Greetings and welcome to my next adventure, Greece! My flights and connections here all went surprisingly smooth. I landed in Thessaloniki, got a tiny rental car, and immediately drove almost two hours southwest to the small village of Litochoro. I had a specific reason for coming so far out of my way on day one, but more on that in a bit. I got a good night’s rest and then started exploring the area. Get prepared for lots of ancient cities because Greece has lots of them. First up and just a bit north of Litochoro is Dion.

The city of Dion has been around since at least the 4th century BC. I started my day at the museum where all the good stuff really is. The mosaics above were found remarkably intact and transferred here for conservation. Also, one of the oldest musical instruments ever found was discovered right here. The hydraulis, seen below, was a bronze water organ. Seems pretty advanced for the 3rd century BC.

The site itself was mostly just foundations, but there were some interesting bits. The Cardo, or the main street, was really cool, as were the thermal baths that had heated floors.

It may have been just because of the flooding, but the most atmospheric of the ruins was the Sanctuary of Isis. The whole city was built around a natural spring that still provides cool fresh water to this day.

Near the Sanctuary of Isis I spotted some unexpected wildlife. After some internet sleuthing I discovered it’s a coypu. They’re native to South America, but were introduced here to manage some of the aquatic plant life in the 1960’s. Now they’re a full blown invasive nuisance. It’s basically a giant rat.

Built after it’s Macedonian heyday, but no less impressive is the remains of the Roman Theatre. There was also another Hellenistic Theatre, but it seemed like it had been too modernized for my taste.

Litochoro is situated right at the base of Mt Olympus, home of the Greek Gods, and the foothills around the mountain are really beautiful. I took some time to do one hike in particular that starts from the Ancient St Dionysios Monastery.

The monastery was established back in 1542, largely destroyed by the Germans in 1943, and is now in a very slow process of restoration. It was a really idyllic place high up on the slopes of this uber famous mountain.

From the monastery I hiked up to the Enipeas Waterfall. As you can see, autumn is just setting in. There are lots of beautiful red and golden trees all over the place.

I started this trip in Litochoro because I was intending to climb Mt Olympus and was hoping to get here before the winter weather really set in. I didn’t quite make it. It was looking like it was just going to be two solid days of walking in freezing rain and snow and I wasn’t enthusiastic at all. So I decided to just move on. The Gods will have to be better hosts if they want to meet me. Ha! So, on my way out of Litochoro, I stopped at the village of Vergina to see the ruins of Aigai, the ancient Macedonian capital.

There are two giant museums here. The first was a museum more about Macedonian culture and the city of Aigai overall. There were a lot of artifacts found all over the area.

There are a lot of different burial mounds in the area being excavated, but the most significant is the tomb of King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. Alexander spared no expense when it came to his father’s send off. Now they’ve just built an entire museum displaying the artifacts found in the tomb and around the tomb itself.

As for the other tombs in the area, there wasn’t much to see. There wasn’t a whole lot left of the Royal Palace of Aigai either, but what was left was really awesome. This has been a great warm up for the next few months.

Well, the start of my Greek adventure had some initial highlights, and one big disappointment. I never even got to see Mt Olympus, let alone climb it. I’m just getting started though. Now I’m off to my second stop, which should be a quick one so don’t go nowhere…