24 October 2013 a trip to Methana and Trizina

It was a perfect morning, we took the small water taxi this morning from Poros, within 2 minutes we were across to the town of Galatas.

We started off for our excursion to the small peninsula of Methana, known for it's 32 volcanos!
Filled with forests of lemon, orange and olive groves, as well as grapevines going up to practically the top of the  mountains which were painstakingly terraced throughout.




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A lot of people visit Methana for medicinal purpose due to the volcanic actions which formed a number of hot springs and visit the area for hydrotherapy. There also are chlorine springs and springs with fresh water.

This area was involved in the Peloponesian war therefore there is a number of archeological sites also.

On the way into town,we passed by this wonderful beautiful church and the blue coloring of the domes definitely got our attention.  The grounds were spectacular with the trees, playground for children and the view of the sea.

We chose to start by driving first to the area were we would start our climb / hike up to the Kameni Hora (Burned town)  crater of the volcano.

It is located at an altitude of 1.500 feet high and it is very steep and extremely rocky after a certain point.

Ron and I had never climbed such a rocky terrain, the large boulders were not necessarily conveniently placed for two old fogies to get to the top, at one point I started questioning our judgment, were we out of our minds or what???

At last we reached the top and looked at each other in awe, unfortunately, we were not able to climb over a huge bolder to see down to the 190 foot deep crater!

Can you believe the moon over this so harsh landscape, it looks as if we were on Mars!

We found our way back down and took a very deep breath of relief and with tons of satisfaction of
our abilities got back to the car.



I must admit that on our way up, once we had a steady foot and were able to look up the view peering through the rocks and trees down to the sea and beyond all the small islands was unbelievable.

The ferns, cyclamens were covering the rocks all around us, the slow whisper of a slight breeze through the trees was such a joy.

We then went around the island over mountains and down to the water visiting villages that were small and quaint.

One can see the volcanic rocks just before the village below as if the village appeared after the lava cooled off!

This little boat was the only one on the water in a little bay near Vathi,
it looked somehow so special all by it's self, so simple and with hints of yesteryear.













As we reached a high point on the zig zag road coming down the mountain, we could see bellow all the way down the water, we saw a very small port that was completely protected so we drove down, only to find an adorable small village surrounding it with 3 restaurants with tables and chairs right by the dock.

We ordered a delightful lunch with fresh grilled fish and calamari with a Greek village salad.
The sun was warm and sweet, the water calm and two sailboats were dancing slowly in the port.

This is the entrance of the little port, only one boat could go in and out of it at a time.

Hard to leave I must say, we traveled back completing the circle of Methana, we then decided to
head back towards Galata and diverted on the way to the Ancient town of Trizina.

It was obvious by looking at these rock colors and formations that there was a lot of history of numerous minerals from years gone by. The colors reminded us of Sedona only the structure was not the smooth rock formation of the Southwest US.

We drove up to the top of another mountain about 600 ft above Trizina, we saw on the very top this immense and very impressive monastery. We could not go in as it was closed for another hour, a place we must come back to next year. We understand that 17 monks live there and they most likely have a great number of visiting Orthodox monks from the other countries.

The convent of the Mother of God Kecharitomene, “Full of Grace,” was founded joined with a male monastery dedicated to the Mother of God.

We went down to the forests of Trizina they were filled with citrus mostly lemon trees, their limbs were
so heavy with their fruit.

On our way to the gorge that is in Trizina we did see one of the antiquities which was a tower used in the 9th century as a defensive fortification, it was built with such large stones, we were able to get upstairs on it's higher level.

We could see the detail of it's structure and the beautiful views beyond.

As if the day was not exciting enough, these two spring chickens decided to walk up this ...other mountain top where we had been told there is a tremendous gorge filled with lush vegetation and water with waterfalls running through it. Well how could we miss this, we started up the steep path and headed towards the:

I am not sure if I was going much more slowly at that point or was I just out of the energy I had earlier this morning. 

These two sycamore trees were breath taking, it is my favorite tree and they both looked like they had so much history, just look at these trunks!

We were able to hear the water running very far down bellow our feet practically, we peaked down to the gorge and we could not see the end, we arrived at the Devil's Bridge (which is a man made bridge that straddles the gorge), it was a wonderful view of the

waterfall and river bellow. We used our weak telephoto to just give you a hint. The water at that point must have been at least 100 feet bellow.

It is not spring but these two beauties were the perfect ending to a spectacular experience and day for us both.