Pella Archaeological Site

The car was waiting for us first thing in the morning at our hotel. It was nice that the rental company provided such nice service. We wanted to visit the old walls and the look out tower before leaving Thessaloniki as the Trigoniou tower is quite far from our hotel and too hilly to walk. It provided a panoramic view of the city. 

Afterward we drove to Pella to visit the archaeological site and then to Vergina to see the royal tomb. We missed breakfast and by the time we arrived at Pella, it was just before 11:00 am and according to the Greek culture, shops and restaurants were just opened. Pella is a VERY SMALL town. We look for a restaurant that had signs of open and saw a group of men sitting in one. As we approached them and asked to see if they have a lunch menu, one man spoke to us in Greek and said no one spoke English. It turned out that the restaurant only offered coffee and alcoholic drinks. There were only two other places that looked like restaurants and luckily, a woman came out and asked us what we needed. She then shouted to another woman across the street and asked if she was open for business. Unfortunately, this older woman only spoke a few words of English and since we don't speak Greek, it took us a bit of time to communicate. Despite the menu given to us and after figuring out what the Greek words meant on the menu, she told us that only chicken souvlaki was available for lunch. Had we known there was only 

tnone menu item, we would not have to spend the time to figure what each menu item meant. It was so funny how we had to communicate in two different languages. She was trying to ask how many skews of the chicken souvlaki we wanted for our plate and it took a bit of guessing and signs, but we finally understood each other. The meal was delicious. The Greek salad was much better than the one we tried last night. The chicken was tender, juice and tasty. 

The archaeological site was quite interesting. It offered a glimpse of what it was like in 330-320 BC during the height of Mecedonia. We also visited the tombs of Phillip II who was the father of Alexander the Great and his own son, Prince Alexander. 

The drive to Meteora was challenging. The route was full of twists and turns, up and down on a single lane with frequent extreme sharp turns.  Richard also had to drive during the late afternoon when our body was most tired due to jet lag as we had yet to adjust to the local time. There were a few close calls along the way!!  We made it safely to the hotel which is situated right in front of a few rock pillars. More explorations in the area tomorrow.