Short Weekend in Thessaloniki, Greece

Driving 6 hours through rural Albania and Greece, we appreciated the agricultural scenes, the long  tunnels through mountains and the small towns off the highway. Notable is that in Greece, we saw very few people working the fields or anywhere outside the city, for that matter. As you cross the border into Albania, every field is filled with folks turning the soil by hand and donkey carts carrying wood, greens, produce or a tired wife!


Thessaloniki is in the north eastern part of Greece, a city maybe of half million people. It has a big university, old churches, Roman bath, Hippodrome, an old town. The city sits on the Gulf so has a nice promenade. to sit and watch the people and sunset. There were some signs of the economic woes of Greece but overall it was not bad. The food was scrumptious.

White tower (no longer white) which was a prison not long ago

Church of the Orphan Stephen. Smallest church in Greece.

Awil....some of your brothers on the streets selling every color sneaker imaginable. 

I didn't take a photo of the Hippodrome. This was the scene of chariot races. In 390 AD, Emperor Theodosius The Great was mad that the fans lynched his friend who banned some chariot racer from participating. So, he had 7,000 fans killed. It seems they never had the stomach to return to the ensuing chariot scene and so it feel into disuse. 

 

Market scenes

Gyro, anyone? Is this what it looks like in the kitchen of Ali Baba?

Peter meets and talks with an Albanian working in the store

Like Berlin, Graffiti is "in"

It looked like owners paid young people to paint on their walls

This is a 600 year old church and ancient ruins adored by the artist!

Our trip around one of three peninsulas just south of Thessaloniki

On the trip home we stopped at Lake Prespa, bordered by Macedonia, Albania and Greece

Our next trip is to Lake Prespa for a weekend in May

Back to Albania and Lake Orchid on the way home

 

The Rain in Spain Stayed Mainly in the Plain

Visit to Spain with Kaki and David Hutchinson. Spent time in Madrid and on one of the five islands that comprise the Canary Islands, Lanzarote.  People everywhere talk about the "crisis" (26% unemployed and 56% of those under 30 unemployed) A good example was the number of men on the streets of Madrid ready to take gold for cash however, we never felt vulnerable. Sunny, temps in the low 70s and very relaxing!

Enjoy the scenes below.  We did!

To the left, workers preparing a protest march. To the right is self explanatory.

Wonderful parks, gracious trees and statues

Tapas, anyone?

Peter was in Clavelle heaven to see "his" street. Clavel means carnation in Spanish.

We were there on a holy week and these 24 men were lifting this structure with cement weights on top. Penance?

A day trip to Toledo, the capital of Spain until the beginning of the 20th century

 

Then on to the Canaries.... These are photos of the remarkable place that we rented for a week

Outdoor eating area

Views to the left of our villa toward the town of Puerto del Carmen

View to the right from our villa toward the 6 km walking paths along the coast

Moonscapes as we hiked and drove the island...

This was the volcanic crater that we hiked to and around the rim. Ask Peter how much fun he had!

Although dark, this is how they grow their grapes for wine. The bushes are sunken in the ground with a partial stonewall for the protection from the wind

The Beaches were yellow sand, pounding surf and lava rocks out into that surf

Adding depth to the island experience was this artist/architect, Cesar Manrique who in 1968 returned to his island of Lanzarote and proceeded to both design his home (now a museum), restaurants, cactus garden and a lookout to the north.

Cesar used the natural elements of his island, black for lava rock, white sand beaches, green of cactus etc. Nature was incorporated into all the living spaces

His basement pool with the living rooms below on either side

This is a symbol he created and it adorns most of the condos, villas and houses on the island

Courtyard at his home

This Cactus garden is set in a natural crater, with all the elements of nature used in door knobs, seats & steps

This is hard to capture. It is part of an area where the volcanic flow met the water 300 years ago. Cesar saw this grotto cave and made a restaurant. This is a pool that only the King of Spain is allowed to enter...whenever that will happen!

And finally some scenes of the quiet towns that we drove through, stopped and bought smoked goat cheese or smoked salmon

A wonderful vacation at this time of the year!   And now, back to work.