Serres Hike

In an early-autumn scenery we welcomed our British guests from the Rambling club of Cyprus (csrc.ws) to hike the mountains of the Greek region of Central Macedonia. After visiting the city of Serres that hosted us for most of our stay and discovering its interesting byzantine and ottoman monuments, the first hiking day found us on the green slopes of Mount Pangeon, following the Mesoropi trail. The scenery changed dramatically on the following day as we crossed the rocky landscape of the River Angitis Canyon and the colourful and impressive Alistrati cave! On the way back to Serres we stopped to taste the local beer Voria, pleasantly surprised by its good and smooth taste!
Culture and nature got together in the valley of the stone bridges above the city of Serres: not only did we hike a trail of great natural beauty, but we also discovered the old, lost road of the caravans crossing the region to Central Europe and the medieval monastery of St. John, with nice frescoes and an outstanding wine museum, where we were warmly welcomed by the nuns. The unknown, yet surprising of Mount Belles and the slope overlooking Lake Kerkini were our last hikes before leaving for Thessaloniki. Along all our hikes we collected as many rubbish as we could, trying to leave the trails in a better condition than we found them! After a city tour that brought us in contact with the most important of the city’s monuments (all its byzantine churches, decorated with splendid mosaics are recognized as Heritage of Mankind by the UNESCO) and some rest we enjoyed a delicious dinner in one of the city’s typical small taverns!

Many thanks to Mr Chris Clifton for the beautiful photos!