A strange day. An early start in the hope of getting to Lamia before midday and we soon crossed the hugely impressive new bridge between the Peloponnese and northern Greece. However the satnav in its infinite wisdom thought that we would enjoy the central part of northern Greece rather than the fast coast road. And we did, with the most spectacular scenery on the trip so far. Towering peaks, some with the last vestiges of snow in their highest gullies, and deep gorges with single track roads serpentining up over mountains and down into gullies with 1,000-year-old monasteries and towers built during the 1830’s war of independence. At one point the satnav told us to go up a piddling little road rather than the substantial looking double track road so, knowing better than the satnav, I took the bigger road. After winding through a number of tiny villages, it finally declined into a narrow dirt track, and we decided to reverse with a several-thousand-foot drop on the right. Did a 10-point turn and finally returned the way we had come. A motorcyclist passed us then stopped, so we told him we were lost and he told us exactly how to get to Lamia, even stopping at the next crossroads and waiting for us to show us the way.
Next crisis: we drove mile after mile with no filling stations until the van was down to its last 5 miles of diesel. Passed the town of Agioi Gheorgias, unique in Greece for not having a filling station, and began to argue about who should hitch-hike with a can to the next station if we finally ran out of fuel. Jennifer wanted to go because she rekoned no-one would stop for a scruffy old git like me. The engine was just starting to choke and wheeze when we turned a corner and there, in the middle of nowhere, were not one but two filling stations.
We filled up with diesel and water and got the tyres checked then drove on through Lamia to the Pass of Thermopylae where, in 480 BC, an army of 7,000 under the command of King Leonidas I of Sparta tried to hold the pass against a Persian army said by Heroditus to number 2,641,610. The Persians forced a way through and attacked the Spartans from the rear with only two of them surviving. There is an impressive bronze statue of Leonidas opposite the burial mound of the soldiers who died here.
A short distance to the east is the hot sulphur spring after which Thermopylae got its name. The place has a disgusting bad egg stink, but the water is very hot and is said to have curative powers. We saw people swimming in it.
We continued towards Larissa and spent the night at a huge service station where we got some Ad-Blue from a pump at a fraction of the price of the stuff sold in plastic bottles, and ate at a cafe full of people watching a football match. I had delicious moussaka and Jennifer had tasteless chicken and pasta which gave her a violent attack of the shits the next day. Generous to a fault, I gave her half of my moussaka. We had a carafe of wine each and it was delicious.