It’s been a long time since we have visited Greece – 35 years in fact. At that time we crewed across the Mediterranean from Egypt on a yacht,  entering the country in Rhodes. Some island hopping towards Athens followed – a wonderful time, great sights and great memories. On this occasion, entering from Albania in the north, the goal was to explore northern Greece, visit Thessaloniki and take in at least one island en route to Istanbul in Turkey.

During our last visit the border with Albania was impenetrable – this time it was a breeze, even though it was another “Schengen” frontier to cross. On the Greek side they merely confirmed our vehicle was insured ( it was/is ), processed our passports and waved us in. We followed the coast south for about 10kms, Corfu temptingly lying just offshore, passing a number of beautiful ( near deserted ) beaches on the way.

Igounemitsa is the first town of any size ( and a major ferry port ) – quaint enough but holding little appeal for us, we traveled on to Ioannina, a bigger city with some worthy Ottoman history, perched on a pretty lake. A nice place to wander around but nothing to hold us there for more than a day we continued on towards Thessaloniki.

Greece’s second biggest city, Thessaloniki has an impressive waterfront Corniche, a famous tower, and, among other things, a truly impressive museum of the Byzantine era.  We pass on lots of museums – glad we stopped in at this one, a fascinating glimpse into a pivotal period of Greek, Roman and Ottoman history. 

Continuing east we made two additional stops as we crossed that narrow neck of land that separates Greece from Bulgaria and connects it to Turkey – a rustic, but popular wild camping spot just east of Thessaloniki and 3 delightful days on the island of Thassos ( midway between Thessaloniki and Istanbul ). Two of the three days offered up spectacular weather as we slowly made our way around the island camping, swimming, hiking and enjoying some local specialties. Lucky we were not any later in the season as many of the restaurants and stores were already closed. The upside, of course, was that we, along with what seemed to be only a handful of other campers, have the island just about to ourselves – absolutely delightful !

Alas, our next stop  lay just a few hours east of us – time to bid Thassos “adieu” and move on to…….Turkey !

Till next week…

In Case You Wondered:

Q: Your van’s AC electrical is 120v ( standard North American style ), but Europe ( like most of the world ) is 240v. How do you charge your leisure batteries when you “plug in”

A: We have not needed to plug in anywhere yet – with 700w of solar on the roof and a 40amp DC/DC charger we have been able to keep our 500amp LifePo leisure batteries nicely charged simply by driving and/or relying on solar.  In addition to our regular inverter/charger, we have an auxiliary (240v input ) 25amp charger ( with European plug ) that we can use to charge our batteries should they ever need topping up (in the event it’s not sunny AND we don’t drive for an extended period). Our system has served us very well so far.