Mt Olympus, Volos, Greece, June 2021

From Thessaloniki, we drove south to the Mt Olympus area. First stop was the town of Litochoro at the foot of Mt Olympus that we wanted to visit. We had booked the night before to stay at the Bayiri Petit Pension; which was a cute and quirky pension in Litochoro. We found the place just as it started to pour down, and parking was again an issue. Tiny streets and many cars made it difficult to find a parking spot, but we did find one nearby, and not get a ticket 😊.

Litochoro lies at the foot of Mt Olympus, and is only a few kms from the sea, dating back to the 14th century, where the majority of its residents were mariners and textile workers in textile workshops. Population when we visited was just over 7,000. After spending the night here, we drove to Mt Olympus nearby.

Mt Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, has multiple peaks; the highest peak of Mytikas (9,500ft elevation) was the mythical home of the 12 principle gods of ancient Greece. The 12 Gods & Goddesses were

• Zeus (King of Gods),
• Hera (Queen of the gods),
• Poseidon (God of the seas, water, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and horses),
• Demeter (Goddess of the harvest, fertility, agriculture, nature and the seasons),
• Hestia (Goddess of the hearth, fire and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family), Hestia later gave up her throne to Dionysus (God of wine, the grapevine, fertility, festivity, ecstasy, madness and resurrection).
• Aphrodite (Goddess of love, pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, beauty and desire),
• Athena (Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare),
• Artemis (Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, virginity, the Moon, archery, childbirth, protection and plague),
• Apollo (God of Sun, light, prophecy, philosophy, archery, truth, inspiration, poetry, music, arts, manly beauty, medicine, healing, and plague),
• Ares (God of war, violence, bloodshed and manly virtues),
• Hephaestus (God of the forge, craftsmanship, invention, fire and volcanoes.) and
• Hermes (God of travel, commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves, and games).

My favorites are Hermes (travel) and Aphrodite (love) 😊 .

Some scenes from Mt Olympus below as we explored this area

360 degree view part way up on Mt Olympus

We visited the Monastery of Dionysios (yes, the god is supposed to have built it himself); it was destroyed by the Germans in World War 2 and is in process of restoration.

We did a couple of hikes on Mt Olympus, some scenes below

After Mt Olympus, we continued our drive south to Volos, a city of the Adriatic coast where we were supposed to meet our friends Nikolai and Ani Daskalov from Sofia, Bulgaria. They were coincidentally driving down from Bulgaria to vacation on some islands off Volos. Unfortunately, our timing did not match (they had to catch a pre-booked ferry) and we missed meeting up with them 🙁 . We stayed 1 night in Volos at the Aegli Pallas Hotel, a small boutique hotel near the harbor front, and checked out this port city.

Dinner that evening was at a local Voliot tsipouradik (Small Plates eatery); which is unique to the Volos area. This was a casual outdoor place located in an alleyway and had a Greek name (Παραδοσιακό Τσιπουράδικο “Ο Στρατής”) The meals here featured choices of 3 plates of typical local meze that came with the Tsipuro liquor: the local version of Ouzo or Raki. Tradition was that the fishermen came here after a day of fishing, and with every drink of Tsipuro, they got 3 small different dishes to eat. The more they drank, the more food they got 🙂 .

Next day, being a Sunday, we decided to check out the Sunday service at the nearby church.

Church Service in Volos

After the church service, we started driving south towards Athens, passing multiple towns along the way. Some scenes along the way

After an uneventful drive, we arrived in Athens; stayed a couple more days, and then drove to the airport where we returned our rented car and caught our flight back to the US.

Thoughts and feelings about our Greece trip; Greece is a wonderful to visit; from the stunning natural scenery in Santorini, Peloponnese, Meteora, Mani, to the laid-back towns like Ioannina, Thessaloniki, Litochori, Volos etc. There was a lot of ancient history everywhere like the Greek god myths, the Ancient Olympic games, the acropolis, agoras etc. The foods were always fresh, different and unique in different parts of Greece making the food scene always interesting. Since any place in Greece is never more than 100kms away from the sea, fish & seafood was always readily available. And restaurants purchased them fresh daily, which meant great fresh and flavorful food every day. The Greeks were always friendly and ready to help strangers; especially in areas where English was not commonly spoken. All in all, Greece turned out to be a great feast for the eyes (beautiful scenery, ancient architecture), a great feast for the mouth (fresh seafood and fresh foods everywhere), a feast for the soul (history, culture, and interacting with locals) all over Greece. Highly recommend that all readers should go off the tourist paths and explore Greece.

Our trip through Greece

Related posts:

Thessaloniki, Greece, June 2021 More Peloponnese, Greece, June 2021 Peloponnese, Greece, June 2021 Ioannina & Meteora, Greece, June 2021

• Greece
• Mt Olympus
• Volos