Leaving Istanbul
Sadly, we have to leave Turkey as our three months Turkish visa is up. We loved Turkey, especially the people, but our plan now is to tour the northern and central regions of Greece, over the next month, ending up in Athens.
Here's a short video of some of the highlights of our Northern Greek Tour.
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is a slower moving town in the north. We had no idea that Northern Greece was going to be like. We thought we'd start in the north and tour down hill to Athens.
Kalabaka & Meteora
A train ride down through the central farm belt of Greece landed us into a magical spot called Kalabaka.
The Meteora area above it, is a magical setting of massive cliffs. Dawn forced Peter to take an E-bike ride - which he agreed was a great plan... after the fact. The E-bike company is called, Meterora Bike which we VERY highly recommend - located in the center of Kalabaka. It was a perfect day and a perfect way to view the monasteries that are perched on top of some of the cliff's peaks.
The famous James Bond movie, "For your Eyes Only" was filmed in part in the Meteora region.
Max the parrot, and his infamous line, "ATAC to St Cyril's" that sent Bond scrabbling up a shear cliff face in Meteroa to save the world from the Russians.. yet again ... was partly filmed in this region.
Meteora is everything it's cracked up to be. The stylish but quaint town of Kalabata sits quietly nestled under several stunning cliffs, each of a Yosemite alike scale.
Sylvester is a very cool cat that lives on his own on a remote Meterora rock peak. A bit like a monk of old, he's visited every day it seems, by tourists, such as ourselves who might give him tip bits too munch on, a friendly stroke and a quick chat about the weather. When we left him, he just sat down patiently and waited for the next visitor to roll along. His rock, where he lives is several kms from the nearest monastery; but likely is fed by a kind Nun or two. We suppose, with a view like Sylvester's, why would he want to leave...
Athens
We spend a week touring Athens. 'Not our first time here, so we preferred to just 'absorb;' the local life as opposed to hitting the tourist sites again. After a brief week in Athens, we split up. Dawn headed to the US to meet up with her family for the American Thanksgiving celebration and to do some shopping for some boat electronics. Peter headed to Edinburgh to stay with his family for the same amount of time.
Our plans is to re-unite in London in the beginning of December for a quick trip around the UK to pick up some more boat stuff and then to go to visit Chloe in Cherbourg.
