Hello, is anybody in..? ςΓΣΣζΣ

After rolling off the ferry at Patras we headed north over the bridge having decided against visiting Athens for only half a day. Instead the day was banked and we arrived in Delphi for lunchtime. Up high in the mountains yet more ancient ruins awaited us however the cool weather and empty roads made for a lovely ride. Also there are very few tourists now; perhaps they’re all scared of the so called unrest that our media are so happy to show over and over? Or maybe it’s just the time of year? Anyhow, it’s nice to travel into Greece’s interior as like most I’ve only really been to its islands for a bit of the old triple S’s. And so what of it then? Well, as expected the amount of half built buildings, closed businesses and a growing sense of desperation is for all to see. Still tourism is tourism and the empty restaurants, shops and hotels make for some pretty cheap costs. Back to Delphi then and the ruin walk was helped to be worthwhile as firstly it was free being a Sunday and secondly the awesome backdrop looking down onto the land way down below. More open mountain road riding later we made Kastraki which is the smaller of two towns surrounding an area known as Meteora. Wow. For any James Bond fans out there you would have seen bits of the area from ‘For Your Eyes Only.’ Notably the rock climbing bit up to the top of...well, the rock! Half a dozen individual monasteries were built there somehow a thousand or so years ago each on one of these many odd rock formations. Nowadays mostly museums we took a look in ‘Vaarlem’ and even I was amazed at how this could’ve been achieved. Spectacular.
Our banked day was used further up the road on Lake Ioannina’s town of Perama. Having been to lakes Como and Garda earlier on in the trip perhaps we’ve been spoilt a little as it was nice but a bit ‘seen it.’ A walk through Perama’s recently discovered cave though was a nice little change and quite interesting before we saddled up for country number seven...