A few more pictures from Greece

We spent most of our time on the water in Greece, but we spent two nights in Spartahori and had a sight seeing day in Ithaca, so here are a few land pictures.

Spartahori is a city above the boat harbor.  

There are a few cars but for the most part the streets are narrow and paved with flagstone.

We saw several older women still dressed in traditional black walking the streets, but it didn't feel quite right taking their photo, so we took ours instead.

 The churches are Greek Orthodox, as you would expect, and look exotic to me.  I like Byzantine art but Calvin is not a great fan.

We saw this tiny church as we paddled along the shore of Kalamos.  It is abandoned now and in a sad state of repair. But I thought that it was a lovely setting for a church.

On our sightseeing day on Ithaca we started at the Kathatra monastery.  I was a rainy cloudy day, which made cool shots of the monastery, but wasn't great for seeing the fantastic views from the top of the island.

There is just one monk left at the monastery and we didn't see him on our visit, but the chapel was well maintained and had beautiful stained glass.

 Notice the ship in front of this window.  This is a sea faring land.

We have a group picture at the monastery that gives some idea of the views.

And a picture of us that doesn't really show the view.

After the monastery we visited the town of Anogi with its famous church.  Parts of it were possibly built in the thirteenth century, but the majority of the murals were painted in the sixteenth century.

The exterior of the church was not much to see, but there was a lovely bell tower. All of the bell towers are separate from the church buildings proper,

Calvin, not a fan of Byzantine art, spent most of his time on a bench outside.

Anogi was once the capital of Ithaca, but today only about 100 people live there, but they do have a heliport.

We visited  an impressive one room museum in Stavros with a collection dating from the third millenium BC to Roman times.  Outside there was a very impressive olive tree that has clearly been around a while.

We stayed in Vathi and enjoyed evening strolls along the waterfront to dinner

and a  few other memorable spots.

Even Lord Byron made it to Ithaca.

If you don't read Greek the translation is at the bottom.