Breakfast was sheep cheese and bread with an instant type coffee. The sweet cake we tucked away for later in the day. We spent today exploring.the area. The roads are excellent and wind around the canyons and mountains to each small town. The towns come from the 17th and 18th century and were built to offer protection from intruders- namely the Turks. Towns were made dDifficult to access, within view of each other, hard to spot on the mountain sides..all of this kept the area inaccessible until the 20th century and protected the natural heritage. So this is one of the most wonderful national parks of Greece and a Unesco World Heritage Site. The Gorge is the deepest in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. We explored an old monastery perched on the side of a rocky cliff, viewed the canyon from several lookouts- all spectacular. We traveled a road with 20 hairpins turns to reach Mikro Papago...and marvelled at the beauty of the place. The lower hills were covered in the beautiful soft green of spring, punctuated by the magenta of redbud trees and the white blossoms of another tree. This place is a jewel...both the natural beauty and the amazing small towns whose only lifeline is tourism.
We moved on along the autobahn to Metsovo. The Olympic hotel is our home for tonight and it is snowing and cold...why did I leave the mitts in Canada? We hope the weather is better tomorrow..
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