Ioannina - Ali Pasha's Town

The big lake around which the Ottoman town of Ioannina was built, high on a plateau near the Albanian border.

The island in the lake where Ali Pasha met his fate.

This mosque in the fortified old town has now been turned into a museum.

The madressa.

Inside the fort.  That is a clump of poppies growing on the steps.  Central Greece has a more moderate climate than Symi, with a longer spring, higher rainfall and thus more vegetation. We saw our last poppies on Symi over a month ago.

Canonballs - something Ioannina has in common with Rhodes is heaps of cannonballs all over the place. These are fairly recent so steel rather than stone like the ones in Rhodes.

A pictures way of getting around the lake.

Inside the museum at the mosque. These delightful illuminations decorate a Jewish marriage contract.  Tragically the entire Jewish population of Ioannina was transported to Auschwitz, from which very few returned.

Traditional clothes on display in the museum.

Ioannina was famous for its silversmiths.  The silver itself was imported from Britain.

Original details inside the mosque.

Elaborate furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

I don't who he is but he is on the same marriage contract as shown above.

Inside the dome of the mosque.

Royal memorabilia - these gold wreaths were worn by Queen Olga and King George of the Hellenes.

A very clever way of restoring a ruined building. This is a restaurant near the lake.

The local answer to Boris bikes.

After spending a night at Meteora we then drove up to Ioannina, a provincial capital close to the Albanian border.  We spent only a couple of hours there as we had a long way to go to get back to Athens so it is definitely on our wish list for a longer return trip.  Being a sprawling provincial town it was busy and as we arrived there at midday the town was quite clogged with traffic. We found somewhere to park near the lake and then went to explore what we could in the limited time available.

This is the centre of a major food-producing area with plenty of natural water, not just from the lake but also from the rivers and streams that feed it.  On our drive from Ioannina to Arta on the Ionian coast we passed lots of trout farms and roadside stalls laden with produce.  We continued down the Ionian coast to Antirrio where we saw the famous suspension bridge before continuing on to Delphi but that is tomorrow's tale.

Regards,
Adriana