Papigo - Saturday

So, on Saturday morning, we gathered ourselves and

our stuff together, loaded up the car and headed

to Papigo, a small mountain village in an

area of Greece that even Eleftheria

had only a little quick visit to 5 or 6 years

ago when she was taking a mountain climbing class.

 

 

About half the trip was on highway and then we headed

off into the mountains on twisty, narrow, two

lane roads.  It was a beautiful day and we pulled off

several times for pictures and just to marvel at the views.

 

 

Artemis took a little break from riding in her car seat

while we took pictures 

 

and checked out the unusual rock morphology.

Beautiful, but not too promising as a

climbing location.

 

 

                                      

This is the entryway to the guest room that

we rented for the night.  I just realized that the

picture of the room itself is missing....



 

but, here is the ceiling! 

 

and here is the "common room".  Which included a stove

small fridge, and assorted small food prep appliances.

There were 3 guest rooms, each with their own bath

and then this room...

 

and this delightful terrace.  To the left of

Eleftheria were several more tables and behind Ian

a large fig tree, which provided us with several

tasty snacks.

 

After getting settled, we walked down the street

 

 

to the taverna at the bottom of the hill where we had

a little snack and Artemis explored the area,

enjoying her freedom and making friends.

 

At the recommendation of the inn keeper,

we decided to walk from Papigo to Micro Papigo,

seen in the background, for dinner.

 

 

In the background you can see the road we traveled and in

the foreground, the "short cut" we took.

 

 

Some pretty wildflowers along the say.

 

A quick rest in the church yard.

 

 

In the center of these small villages, you will almost

always find a beautiful large tree and the church.



 

There is often a foundtain also. 

Notice the weary traveler.

 

 

 

For whatever reason, I didn't take a picture of the taverna where

we ate a delicious dinner.  But here is a picture of

the roof of a house from the patio where we ate :-)

The villages in this are had been largely abandoned over the

years, but in recent years, people have started moving

back and rebuilding the  building and opening guest

houses, cafe's, tavernas and there seems to be

a thriving tourist industry - hunters, mountain climbers, rafters,

bicyclists, backbackers and day hikers.

All the repairs and new builds must meet strict guidelines so that

the villages maintain their historical characteristics.  It is difficult

at times to tell what is new and what is old!  Even the

stone roofs must be repaired and installed on new buildings. 

 

We enjoyed the impressive evening sky along with the view of

the village and surrounding mountains and finally

walked back to Papigo in the dark and

slept soundly. 

It was a wonderful day.