Apr 21 – Volos and Makrinisa Village

Today we are docked at another mainland town, Volos, a small coastal town.  Our first stop was the archaeological museum.  

The most unusual items in the museum were gravestones.  At one point in history, they had been salvaged and stacked.  The stacking preserved the painted pictures on the stones.  We tend to think of Greek stonework as white.  But most of it had been exposed to the elements over the thousands of years so the paint had eroded off.  These preserved paintings gave us a hint of the beauty of the work.

There was also a lot of jewelry, some from the graves. 

A reproduction of a cremation grave.

A display of coins.

And more pots and figures and other artifacts.

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More Archaeological Museum
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We then took a drive up a mountainside where we had good views of Volos and the harbor…

and the Symphony. 

We stopped near the top of the hill to take in views of the hillside village of Makrinisa. 

Then we hiked up to the village.  The hike gave us good views of building rooftops and the hills beyond. 

The village was so quaint, with lots of side stairs (instead of streets)...

and stone houses and buildings. 

There were a lot of fun souvenir shops…

The hairdo is made of coffee beans

And a large central square shaded by massive, ancient plane trees and lots of tables and chairs for relaxing and enjoying the ambience of the village.

There was a small church in the square.

We wandered just a bit off the square and found a small taverna where we enjoyed some hot chocolate.

While wandering the square this group of young Greeks decided they wanted a photo from Mary’s “fancy” camera.  She took a couple of photos but had no way to send it to them.  Didn’t matter, they just took pictures of the picture on her camera screen.  Then they chatted a bit with us.  Nice young people.

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More Makrinisa Village
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We very much enjoyed just relaxing in this lovely village.

We have seen so many dogs and cats while traveling in Greece.  This village seemed to have a large number.  One guide indicated that the dogs are often just neighborhood dogs rather than family owned.  

Guarding the door to the church.

The afternoon was spent onboard Crystal.  Mary has been working on and off on this jigsaw puzzle.  It was finally finished today.