Greece - Day 9 (Wed. 9/4/24)

 

Beautiful sunrise before we left the hotel. 

Took the ferry back to the mainland and drove several hours to a mountain village called Ioannina. We crossed the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, which was built for the 2004 Athens Olympics. It was very expensive to build, and it cost 70 Euro to drive the bus over it.

We arrived at our very fancy hotel, which you could tell used to be spectacular back in its heydey, but it felt like we were there during the off season. The dinner buffet was amazing though, and the hotel had a little "farm" behind it that I wandered through and picked and ate fresh cherry tomatoes. There were so many of them that some were rotting on the vine. There were also a couple sad cages of chicken and pigeons and a stray cat who ran away from me.

This hotel had a bear in the lobby. He was just the right size for hugging, so I hugged him every time I went by.

There was a gorgeous pool but there were thunderstorms circling so it was closed.
And here was my favorite part of this hotel. Mike found it for me in the hotel restaurant, whose doors were closed (but thankfully not locked) late at night, so I played this wonderful baby grand digital piano for a long time. I got up early and played it again before breakfast.