Greece - Korina Miller [171]
Best Western Hotel Europa International ( 26240 22650; mains €10-15; lunch & dinner) Familiar Greek dishes and vegies (from the family farm) and grilled meats deserves a laurel or two. The taverna is set under olive trees and vines (open June to September).
Self-caterers will find a good supermarket near the Shell petrol station.
Getting There & Away
BUS
There is no direct service from Olympia to Athens. Eight or so of the 16 buses (reduced schedule on Sunday) go via Pyrgos (€1.90, 30 minutes) and allow time to connect for services to Athens (Click here). From Olympia, there are also buses east to Tripoli (€11.10, three hours, at least two daily) and to Dimitsana (€6.50, 2½ hours) on Monday and Friday; on all other days, it goes to Karkalou, about 5km from Dimitsana. From here you could try your luck for a lift, or take a taxi. For these services, buy your ticket in advance from the small KTEL Arkadia outlet situated on the main street, one block before the church.
TRAIN
Train services from Olympia head to Pyrgos only – there are five local departures daily (€1, 30 minutes). From Pyrgos, you can catch connections to other destinations. Note: to get to Athens, you take the train from Pyrgos (via Diakofto) and change to the proastiako at Kiato.
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ANDRITSENA ΑΝΔΡIΤΣΑΙΝΑ
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The village of Andritsena, situated 65km southeast of Pyrgos, hovers on a hillside overlooking the valley of the Alfios River. Crumbling stone houses, some with rickety wooden balconies, flank the village’s narrow cobbled streets and a stream gushes and bubbles its way through the central square, Plateia Agnostopoulou. Keep an eye out for the fountain emerging from the trunk of a huge plane tree. Andritsena makes an appealing base from which to visit the magnificent Temple of Epicurean Apollo at Vasses, a World Heritage–listed site, located some 14km away from the village.
Information
An ATE Bank ATM and the post office ( 7.30am-2pm Mon-Fri) are near the central square.
Sights
NIKOLOPOULOS ANDRITSENA LIBRARY
You don’t need to be a reader to appreciate the stunning legacy of Nikolopoulos at this library ( 26260 22242; admission free; 8.30am-3pm Tue-Sat). In 1838 he donated 4000 rare books – then one of Europe’s largest private collections, including a book from 1502 and a 1657 Bible with rare binding – to his father’s home town to establish a school. The nearby village of Stemnitsa donated another 4000 books and today the collection is on display, along with manuscripts from Greece’s 1821 independence movement. Don’t miss the short explanatory video in English. The library is housed above the town’s lending library behind Hotel Theoxenia.
FOLK MUSEUM
This much advertised, but rarely open Folk Museum ( 11am-2pm & 6-8pm) contains a quaint collection of local items from furniture to traditional clothing.
TEMPLE OF EPICUREAN APOLLO AT VASSES
Situated 14km from Andritsena, on a wild, isolated spot overlooking rugged mountains and hills, the World Heritage–listed Vasses with its Temple of Epicurean Apollo ( 26260 22275; adult/concession €3/2; 8am-8pm), is one of Greece’s most romantic and atmospheric archaeological sites. The road from Andritsena climbs along a mountain ridge, taking you through increasingly dramatic scenery, until you arrive at the temple, which stands at an altitude of 1200m.
The striking and well-preserved temple is robbed of some of its splendour and immediate visual impact by the giant (and semipermanent) steel-girded tent enclosing it, as it undergoes a superslow restoration program, but it’s magnificent all the same.
The temple was built in 420 BC by the people of nearby Figalia, who dedicated