We began our first Greece trip in Thessaloniki as discussed in the previous post. That previous post covered some of the sites and landmarks we saw near the promenade and lower portion of Thessaloniki and this post focuses on Ano Poli and other higher portions of Thessaloniki that we visited.
We had arranged for the tour "Walks in Ano Poli - Thessaloniki" through ToursByLocals and were to meet the tour guide, Constantinos P., at the Church of Hagios Demetrios. We walked from our hotel (the Mediterranean Palace) to that point early and saw that there was a special ceremony going on in the courtyard in front of the church.
Because we arrived at the Church of Hagios Demetrios well before the agreed time, so we decided to walk by the nearby Ancient Agora of Thessaloniki (Roman Forum).
We met Constantinos at Hagios Demetrios at the agreed upon time.
We were at the Church of St. Demetrios on October 25 and his feast day is October 26, so there was celebration going on in conjunction with this St. Demetrious Feast Day and celebrating 200 years since the start of the War of Greek Independence. The powerful bells ringing at the Church of St. Demetrios meant that we needed to walk from the courtyard a little bit to hear each other!
Constantinos guided us through some narrow cobblestone streets up the hill into the upper town (Ano Poli).
One of the specific sites we stopped at was the beautiful Church of Prophet Elijah (Profitis Elias).
We also made a stop at Osios David (The Latomou Monastery).
The view from Church of Hosios David is spectacular!
Along the walk we saw several plants we had not seen before. The pomegranates were interesting to see.
We really enjoyed seeing the dramatic Byzantine walls of Thessaloniki.
Aghios Nikolaos Orfanos Church was another stop with another incredible view.
We enjoyed a break in a cafe at the top of Ano Poli with more outstanding views of Thessaloniki. I really enjoyed the very tart lemonade.
The road leading to Trigoniou Tower is picturesque.
The overview from the base of Trigoniou Tower is impressive.
The views from the top of Trigoniou Tower are even more impressive!
The ticket purchased for entry into the Trigoniou Tower included admission to the Heptapyrgion of Thessalonica, so we went there next.
Not surprisingly, there are more great views from Heptapyrgion Fortress.
We saw painstaking work being done to replace a street with stone. It will be beautiful when it's done, but it's a lot of work!
The Ano Poli (Upper Town) district of Thessaloniki provides countless beautiful views of its monuments, churches, houses and streets as well as glorious overviews of the city and Thermaic Gulf.
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