A town called Stavros, and floods hit Macedonia

"Hello everybody peeps, Stavros 'ere". It was all I could think of as we headed for the town of Stavros: Harry Enfield's Greek kebab shop owner. We had spent an uneventful night in a car park at the far end of the beach in Stratoni, and after a drizzly walk around town and a trip to the bakery, we were ready to move on. It was a short 30 minute drive to the north-east edge of Halkidiki where miles of golden sand welcome thousands of visitors in summer, but most places are shuttered up in November. 

Cats are also on hand to help with the catch

We pulled into a parking spot by the Stavros harbour, next to a small Spanish camper, and hunkered down to watch the rain, the anglers and the occasional returning fishing boat unloading its catch. It was a good chance to catch up with some correspondence, and do some reading. A couple of short forays into the town had established that we couldn't even treat ourselves to lunch, unless we wanted little more than a cold roll. 

The next morning was only fractionally brighter, and my morning run involved several detours to avoid flooded roads. It stayed dry enough for a trudge along the beach with the dogs, and a brief visit to the wonderful Thursday market, with its ample supplies of fresh vegetables, fish and eggs, along with some of the random assortment of goods found at almost any market in the world. 

Stavros: It's not like this in the brochures

It was the end of our ten day trip around Halkidiki, which had given us a real chance to relax and take things easy after some longer days driving and trying to see as much as possible in Romania and Bulgaria on our way through. We'd decided to head back to the Thessalonika suburb of Kalamaria, where we had spent a couple of enjoyable nights two weekends before. If you had told me that one of my favourite overnight spots so far would turn out to be a patch of rough ground on the edge of a busy city I would have been highly sceptical. But for us it was the perfect place. Still fairly clean after our litter picking on the last visit, looking straight out to sea, and right next to the lovely waterfront walk into the centre. We were able to drive straight back into the place we had been before, and the sun came out to dry the puddles.

A multi-million pound development spot, one day

A stroll along Thessalonika's waterfront

First thing on Friday morning Nick jumped into a taxi with the laundry, while the pups and I went for a walk. Nick was back in time for lunch with clean laundry for us and the dogs. We'd discovered on our previous visit that Easy Wash has special washing machines and dryers for pet bedding, much to the dismay of Max and Elsa, who view clean bedding with something between suspicion and disgust. In the afternoon it was my turn to venture forth. 


We were on a mission to find a Greek data card, as Vodafone's website is still unable to process purchases of additional data once our monthly allowance runs out. We had failed to find a sim-only data card at the Cosmote shop in Polygiros (sold out), but Nick had found one in the shop near the laundrette - only he hadn't had his passport with him for the purchase. Neither of the Cosmote shops I walked to in Kalamaria stocked them (only in the summer) and I was starting to get a little weary of their attempts to get me to trade up. So after a little more research I discovered another cost effective offer from Greece's smallest provider, Wind. I was quickly and easily able to get a free sim-card, and just pay for the data I wanted loaded. I hurried back to the van to see if it would work in the mifi, and phew, it did. Result. 

We had each done some cleaning while the other was away from the van, and Florence's insides were looking better than they had in ages. We decided to treat ourselves to a meal out, as there was a restaurant with very good reviews about five minutes walk away. The reviews were justified, and after an excellent pork fillet and sea bass, with some good and very cheap local wine, we were back at the van before the pups had even missed us. 

The water garden

There's a song about this one...

Saturday dawned fine and warm, and after a lazy start we ambled the full length of the waterfront and back. While the beach resorts are now dormant, Thessalonika is a year round destination, and the area was bustling on this fine Saturday. The new waterfront is only six years old, and Lonely Planet calls it: "evidence that architecture can change the world by changing public space and improving daily urban life." The 3.5km walkway has a cycleway, path for people with visual impairments, an avenue of shady trees, water fountains (with dog bowls) and twelve gardens with a path linking each to the next. These include traditional rose and herb gardens, water gardens, native planting, and playgrounds. There is a pet friendly garden, and one laid out with street signs to help children learn road safety. There are cafés and restaurants, tennis and basketball courts, and a bike hire place. Max and Elsa met just about every dog in Thessalonika, we watched rowers training, tourist boats pootling around the harbour and souvenir stalls setting out their wares. Really, every city should have one.  

You should have seen the crew!

When we got back to the van we had chance to chat to a Polish motorhomer with a Chausson - same make as Florence but a van conversion. They had driven down through Serbia and were planning to leave their van in Greece and fly down to travel at intervals over the winter. It was good to share stories.

Soon it was time to leave, heading west towards the great archeological sites of Macedonia. We had planned to stay the night on a farm near Pella which had been recently added to Park4Night as a motorhome stopover. Unfortunately when we got there we were greeted by a sea of gloopy red mud. Three eager young men, a Brit and two Germans, were living on the farm and helping the owner to try to restore it. They did their best to find a way for us to park, but the floods which had swept through a couple of days before had made it impossible. One of the German lads kept saying: "You just can't stop the water." They were clearly upset at the state of the farm, but unable to know where to start with the clean up. At least we were able to tell them what needed doing to allow the next motorhome to arrive a chance of parking up, and we left them discussing how to achieve it.

We are just yards from his birthplace

There were few stopovers marked on the map in this area, so we decided to head into the small village of Pella, birthplace of Alexander the Great, and see what we could find. There were no car parks, except for the archaeological sites which banned parking out of hours. There was nowhere obvious in the town, but an old road on the edge has been blocked off at one end, and you find us tonight tucked up at the side of it where we shall be lulled to sleep by the sound of traffic passing a little way away. 

It was Saturday, so JWs at the White Tower

No rowing necessary in this one