The Kingdom of Basil the Bulgar Slayer - Macedonia.
We are now in Macedonia in Northern Greece whose favourite son, Basil the Bulgar Slayer, is not a character from "Captain Pugwash" (unlike Shag the dog, Roger the cabin boy, Master Bates and Seaman Staines) he really did exist in Byzantine times and is still revered here .
 
Neos Marmaras.
Neos Marmaras is a newish beach resort with excellent beaches and beautiful views all around. However it is a singularly ugly and noisy place - quiet during the day but with discos going on till 4 or 5am. We moored on the wave break pontoon on the outside of the harbour. When we arrived there were three boats on it (it could take about twenty. For the rest of our stay we were the only boat on it. There is a small, crowded and anarchic marina with one pontoon for yachts. Every visiting yacht either went on it or risked the wrath of the fishing boats and went on the fish quay where they were often kicked off of when the fishing boats returned in the wee small hours.
 
Despite it's ugliness and noise Neos Marmaras is a friendly place totally devoted to tourism. The punters seemed mostly young Greeks with a smattering of Northern Europeans. It has a couple of good cheap supermarkets, internet cafes and inexpensive tavernas. We were really only interested in using it as a base for exploring Thessalonica and the surrounding areas of Macedonia .
 
The Royal Tombs and Thessalonica - City of Basil the Bulgar Slayer
On Monday we hired a car so that we could have a two days to see Thessalonica and a couple of historic sites nearby.
 
After a leaving Tiercel at 05.30 on Tuesday we drove to the Royal Tombs at Vergina (a name almost designed to be used as a double entendre. It is therefore pronounced fayrgeena, probably in order to prevent this) to the burial mound of the father (Phillip the Second of Macedonia) and son of Alexander the Great. We didn't have great expectations of the site and these seemed to be confirmed when we arrived at 08.00 and couldn't even find anywhere to get a coffee.
 
The site was poorly signposted and, when we found it, we were the only visitors there. However, we persisted, paid the entrance fee, walked inside the burial mound and were absolutely gobsmacked by the amazing tombs and displayed finds.
 
The burial chambers are underneath the mound and the whole thing is displayed in subdued lighting. Each of the chambers with its exquisite marble entrance and paintings (still in their original colours) is approached down a set of specially constructed steps . The finds from the tombs are beautifully displayed and - this is a real novelty in Greece - explained .
 
The 4 chamber Tombs were opened in 1977 and, two of them were found to be undisturbed since they were built in the 4th century BC. The burial chambers of Phillip 2nd and his grandson were both undisturbed and were still full of the burial offerings including fabulous gold oak leaf wreaths, the marble sarcophagus in which were contained the cremated remains of the deceased along with many treasures which are now on display at the site.
 
Among the finds are carved ivory heads of Phillip and the young Alexander the Great. These are assumed to be reasonably lifelike representations. Thus we can say that we have looked upon Alexander the Great. A truly awe inspiring experience. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos in the tombs so cannot let you see the splendour of them.
 
For an hour and a half we were the only visitors on the whole site. However, as we were leaving, the first coaches started appearing and a bleary eyed taverna owner actually served us some coffee .
 
From here we drove to the site of Ancient Pella the capital of Macedonia in the 4th century BC. It is the site of considerable excavations and has some beautifully preserved pebble mosaics.
 
After leaving Pella we drove, in increasingly denser traffic to Greeces 2nd city - Thessalonica birthplace of Basil the Bulgar Slayer - I just love writing that name!
 
As we approached the city the traffic reached gridlock proportions but still managed to travel quite fast - is there such a thing as a 50mph gridlock?. On reaching the centre we discovered that Thessalonica has a major problem - millions of cars and no parking. We drove around for over an hour in seriously dodgy traffic trying to find parking. It is said that in certain parts of London one has to be born in a parking space t o get one. However, in Thessalonica one has to be conceived, carried and born in a space if one is to be successful.
 
The first impression one gets of Thessalonika (AKA Thessaloniki, Salonika)is of a dusty, noisy, polluted and traffic jammed metropolis . However, as we walked around the city and got used to these problems a different city started to emerge. It has lovely green areas as well as an amazing range of historic sites and monuments. To detail these here would be impossible. Suffice it to say that whilst walking from the Rotunda - a Roman built place of worship which, over the centuries since, has seen service as a Byzantine church, a Mosque a meeting place and a Greek Orthodox church - we passed a Roman Archway followed by an excavated Roman Emperor's palace and finally reached the seafront where we arrived at an Ottoman tower.
 
In its past Salonika has seen huge cultural changes and, in Ottoman times and up until the second world war had very diverse ethnic communities in which, generally Greeks were in the minority. It is a city in which the various races got along OK despite the appalling Ottoman bureaucracy. Generally the Jews were the largest group in the city until it was taken by the Nazis in 1941 and they were mostly transported away and systematically murdered at Auschwitz .
 
Nowadays it is a very modern city with a strong café culture and some of the best restaurants in Greece. In the evening we sat in a café bar having dinner when we noticed that an African guy was wandering around selling pirate CDs. We fell into conversation with this delightful character with a huge smile and about a hectare of uncontrolled wiry hair springing from his head. He told us that he had been in Greece for 3 years since illegally getting here from Nigeria. We asked him how things were going for him now and he said "When I learned to survive the hate things started going OK". Needless to say we bought a few CDs at around €5 each (they are £5 in the Barras in Glasgow).
 
The next morning, after a breakfast of fresh orange juice and Greek coffee we strolled through the streets again and visited the Ayia Sofia Greek Church and discovered another underground church devoted to John the Baptist which was centred on an old Roman fountain.
 
At lunchtime we braved the traffic, extracted the car form a car park and headed back to the noisy, brash seaside 'delights' of Neos Marmaras . On the journey back we reflected on the fact that we had seen only a small percentage of the sights of Thessalonica and that we would have to return. This city is a must see and needs at least 3 days to actually do it justice.
 
Porto Koufo
On Friday we left Neos Marmaras to head for the natural harbour of Porto Koufo which was used as an axis submarine base in the second world war. One approaches it via a gap in the high cliffs through which one arrives at a nearly enclosed bay at the north endo of which is the port. After Anchoring in these picturesque surroundings we had lunch and were delighted to see yacht "Boreal" anchor alongside us with Alain and Marie-Christine aboard. We hadn't seen them since Mithymnos. Over afternoon tea on Boreal we discovered that they were taking the same route as us but in the opposite direction. Thus we were able to exchange information about ports, anchorages etc.
 
Mount Athos Peninsula and Gina Gets Warned by the Coastguard to Stay away from Monks.
Saturday morning saw us up and away at 0530 heading off on a 50 mile journey around the Mount Athos Peninsula AKA the Monks Republic . After an unfortunate incident in the 11th century involving monks and shepherdesses an edict was enacted in Greek law forbidding all women and nearly all female animals to travel within one mile of this sacred peninsula. We had been told that it was no longer enforced unless one attempted to land something female on the coast here.
 
As we approached the bottom corner of this beautiful, rugged area we were approached by a Hellenic Coastguard rib. The occupants (4 of them) studied us carefully and, after ascertaining that we had a woman on board (Gina was wearing a baseball cap and fairly masculine clothing at the time and Rob has a beard) warned us to alter course to stay further out to sea. It is beyond reason that a Coastguard rib with 4 employees aboard is used to uphold an 11th century law designed to prevent medieval monks disporting themselves with shephedesses and presumably ewes. In those days up to 20,000 monks lived here but now there are less than 2000. Not the best use of coastguard time one would imagine!!
 
So we continued a couple of hundred yards further out and watched the coastguard buzz up and down the 20 mile stretch of coast keeping an eye on ourselves and one other yacht 4 miles ahead of us .
 
This rather blighted our opinions of the Monk's Peninsula but one cannot deny the austere beauty of some of the medieval monsteries and monastic communities sited around Mount Athos. Some hang improbably of precipitous cliffs. Many of these were built in the 11th to 13th centuries and, whilst some are virtually unchanged others have been restored and 'improved'. Parts of the peninsula look like construction sites and some of the restored monastic buildings now resemble 5 star resort hotels, some have been beautifully and sympathetically restored whilst others are a hybrid of medieval and modern looking rather like a double glazing salesman's wet dream.
 
The presence of the coastguard meant that we couldn't anchor in an unofficial anchorage at the base of the peninsula. Many yachts use this bay without problems although friends of ours were kicked out of it last year for hanging up a bikini, ah well, such is life among the merry monks of Mount Athos!!
 
Neos Peramos
After a disturbed night on a rolly anchorage, a few miles North, we sailed on Sunday to Neos Peramos, a small brash modern resort in a beautifully enclosed bay . From early evening it is the haunt of young Greeks grooving the night away but, during the day it is taken over by groups of older Greeks who, resplendent in their bathing costumes and hats stand around, chest deep in the sea, chattering and laughing loudly. Many seem to be looking after their grand, children whilst the parents sleep off the previous night's excesses. It really is a delightful place to spend time sitting in a taverna people watching.
 
We anchored at the North end among the wild birds and reeds for a couple of nights before sailing across to the beautiful, verdant isle of Thassos of which more in the next episode of our travels!!