Thessaly is a historical landscape in northern Greece between Macedonia, Epeiros and Central Greece. Thessaly was once the settlement area of the tribe of Thessaloi.
It is bounded by the mountain ranges of Olympos in the north, the Pindos in the west, the Othrys in the south, and the Ossa in the east. In between, the fertile Thessalian plain stretches. The main rivers through the Thessalian plain are the Titarisios and the Pinios.
Larisa, which is not mentioned in Homer's ship catalogue, probably took part around 590 BC. BC under Eurylochus in the First Holy War. At that time, Thessaly was ruled by the Aleuades, who often held the high military office of Tagos. When the Persian king Xerxes in 480 B.C. BC moved against Greece, they went over to him to secure their position. After the failure of the Persian campaign, they were able to repulse a punitive expedition undertaken against them
The Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great thoroughly plundered Larisa during his war against the Byzantine Emperor Zeno in 482. Emperor Justinian had Larisa strongly fortified. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil was able to temporarily take the city around 986. At that time he also moved the relics of Saint Achilles to his residence in Prespa. Vigorously defended by the Byzantines, Larisa withstood a siege in 1084 by the feared Apulian Normans under Robert Guiscard's son Bohemond. This general was then severely defeated near Larisa by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the summer of 1084. Larisa, on the other hand, appears little during the period of frequent changes of ownership, which begins in 1204 and ends with the conquest of Thessaly by the Ottomans.
It is already a few weeks ago that we had met with Nikos in regards to our project and to further discussions on the progress of his offers to explore regional wines in relation with hiking around Rapsani.
Mount Olympus, according to the Greek saga, is the home of the twelve ancient Greek gods and goddesses, it is the highest and most famous mountain of Greece of 2,918 meters.
In the early period of the monasteries of Meteora, climbing was clearly a necessity, not a sport in the modern sense. There was no other way to reach the tops of the rocks. Just by the help of ropes, nets, bare hands or long, rickety ladders, the peaks could be climbed in those days.
We had already reported about Andrea and John, who want to bring clear spring water from Mount Olympus to Brazil within their ecological project in order to point to the pollution of their own rivers in Brazil and to achieve improvement and attention by the aid of the media.
Our explorations around the Camper Stop Rapsani has brought us to the shore of the river Pinios, which expands to a large river delta along the coast and thus constitutes a paradise for different species of birds.
During our way to Rapsani to the newly opened Camper stop we again had passed the village of Platamonas where we already noticed the mighty fortress on the rocky spur during our last trip.
Shortly after leaving the motorway towards Larissa / Athens, you will find a signpost to the right, facing in the direction of Mount Olympus massif with Rapsani.
During the visit of the really interesting Museum of Vergina we had met the so-called Star of Vergina several times, the sixteen ray sun symbol that first struck us on the big, golden ash box of Philip II.
Litochoro is a small town at the foot of Mount Olympus, about 7 km from the coast, which is considered one of the two possible access routes into the Olymp Mountains.
After our explorations of Mount Olymp per vehicle a first hike is now, even in spite of advanced season with first snow starting from about 1400 meters, carried out at the Olymp.
The Massif of Olympus rises to the south of the Macedonian region of Greece on the border with Thessaly and appears due to the proximity to the Thermaic Gulf, particularly impressive viewed from there.