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Mt. Olympus, Greece
As cool as it can be to travel around the Mediterranean by boat, many of our must-see places are not accessible from the sea. So from time to time, multi-day land trips are in order. The main goals of our recent land trip through Northern Greece were to see Mt. Olympus, and learn about Northern Greek wines. Added to the mix were a night in the big city, a stop in ancient Dion, a visit to the Royal Tombs of Vergina, and a walk through the waterfalls at Edessa.
After settling Berkeley East into a marina on the Khalkidhiki Peninsula, we headed for Thessaloniki (Greece’s second largest city), on our way to Mt. Olympus. Founded in 315 BC, Thessaloniki’s history spans some 2,300 years. Most of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, which was started by an unattended kitchen fire. The fire swept through the center of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless. Today, Thessaloniki is a huge, gritty, down-to-earth Greek city with apartment buildings and businesses built around Byzantine monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. The city’s main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans. It has been ranked as the fifth-best party city worldwide, included in the world’s top tourist destinations, and declared the best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle.
With a quick stop in Dion, we drove around the north side of Mt. Olympus to Kitma Bellou, an organic farm hotel with a view of the mountain.
Mt. Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece and the second highest mountain in the Balkans. At a height of 2,918 meters (9,573 feet) above sea level, it towers over Northern Greece, and can be seen as far away as Thessaloniki. Olympus has 52 peaks, the highest being Mytikas, while Skolio at 2,912 meters (9,554 feet) is the mountain’s second highest peak. Our trusty mountain guide, Sikas, drove us up a dirt road with nail-biting switchbacks for a hike to Skolio, through deep gorges, smooth peaks and even snow for an incredible view of Mytikas.
According to Greek mythology, Mt. Olympus was traditionally regarded as the heavenly abode of the Greek gods and the site of the throne of Zeus, the father of Dionysus (the god of the grape harvest and merry making). While there, Zeus told us that we could find better wines and parties just up the road in Naousa. So once we recovered from our hike, we were off to discover the wines of Northern Greece. We spent several days visiting wineries, learning about the unique grapes grown in the region, and tasting some very delicious red and white wines.
Since Berkeley East’s wine bilge was nearly empty, we were happy to find some excellent buys, and BE is now sitting more level with the weight of our purchases!
The Gerovassiliou Winery not only makes exceptional wines, their wine museum houses viticulture, winemaking, bottling and cooperage tools from around the world, including a collection of more than 2,500 corkscrews.