The heart and soul of greece

If the olive tree is the heart of the greek countryside the small village church is its soul! These marvelous little churches are well taken care of and well used. They represent the soulful people who inhabit these regions and their strength of character even in hard times!

 

On the Road to...food

The road system here in Greece is great and the roads are pretty good too! There are so many road signs (most times quite necessary) that every few meters there is another sign (usually telling the driver of a bend in the road). It would be a booming business opportunity printing signs.

This sign tells us that not only is there a hairpin turn going down hill but there is a narrow bridge at the bottom!! YAY!
But the drive is wonderful on good roads with fantastic sea views and friendly people to help along the way!

The Kalamata country side is covered with olive trees, with a smattering of Cyprus groves and now a few fig groves thrown in for good measure. This country is just bursting with fruit of all kinds. The side of the road in many places is lined with cactus which is heavy with fruit (cactus pears) almost ready to pick. No one should go hungry here!
We look forward to buying some olive oil  to bring home and some big juicy olives to eat along the way.
We already picked up some beautiful crusty bread, some zesty cheese and some cold meat for a nice lunch on some deserted beach!
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamata
Food grows wild here! It amazes me how much food is growing by the side of any road. Grapes, olives, pears, cactus, apples, persimmon,pomagranite, and oranges...the list seems endless!
 

A Mani's home is his castle... no really!

The rugged Mani Peninsula is legendary for it's tower houses.
The homes are made of cut rock and stone and are very much like castles. The history is long so here is a quick link,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_Peninsula
We are staying at the Kourmas Rooms tonight right on the beach at Limeni. The sun is setting and it is incredible to look at over here in this part of the world.
 http://www.maniguide.info/
Here is small video clip from Rick Steves:
http://youtu.be/MTQKoFvwHRE



We stayed at the Kourmas Rooms where the sun meets the Aegaean Sea. The rooms are nicely appointed with a private bath (with tub and shower) and a large balcony overlooking the water. It is clean and the staff friendly and helpful! This Hotel was a bit more expensive than the previous two and I would rate it a 7.5.

Fresh fish caught daily was on the menu. It was bar-b-qued to a succlent sensation and served with delicious fresh produce! Here are the stars of today's menu! 

Olives and Oranges

We travelled quite a bit yesterday so I am blogging today! We are travelling for the next week on the Peloponnese peninsula - the land of olive trees and orange groves... two of my favorite things to eat. Needless to say I think I may enjoy our time here.
Our accommodation at the Sunset Hotel is marvelous! The owners are wonderful and friendly and the food is terrific! We would recommend this hotel to anyone. I would rate the accommodation a 9.7 and the food a clear 10!! We are very impressed at how wonderfully clean everything is, the beach just steps away from the door, and the care taken in the food preparation and service.
If you like honey and you like marshmallows you must try the fried eggplant as it is a heavenly combination of the two tastes with a beguiling texture that makes you want more.
Breakfast this morning was no less enticing with a buffet of delicious offerings. The hand squeezed orange juice was exceptionally sweet and wonderful.  We went for a refreshing morning swim in the Agean Sea and loved every minute of it.
If we had not had all our trip planned out we would have stayed here a few more days.Thank you to our host Asimina for a wonderful stay! We will be back,
www.mountsouris.gr

The open air restaurant by the ocean



The Greek salad to die for!

Fried eggplant... a must have!

 

Open air, top down

Well it has been an interesting day!

When we went to pick up our car at National Rent a Car https://www.nationalcar.ca/ at the Athens Airport we were told that they no longer rent the open Car that we booked from Canada. This was extremely disappointing to Don as he wanted to drive an open air, top down trip... After some calls and work on the part of the National staff they found us a Peugeot convertible for the time on the mainland. They were wonderful! They not only gave us an upgrade but gave us a discount on the rental for our inconvenience (and even offered to bring it to our Hotel for us the next day if it did not arrive back in time). This is fantastic customer service!! Need I say more National has our business when ever we travel. KUDO s to the national Rent a Car team at the Athens airport.

Food, food, and a museum...

The New Acropolis Museum!

We went to a small cafe across the street from our hotel for breakfast this morning http://www.pellainn.gr/. I had Greek coffee which seems to be a variation of Turkish coffee but with more grounds...it was a mighty wallop to the system! I saw that they had 'double' Greek coffee too... that must really be impressive to your brain!

We had a nice 'breakfast' as it was listed on the menu. No idea what this meant but we went ahead and had it anyway... adventuresome like that! Although not listed as such the breakfast was represented by a coffee, a freshly squeezed large orange juice, and a wonderful omelet.

Finally made it out to Brettos to pick up our supply of Ouzo and do some tasting... boy were we surprised! http://www.brettosplaka.com/index.php/?___store=gr&___from_store=en

Brettos makes  40 different flavours of liqueur all natural and all wonderful...no I did not taste them all...but wanted to! We did taste strawberry, peach, apricot, caramel and watermelon. My favorites were the peach and the caramel!(pictures) Yes, yes, yes we did buy some. We also bought some ouzo blue and some gold to bring home and a bottle of blue for our evenings here in Greece while travelling.


WE also made it to the museum...WOW!! OK double WOW, WOW!!
It was fantastic...and if you like museums you must find a day to do the new Acropolis Museum. http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/?la=2 . The building is new and VERY modern(not my taste) but beautiful in its own right. There is a cafe for snacks or lunch and the food is very good. (pictures)The wait times could be improved and the serving staff is more than a little slack... but is is off season!

Keftediki...meatballs witha delicious tomato sauce

Tonight we plan to eat at Brettos 'ozerie'... which is a small taverna style restaurant which serves ouzo with metzes (starters or snacks) as well a dinner. It is reported to be 'wonderful' and friendly. But I will let you know whether it lived up to the Brettos reputation in a few hours and if we will go again!  I'm guessing the answer will be a resounding and well deserved yes!

Don's moussaka

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Greece/Prefecture_of_Attica/Athens-426812/Nightlife-Athens-Vrettos-BR-1.html

Photo Credit: pics from the website on the New Acropolis Museum http://www.yatzer.com/The-new-Acropolis-Museum-Athens-Greece-Bernard-Tschumi

Athens (Atheni, Greece)

We arrived in Athens at about10:30 am. The flight was long but uneventful (happily so). Big thank you to the Air Canada http://www.aircanada.com/en/home.html flight crew who made our long haul enjoyable, fed us too much, and were pleasant and caring.
We took the subway to our hotel (Athens has a great transit system!) and decided to go out ot the museum and get a sim card for Don's phone. Well needless to say we did not make it to the museum...because we could not find a provider to get a sim card that actually woks with our phone.... According to the locals since 'the crisis' many small stores have gone out of business and this includes the multiple phone operators at each corner!! Big surprise.. so we spent the whole afternoon trying to get a card that would work.
We tried a smal cafe restrauant ' The Cafe Postal' just off the plaka and had a great little dinner for about 11 euros each including wine/beer. Our wait staff Martine was great and they had live music with Michelos and Demitre on guitar. The food was exellent! I had the kalamari and Don had the moussaka both served with a very fresh greek salad, bread and a glass of wine or beer! Don said the moussaka was 'not even a pale comparison' to what I make at home...which of course guarantees the continious supply of moussaka to him at home!