perfect ending.
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| My Man pointing to Mt. Olympus (where he started the flight) and then to the beach where he landed. |
Sadly, it was the last paragliding day until the end of the trip, but it was a flight to remember.
That evening, My Man and I visited Platamon Castle, then ate out at a traditional Greek Taverna with the other paragliding pilots who were visiting from Switzerland. Just bring us your very best, they told the restaurant owner when he came to get our orders. What arrived was a sampling of mouth-watering salads, cheeses, and meats. The five of us feasted and feasted and still couldn't finish it all. It was the perfect ending to the first segment of our Greek vacation. If we had had to leave Greece and go home right then, it would have been worth it. Lucky for us, however, we still had almost a week left!
The next morning we drove up to Thessaloniki, traded our rental car for a spot on the train, and headed down to Athens for our Big Fat Greek Adventure, Part 2.
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