Halkidiki to The Hot Springs

Halkidiki

Halkidiki looked beautiful, it was somewhere I really wanted to go. The pictures I’d seen were all of beautiful beaches and turquoise seas. It is known for having sandy beaches in beautiful bays.

It has 3 peninsulas that jutt out. I believe the western most one is the most developed.

We initially headed to a park up that had been recommended to us. It was on the first ‘finger’ of the peninsula. We tried to get down there in our van but it was a very muddy dirt track type of road. We didn’t want to risk it so we moved to the next ‘finger’ to a place called Neos Marmaris. We had a great park up right on the beach, it was literally only a few steps to the sea, as you can see in the photo on the left below.

I swam and I also took part in a 10 day challenge of 10 minutes of fitness a day. I’ve actually managed to keep this up and am still doing 10 minutes of strength or HIT training about 5 days a week and I’m practising yoga most days.

We stayed here for 2 nights. We walked around the bay and stopped for drinks on our first night. It was a beautiful spot and there was some lovely sunsets.

There was also a great sunrise as you can see below, taken from our park up.

On our 2nd day we went for a cycle ride around and through the town . Not everything was open yet as it was still early in the season . It looked like everyone was getting ready for the start of the summer though.

We did manage to stop for a really nice lunch though overlooking the harbour. If you look at the first photo you can see Jovanna in the distance.

On the day we were leaving another British van arrived. They owned a house in Crete and were actually on their way back to the UK. They were from Cambridge. We sat and chatted to them for a while.

It turned out she was a swimmer so for the first time in ages I had someone to swim with. And, as you can see we had buoys to swim to!

Back home in Brighton the swimming buoys come out in the summer and everyone always gets excited when we see them as we can swim to them and its a sign that summer is on it’s way

Whenever I see buoys in the sea I love it because it’s something too aim for and it also reminds me of the buoys back home.

The Abandoned Greek baths of Loutra Eletheron-Hot Springs

This was probably the weirdest park up we’ve ever been to! We arrived quite late as we’d spent quite a long time talking to the people we’d met at our last park up.

I’d been told about this place and given the location from someone I’d been chatting to on instagram. It’s an abandoned spa hotel, it’s just off the sea front on the road from Thessaloniki to Kavala.

As you get nearer all the trees and vegetation is really overgrown, then you see an old rusty gate. When you drive through the gate you are in another world! Lots of derelict abandoned buildings with graffiti over them. A few cars and vans scattered around.

We parked and went for a wander it was very eerie. We noticed quite a few places where you could bathe in the hot springs.

I went and got changed and went in one of them, it was situated over a river. Dee decided to wait for the following day.

As you can see total contrast with nature and the derelict buildings.

I have tried to find out some more info about the place including why and when it closed but there is very little info available it seems!

According to Wikipedia it seems, that the thermal springs have been known since antiquity.

The oldest building is the Ottoman bath house which dates back to the end of the 18th Century. It was apparently a spa town but now completely abandoned! Why?!

We only went in one of the buildings.

The one we went in still had baths in cubicles but also lots of rubble. I’m guessing this may have been the Ottoman bath house? I didn’t like it in there, it was very creepy! I didn’t want to go in any other buildings after that!

It was hard to work out what the buildings once were, except the one that had ‘restaurant’ written above it in Greek!

We assumed that maybe more people wanted to bathe in nature than in the actual baths that we found in the building which may have meant there wasn’t enough room for everyone in the outside pools . Although I think its quite possible that there were more thermal pools than the ones we saw.

It’s actually very sad as well as eerie, and definitely beyond repair. I’d love to know exactly when it closed and what the story behind it is. I’d also love to see a picture of what it was like. I think it’s quite strange that there is so little information.

In the morning we both went in the pool where I was the night before. I also went in the biggest pool, top left and bottom right. There were a few others scattered about as well.

These pools were very hot, around 40 degrees Celsius. It is very rich in sulphur sources which means it is great for arthritis, back pain and skin diseases. Dee said it was “too hot!” But he was fine once in. You can’t actually stay too long in as its so hot, the smell of sulphur is also overpowering.

Once we’d both had enough it was definitely time to go. This was not a place you hung around in too long. We were also looking forward to having internet again as there was no signal while we were there.

After this bizarre park up we were heading for the beach near Kavala which is where our next post will start.

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