Panos and I and Chaidie got to spend a week together in Greece at the end of April visiting family. Panos went over a bit earlier to be able to celebrate Easter with his family, then Chaidie and I joined him (after missing a connection and overnighting in Istanbul, but that's another story).
This is home in Metsovo, a village in the Pindos mountains of northwestern Greece. Metsovo is famous for its cheeses, beautiful weaving, and woodworking.
That's my mother-in-law, for whom Chaidie was named, on the balcony. 90 and going strong!
We arrived on Tuesday, It was alternating pouring rain, hail and sun...
So we stayed close to home that day.
Views from the town square...
I've always loved the ancient plane trees in the churchyard near the square
Here's the art gallery. It's MUCH larger than it looks - it's built on a mountainside and goes down four levels.
And again, with the village Anilio ("sunless") in the background:
In the gallery
I really liked this thing made from blister packs:
On Wednesday, we went to Ioannina, a university town which back in my day was 1.5 hours away, but now is closer to half an hour thanks to the EU-funded Via Egnatia highway system which features an incredible series of long tunnels both on that side of Metsovo and on the road east from there towards Thessaloniki (which is where we drove from after flying into Thessaloniki).
Street in the downtown area of Ioannina near where Panos spent a couple years of his childhood
Ioannina is on a lake, and has a delightful little island. We walked clear around it for the first time that day, enjoying the sun and the flowers and the mountain views.
If this island were in a more touristed part of Greece, I'd suspect this boat was put there just to photograph.
On Saturday, we drove to Anthochori, a small village on a nearby mountainside with two powerful streams that have been used for many generations to wash all the heavy woven floor coverings and blankets.
Corner of a cafe overlooking it all, run by a friend of one of our nephews.
Just below, where they used to thresh grain. The growing season is pretty late here so the walnut trees haven't started to leaf yet.
Dinner at home - Panos, his mom and Chaidie. And stuffed tomatoes and peppers ("gemista"). Mama made our favorite foods while we were there.
Thank you for sharing. Beautiful pictures! Glad you had a nice getaway!
Love the roaring waterfalls especially having a restaurant next to them. Really nice to see your family.
Beautiful photos!