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Day 4:
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Welcome to the PeloponneseToday we crossed the Gulf of Corinth on the beautiful Rio-Antirrio Bridge to the Peloponnesian Peninsula. The Peloponnese, Πελοπόννησος (I kind of love saying it in Greek, it has such a wonderful cadence!). The Peloponnese is a peninsula in southern Greece that kind of looks like a right hand laying flat. Most of this tour was spent on the Peloponnese and there is a lot to see there!
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This was one of the longer drives of the tour, but the scenery was really interesting! My favorite part on the Greece mainland were the fisheries we seemed to pass everywhere! The roads were pretty windy throughout most of Greece (beware those who have motion sickness), so I stuck to a seat at the front of the bus. I remember at the least the morning on the drive down from Delphi to the Gulf of Corinth was particularly windy, but Christos handled it like the pro he is (he's been driving buses for 17 years!). Because we had to stop every few hours, our morning was capped by a snack break at a delicious little shop with loads of sweet treats - yum!
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We crossed over the Gulf of Corinth on the fancy and impressive Rio-Antirrio Bridge pretty quickly after our break. First on our list of stops was a cog train through the Vouraikos Gorge from Diakopto to Kalavryta. (Don't worry - that wasn't our train in the picture below!) The gorge was beautiful, but sadly I had a terrible glare on my window, so most of my photos did not come out. The area is popular with hikers and we saw a lot of people getting on and off the train to do a bit of hiking and sightseeing in between.
From Kalavryta, we rejoined Christos and the bus to head to our lunch spot in Planitero. (Thank goodness for the cog train if it meant skipping some of those windy mountain roads!) On our way to lunch, we had to stop for a Greek traffic jam.
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Grilled trout with a lemon wedge
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Our lunch menu was... trout. It was delicious, if a bit intimidating at first. But Dafni helped us out and gave us a tip for cleaning our fingers afterwards (a quick dip in the lemon for instant freshness!). Afterwards, we had a nice break to explore the wooded area around the restaurant, complete with creeks and plane trees. It felt like our little oasis!
It's all Greek to me!
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Our next and last stop for the day was the little mountain town of Lagkadia (Λαγκάδια). Our hotel for the night, the Kentrikon Hotel, had a very interesting layout of multi-layered floors. We each needed specific directions - and sometimes a guide! - to find our rooms. Mine led out to a lovely patio with a staircase to the breakfast area. After having a quick relaxation break, we all met at the restaurant across the street for a night of Greek dancing and dinner! (Audience participation was required.)
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Anna's Animal Encounters.Lagkadia did not disappoint with animals! We had an uninvited canine companion for dinner (please don't feed the animals!), and on a brief evening stroll down the main street, we encountered a sheep in someone's garden. We also witnessed a disagreement between two dogs, one of which got a little big for his britches on our return stroll and got a bit too rambunctious with me and a fellow tour member. Don't worry - we were saved by an elderly shopkeeper who scared all three of us with her shouting. I managed to escape with only a small hole in my dress from a wayward tooth. Nothing too bad, although I did beat a quick exit to the bus in the morning when I saw our "friend" wandering around town!
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