Day 4: Hotoussa, Greece

 

Village House, Hotoussa

26 December 2025

Today was a lovely day - clear skies, no wind - a perfect Winter's day. 

We headed out at around 8am to go to the mountain village of Dimitsana.

Dimitsana is very popular place in Winter, as it's close to the ski fields. It's about 45 minutes from the village and is nestled on a mountain side. All the houses are built of local stone and it's all extremely picturesque.

There is a single road winding through the village, which is meant for two-way traffic. We arrived nice and early so there were hardly any cars about and just a few shops were open.

We had a very nice breakfast on the terrace of a cafe, with a lovely view out over the mountain side. I had an omelette and Jim had scrambled eggs. (Not very Greek - but all washed down with some Greek coffee.)

After breakfast, we strolled up and down and Jim spied a restaurant cooking one of his favourite dishes - kokoretsi (which is lamb intestines wrapped around lamb offal - usually liver - and cooked on a spit). He determined we needed to come back here for lunch, so we made a booking for 1pm.

As it was so far to go back to the village, we instead went to a nearby village called Margouliana, which has an enormous ancient oak tree and springs of mountain water. We sat at a coffee shop in the square and whiled away a couple of hours. (In Greece, they never expect you to leave once you have purchased something. We could have sat there all day without ever feeling rushed.) A lovely stray cat came around looking for scraps, but completely rejected Jim's offer of a biscuit. Can't have been too hungry!

After a suitable amount of time, we drove back to Dimitsana, only to find that in the time we had been away, it had turned into a madhouse. The streets were absolutely full of pedestrians and cars, going both directions, and every cafe and restaurant was full. We managed to find a parking spot right at the end of town, and had to walk 15 minutes back up the hill to our restaurant.

Jim had his kokoretsi, and I had lamb on the spit, with potatoes and salad and a glass of white wine. Very good food! And, although there wasn't a menu at this restaurant either, the waiter was very kind and switched to English when he realised I wasn't following what he was saying, and was very concerned to make sure I got everything I wanted. We had far too much food and so brought some home to have for dinner.

When we left, we had to drive back through the town and it took us 15 minutes to travel 1km. The streets are so narrow and there were cars parked on each side of the road. The cars had to pass within centimetres of each other and dodge the multitude of pedestrians that wove unconcernedly through the traffic with prams, dogs on leashes, shopping bags and small children. It seems like it would be pandemonium - and there were actually a few times where we were all stuck for quite a bit because of a tow truck making its way through the traffic - but we all managed to get through and no one got annoyed or irritated. Pedestrians would quite frequently get involved and tell drivers they had room to get through or to turn the wheel a little to the left, so it was all quite civilised.

We headed back to the village in the afternoon, but made a stop at the village cemetery to look at the graves of Jim's grandparents and great-grandparents. It's a small cemetery and all the graves have one of about five different family names. It's in a beautiful spot, very peaceful and surrounded by mountains. A nice spot to be buried.

There are also four different churches that belong to the village. St George's is the most picturesque - up on a small hill with a 360 degree view of the valley. It has a lovely stone road leading up to it and, apparently, the former mayor of Hotoussa spent village money getting the road built so his daughter could get married at the church. It was quite a scandal!