We are early into port again today – way early.  We weren’t supposed to be here until 8 and we’re hard alongside before 6am.  This captain is definitely an early bird.  Let’s hope this continues all the way through Cannes where it will be extremely important for us if we are to catch the early ferry we want.  At any rate, we’re here and trying to figure out exactly where “here” is.  We are at the far pier, we know that, but we can’t figure out exactly which one – B or C?  There are 3 ships here docked in front of us, which is confusing, until we finally get up and go to the Starboard side and see the Quest behind us in C – so now we know we are in B.  Which means a much longer walk to the Hertz/Thrifty office, which stinks.  It is either that or a taxi, so – we’re walking.

Since we docked early, it means the ship is cleared early and we can get off way before we anticipated.  We end up making it to the Hertz office before 8am – the walk is a lot quicker than it looks – chat with the rental agent who is a skier and approves of our plans to go to the mountain (although he does look a little quizzically at us when we tell him that is our destination – then he says, ah, I should have guessed from the attire – well, sort of – I have on my zip of pants, but Ed only has on shorts, so…..who knows!) and are packed away in our cute little Panda (I REALLY want one of these cars!!!) and on the road before 8:30.  Smooth.

And today proves much smoother than our Heraklion day, thank God.  The drive to Parnitha mountain and the Mpafi refuge area, is easy by comparison.  City roads. Highways.  State roads into the mountains.  It is hard driving once we are in the refuge, with switchbacks and steep drop offs down the rugged mountainsides, but it is still nothing like Crete.  At least the roads are paved.

Climbing higher and higher, the views become better and better – we can see all the way across the sprawling city out to the ocean.  There are a few pull outs along the road, but mostly on the other side, making the decision to stop for photos easy – we’ll do it on the way back down the mountain.  Plus, as it is early on a Saturday morning, there is no one on these roads and we’d like to go as far as we can in the morning quiet before the weekend crowds descend. 

Switchback after switchback finally brings us to our destination – the Mpafi-Parnitha Mountain refuge, a hotel and restaurant perched on the edge of a rocky cliff at approximately 4,000 feet of elevation.  There is a parking lot here with trails to hike, as well as the aforementioned hotel/restaurant.  Since we didn’t stop for our morning cappuccino in town, we figured we’d do that here.  Also, while it was slightly chilly and windy in town, it is super chilly (as in cold) and windy up here.  The temperature reads at 52 degrees, but with the wind?  We’re going to say in the low 40’s.  It is wicked. And we are definitely not appropriately dressed for this kind of cold.  (Which we figured when everyone we have passed has on puffy coats and sweaters with hoodies and long pants and scarves – yeah – miscalculated that one!).

There is a rugged path leading up out of the parking lot with a sign pointing in the direction of the hotel and restaurant, reminding us very much of our “café” sign in Paros.  We’re thinking, yeah, sure, but after a short climb up the hill, indeed there is the hotel/restaurant, which is adorable.  The restaurant itself has a huge stone patio overlooking the valleys, past the casino, out toward Athens, which you just know is jam packed in warmer weather.  The inside of the restaurant is homey and woodsy, all wooden tables, long benches and a ski lodge motif. We order our cappuccino and warm up while sipping on the lovely sweet caffeinated brew. 

Rested and warmed, we brave the winds and head out to the patio for photos of the gorgeous vistas.  Everywhere you look is more beautiful than the next.

Deciding to take our chances, we strike off on a path near the car in search of the Monument of Sarakatsani Shepherds, which should be close, but once out in the wilderness, we think better of wandering around these woods.  A) it is cold.  B) we’ve no clue where we are, and the paths are a little less than well marked.  Actually they branch off in many places, making it impossible to follow and the last thing we want to do is get lost in the woods of Parnitha.  Regardless of that little fact, it is a lovely walk through the woods – and when the sun is shining it is actually almost bearable out here in the wind.

Even though it is still really early, we decide to reverse course and head back downhill, hoping to stop along the way for some walking along the myriad of trails accessed from the side of the road.  There still isn’t too much traffic, except for the crazy bikers.  Holy cow – talk about stamina! 

Detouring at the casino turn off, we wind our way up to the windy and desolate cliff where the massive – but apparently defunct – casino sits.  It’s weird.  There is a cable car you can take to the casino – and it is definitely running, we saw it – but there is no one up here and all the access ways to the casino are fenced and blocked off. Hmmmm.  Glad we weren’t planning on using the facilities or eating here. 

Makes for good photos though.  You can see all the way back to the refuge as well as up to the top of the mountain and the tower (that we still have no idea what it is or does).  You can also see out to the Sanatorium – now closed and dilapidated. 

The landscape up here is interesting because it changes as you drive.  Beginning as forest and widely space pines, the higher you go, the more moonscape-ish it becomes – as is evidenced by the pictures from the casino – you can see for miles with only scrub in the distance. 

Further down in our drive, we come to the one downhill turn where we saw deer before, and lo and behold, they are still here, right alongside the road.  Somebody must feed them here in the grassy area next to an abandoned house or hotel.  They are way too tame and almost domesticated to not be fed by humans. As we drive by, we can see that there is an occupied house tucked away behind a stone walkway, which is probably where the food comes from, and why the deer are here.  Regardless, it is still cool to see them just milling around, looking at the people and the cars as they pass.

Instead of going straight down the mountain, we end up on another detour which puts us out in the middle of nowhere (but on nice paved roads thank you) where we can park the car and walk a bit. It is beautiful and quiet here, with a couple of houses dotting the ridges in the distance. Here we spot the weirdly stunted, prickly Quercus Coccifera oak bushes.  We’ve never seen anything like it before.  Short stubby bushes with big elongated acorns.  Totally wild.  And as we progress through our walks, we start to notice them everywhere. 

While it is gorgeous up here, it is also super windy and cold up here.  Which cuts our walk short as we hustle back to the car for some warmth.  Still a lovely little diversion – but that wind.  Phew.

Now we wend our way downward, passing the Sanatorium, stopping at every pull out we can taking pictures upon pictures upon pictures.

The best place is on an “S” curve where we can pull over under a tree and then walk to the edge of the roadway.  Here you can see the city sprawl – and we mean sprawl – stretching out from the base of the mountain all the way to the Saronic Gulf.  It is just an incredible sight – on one side of the road, urban sprawl, on the other craggy mountainside and pine trees (since we are obviously now below the tree line).  

As we descend, the traffic coming uphill is amazing.  On the way up we never saw a car, now?  Holy cow, there will be no place to park – anywhere up there. And if these people are all going to the refuge? That place will be hopping, for sure.  Even though it will be warmer in the afternoon, we are so happy we had the mountain virtually to ourselves – deer notwithstanding.

Leaving the mountain preserve, it is still too early to eat, but we luck into a parking area on the side of the road that looks like it has a trail head.  What the heck? Worth a try.  Leaving the car we walk through some scrub and find ourselves in a huge cleared space with just a mound of dirt in the middle.  We can’t quite figure out what it is – an old building site that has been cleared maybe?  Don’t know, it’s odd, but it is an open – and fairly warm – place to walk, and it leads to a fire road that winds it way around the hills and valleys here. 

It appears the fire road follows a man-made watershed – we are guessing the snow melt and heavy rains create such a flow off the mountains this has been created to try to contain the water. And maybe the big open area is a watershed too?  Doubtful we’ll ever know – but it makes for a nice walk and lots of scenic picture taking.

Close to noon, we leave the walking trails and head down into the little resort town of Amigdaleza outside of Archarnes.  Here there are numerous event venues lining the road (10 or more that we can see) along with restaurants and hotels providing us with a plethora of choices for lunch.  Except not all of them are open. As a matter of fact, most of them aren’t.  Doing a little quick research, we settle on a place called Tavern Vlachos which Google claims is open at noon.  With only a couple of wrong turns (once not going far enough to find it, and once pulling into the restaurant right next to it) we finally arrive – the first customers, but yes indeed, they are open. 

We choose to sit on the patio – because why not? Even though windy, it is still nice enough to sit outside.  The waiter doesn’t necessarily agree, and I’m sure is thinking “crazy Americans,” but he obliges and we hang out in the sunshine (and occasional gusts of wind) perusing the menu.  The restaurant is so pretty with the lovely patio – with the dying vines overhead that were probably beautiful in the summer – and a cozy interior of stone and wood with a big fire place.

The menu holds a huge assortment of items – and our eyes, as always are bigger than stomachs!  We end up ordering way too much – but what can we say?  I have a “glass” of wine – which I have no idea how much it costs because a litre is 8 euros (yes, a whole litre), and this ends up coming in an adorable little quarter-litre pitcher and is excellent.  Ed of course orders his beer and then we gorge ourselves on beet salad (4 euros for more beets than you can eat in one sitting), Cheese pies (5 delectable fried cheese turnovers), Saganaki (fried cheese) and sausage (which even I like but cannot finish to save my soul). Oh and bread. Of course there is bread.  Sigh.  And we were trying to eat light because we have Moderno (the Brazilian steakhouse) tonight.  Yikes!!

Oh well – beets are good for you at least……And the price?  25 euros for the whole darn thing.  Greece.  Gotta love certain areas……

Totally full, we hop back in the car and head for the port.  Another easy drive back, until we there is a wreck on the highway and we hit massive traffic that the GPS routes us around – but we still end up in it anyway.  And even though we detoured we still can’t find a gas station along the way.  We know there is one right in town, so we figure we’ll just hit that one.

After the wreck traffic it is smooth sailing. The only glitch being that the gas station we need is on a one way street out of town and we need to circle, which isn’t a problem – heck we’ve been to Piraeus enough we feel like we know the place. The GPS doesn’t like it, but tough noogies.  We fill up, have a little confusion on how to pay because we want to pay by card, but the attendant says we have to go to the car park and go inside – we’re thinking, no, we don’t want to go to any car park – so I say we’ll pay cash and hand him a 50.  He says ok, wait and goes inside. But as we sit there and watch, apparently the “car park” he was talking about are the parking spaces across from us. The process is obviously to get the gas, go park in the spaces so you don’t block the gas pump and go and pay. Oh, oops.  Sorry.  He comes back with the cash quickly enough though and we are off – across 3 lanes of traffic, making a right turn onto the main street that will bring us back to Hertz.

Easy Peasy.  Depositing the car with our rental agent, we walk back to the ship, stopping to snap a picture of the Lion at the port gate (the mascot of Piraeus), turning down a street vendor with everything you could ever want for in his little shopping bag and hopping back aboard until we sail at 6, waving goodbye to Quest as she sets sail on her Arabic voyage, then snapping photos of the coast as we make our way out into the Aegean sea on our way to Mykonos.