May 1 - It was about a 3 hour drive from Meteora to Agios Ioannis on the Pelion Peninsula. The last hour covered 26 miles of very windy, narrow, and steep roads. The peninsula is beautiful, very green and lush with mountain towns clinging to the sides of cliffs. Agios Ioannis where we stayed is a cute little beach town. We stayed at the Kenta Beach Hotel and highly recommend it. We had an oceanfront room and enjoyed looking out the windows and sitting on the balcony and listening to the waves. They also had a good breakfast buffet. There is a lot hiking in the area, so I went out exploring and hiked to the next beach north, Plaka Beach, very beautiful and with only a few people. We had dinner at the Taverna next door, Galeos and it was very good.
May 2 - After breakfast we started hiking towards Damouchari harbor where they filmed some of Mamma Mia, After Damouchari Beach, I continued on to Fakistra Beach and the Hidden School. Lots of beautiful views along the way! The Hidden School was really interesting as the trail leads you to a cave above a sea cave where a monk used to live and where legend has it that children were taught Greek and Christianity during the Ottoman Turk reign. The trail was 7 miles with 1500 feet of elevation gain and took me 3 3/4 hours. After getting back and resting up we had a late lunch at another delicious Taverna along the waterfront.
May 3 - After breakfast, we spent a hour doing the Binax Now Covid test so we could return to the USA. Even though we watched a YouTube video about how to do it, the first time was confusing for us. We had to balance our iPads on a glass, on a book and against the wall to get the right angle. The proctors were patient with us and we were relieved to get it done. We then headed back over the mountains in the fog and drizzle. My husband did not enjoy that drive. After the mountain road, the rest of the drive was on very nice freeways. Altogether it was about a 5 hour drive to Artemida where we were staying for the night in an apartment before our 7 AM flight. There were about 5 tolls, with one being change only, so I was glad we had some a few euro coins left. The rest of the toll booths had people at them and we were able to charge the tolls on our credit card. We arrived in Artemida and got the recommendation from our host about dining at Taverna Delfinas - it was delicious! We enjoyed a walk along the beach and then headed back to pack for departure the next day. Athen's Car Rental met us at 5AM the next morning at the departure area of the airport and picked up our car. We recommend them as the rental transaction went very smoothly. I also recommend getting WhatsApp as we used it several time to communicate with hosts and the car rental company.
We had a wonderful time in Greece!
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