The Journey along the new motorway from Athens, on to Meteora

On arrival at Athens airport we hired a car for our journey to Meteora. This was arranged in advance in England so it was just a case of signing the paperwork. Because we arrived at about 4am in the early hours of the morning, we decided to drive as far as we could before finding a hotel and catching up on our sleep. Fortunately, we had purchased a book of maps of Greece ( GREECE road maps and tourist guide from info@fotismaps.gr) at the airport shop, English language version, which also listed all hotels, apartments and camp sites in all cities, towns and villages in Greece and the Islands.

The new motorway from the airport travels through Athens and then speeds on up to Thessalonika in the far north. The route is pleasant, easy, and extremely scenic. A certain adjustment has to be made to drive on the right and to change gears with the left hand. Tolls are paid on the motorways and you will need a couple of euros at each toll booth. Change is given at most of the toll booths (note the signs) towards the right.

Drivers in Athens, in common with almost all capital cities, can be impatient and aggressive. Lane discipline is lax with plentiful undertaking, overtaking and various imaginative manoeuvres, all accompanied by the sound of beeping horns. Greeks also sound their horns when overtaking as a warning to let you know in case you're not using your mirror. One good point at arriving at an unsociable hour is that there is little traffic on the road. Once past Athens, road manners improve immensely. Most of the road signs on the motorway (E75) are written in both the Greek and Roman alphabets. The first sign is usually in Greek, followed by one in English. It does help to be able to recognise Greek letters and to read place names because there are occasional lapses.

A lake fringed with reeds and a playground for birds on the way to Atalanti and Meteora.

The motorway is excellent on the first part of the journey to Meteora. There are adequate service stations with fast food restaurants including Macdonalds, Goodys (a better Greek version of Macdonalds) and various others.