Parga

In route to Corfu, we spent one night in the lovely little town of Parga.  When we arrived in the evening, the town was in full swing with crowded streets, seashore town activities and no parking.

Ian did incredible driving and we eventually found a spot with the help of our AirB&B host.

Below is the next morning shot from the balcony of our room.  Eleftheria found delightful accommodations for us, once again showing her "travel agent" skills! 

The restoration and renovation of homes and buildings into tourist and vacation accommodations seems to be in full swing.  The rooms that we stayed in here were delightful.  I think August in Greece is a bit like the Christmas season here - the peak of travel and commercial activity.  The time when many businesses make their best money.

View from the shore - post card perfect.  Notice the castle on the hill.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to check it out.

C&C:  Coffee & Chat

Three Quarters Family Photo (I think Emily was asleep in the stroller)

Eleftheria treated Ian to a Fish Pedicure - Neither Ian nor Artemis were too sure...

From Parga we headed to the port and our ferry trip to Corfu.

Ian and Artemis made a valiant attempt to feed the gulls but they didn't seem to "get it".

It was fun anyway and the ride across to Corfu was lovely.

stay tuned...

Love you all.

Halkidiki

Our first beach visit was to the "family" beach in Halkidiki.

I say "family" because this is where Eleftheria's parents live and

the beach is just a short distance from their home. 

As you can see, the beach is lovely.  We saw a lot of different beaches this trip, but close to home is always the best...beautiful, easy...

This may have been Emily's first beach outing?

Cuddling with papou.

Aunt Georgia and Artemis beachin'

The beach is one direction, then up on a little rise is

a beach bar and then down the cliff to this beautiful

little cove.

Adam, I read the beach article you sent out of the Week.

Not the same experience...this is wonderful. Well, you wouldn't

want to forget the sunscreen, although the swimwear that Uncle Keith, 

Aunt Sarah and Emmett sent was awesome and definitely cut down

on the lotioning. 

  

I have a really cute video of Dad, Artemis and Ian

playing catch.  I just have to figure out how to get it in the blog.

Artemis had a GREAT time!

And then out to dinner at a really nice Taverna in a village nearby.

The End

Around Zagorohoria.

We spent most of Sunday touring other villages and sites around Zagorahoria with Eleftheria's parents. They had spent some time here previously and had some ideas about where to go.  

Emily enjoyed a morning snack with us at this newly renovated building.

Emily has changed so much since we arrived at the end of July.  She is much more engaged in her surroundings and smiles a lot.  She has a very pleasant temperament and proved to be a good travel companion.

This is a close-up of the roof construction on most of the buildings in the area. The slates on our roof in Medina are at the most 3/32" thick, uniform in size and shape, held in place with nails into wood sheathing over uniformly spaced rafters.  These are not!!!

This is one of 45 bridges built during the late 18th and 19th centuries to aid in trade and travel among the villages.  This one is the Bridge of Noutsos, built in 1750 over the Vikos River.  As you can see it has been a particularly dry summer.

I love seeing the building methods. In this case, the bridge parapet. I doubt ODOT would approve, but what skill and ingenuity!  

This is a 15th century monastery at the entrance to a trail for viewing the Vikos Gorge.

Another stop on our tour was at Vikos Gorge which according to the Guinness Book of Records is the world's deepest at 900m.  There was absolutely no way to do it justice photographically.

The village of Mikro Papigo as seen from Megala Papigo

A common feature of many of the villages is a plaza area with a variety of sycamore in a raised circular planter bed. 

Ionnidis Guesthouse, Megalo Papigo

After leaving Corfu on Friday afternoon we drove to Megalo  Papigo, a village located in the Zagorohoria, which is an area made up of 46 preserved mountain hamlets.  Karen and Adam have been here before and both were enamored by it's beauty and history.  We arrived after dark the guest house Ioannidis where we were greeted and shown to our rooms by our host Vasilis whose family has owned the property since the mid-1800's when it was a working farm and their home. He is aided by his sister in the running and maintenance of the property.

We were joined on Sunday by Eleftheria's parents for a day of touring the countryside.

Probably my favorite photo of the trip. Taken at sunset caused the red cast to the mountains. The two windows and door at the right define our room.