5/22/10 - Saturday - Phillip II tomb, Vergina, Edessa

5/22/10 - Saturday - Phillip II tomb, Edessa, Vergina

So, today we took a drive out to see the countryside. But first, the car was delivered. Really, I use the term car very loosely here. We received a Citroen Jumpy. This was actually rented as a 9 passenger vehicle. While it's true that there are 9 positions for butt placement, it definitely is NOT a 9 passenger van. In fact, I think it should be called the Jittery (I think I'll call it this from now on), because that's a more apt description of how it drove. The rental agent says it's new and just returned from a rental. No problem with "just returned" but a car with 147,000Km is NOT new. Oh and as a bonus it was the proud owner of a mushy and vague manual transmission.

But enough about the Jumpy for now...

We pile in and head out to see some sights. First off we head to Virgina to see the tomb of Phillip II (Alexander the Great's dad).
Along the way we pass a dam and decided to stop and take some pictures. Now may camera's batter is dead and I didn't have the charger or power adapter with me, so I took these on the phone. If they look cloudy it's because the phone camera is crappy. The weather was really nice.



Entrance to the tomb. Pictures inside were not allowed with or without flash. Here are some from other sources one, two, three, four, and an educational link for Chryselephantine sculptures (there were a whole bunch)

Now if you're in the neighborhood of Vergina, you have GOT to go see this. It's basically a tomb complex of kings, other royals and people of import at the time. The resources alone stored inside the tombs themselves are amazing.

These were not taken by me, but are a good representation.

Items found in the funeral pyre.

So, after seeing the historically significant, we moved on to Nousa to hang out at the local park for a bit.
That done, we moved on to Edessa for the waterfalls. (Picture not mine)
Having satisfied our love for nature (I didn't get any on me...) we enjoyed a nice lunch at the square before heading back to the hotel.

Some of the others wanted to go see Dimitris Mitropanos. I declined and walked the Ladadika. This was once the center for Olive oil trade for the area, but now is the home of many excellent restaurants, night clubs and tavernas. I found a nice little grill house, and had pork chops and a beer while watching the Inter-Milan VS Bayern match. IM won 2-0. After dinner, I walked a few Ks seeing the city and nightlife before heading back to the hotel for sleep.

Random thoughts:
Malaka count during my walk - 28.

That's all for now... Stay tuned...