After a good night's sleep,
we walked through the quiet village to a café
that we had spotted on our way to dinner the night before.
(Enlarge this picture if you can, it is really lovely!)
The café was delightful. This is a shot of the vegetable garden
on one side~
and, on the other side we watched about a dozen truly
beautiful horses meander down the trail.
Breakfast was fresh toast, butter and marmalades,
coffee and fresh orange juice
yogurt and honey
and
eggs and ham slices...
followed by a nap and
a little play time.
We finally forced ourselves to pack up and get on the road
as we had other destinations to see, although it was difficult to move
on it was worth the effort. A short drive from Papigo we stopped to visit
this beautiful river and
just a bit further down the road we stopped again to hike back
into the woods to see an old Monastery. This area
of the country is know for it's stone bridges. This is a new bridge
leading to a very lovely stone
path that led into the woods.
Here is a very happy backpacker!
We came to the river again and stopped to take pictures of
water, flora and fauna
.
...somehow noticed that Artemis had a very large
splinter in her foot. Here is record of her very first, I am
sure of many, splinter removals. Everyone involved
was very brave and the recovery was very quick.
Here is our first view of the monastery outside the walls.
It was believed to have been built in the 1500s. People in the
area fled to this monastery to escape the Turks in the 1800s.
Here it is from inside the wall. Apparently the inside
is covered in art work.
As we travelled the roadways through the mountains we saw
warning signs for cows, goats and bears.
Guess what we didn't see?
Here was a quick stop at a small roadside church
and an OLD stone bridge. Not big but certainly impressive.
Down the road a ways we came to a much larger
stone bridge. It doesn't look that big from this
shot but it most certainly is!
These tiny little flowers that we buy at Boyarts and
whose name I can't remember, were growing wild in this area.
ahhhh, cyclamens!
Here go the ladies across bridge which spans a very dry
river bed in spite of the fact that there has been far
more than average rain this summer.
On the far side of the bridge, Ian, Eleftheria and
Artemis checked out the rock for its climbing potential.
Artemis played for quite awhile on the bridge.
Notice the bare feet and the wind blowing in her hair :-)
It was pretty impressive.
We found out later that we were not far from the biggest of
these stone bridges with an impressive 3 arches! Shoot, I guess
we will have to go again.
After a little more traveling on unbelievably twisted
and narrow mountain roadways, we arrived at our
destination - a village whose name I can't remember
and which we did not have time to explore.
However, this is a little shop we were headed too.
It is owned and operated by the sister-in-law to the waiter/owner
of the breakfast café.
It was late in the day and time for a bite to eat...
and to watch one more stunning sunset.
At our altitude, it cooled off as the sun set and Artemis donned
her new jacket. Ian has a really cute picture of her in her
jacket and cords ~ and no socks. She is not a fan.
It was dark as we headed down the narrow, twisted mountain
roads under a beautiful starlit sky.
Back to the highway and on to home and the new week.
I hope I was able to share a bit of our adventure with you - would
that you all had been with us.
Much Love.
