NOVEMBER 6, 2022 : We woke up to an overcast day. Today is our 12th day in Greece, and up to now we have had perfect weather – sunny and cool. No complaints.
Our destination today was Trikala – a town northwest of Volos. To reach Trikala, we could drive 1 ½ hours on the main highway, and backtrack through Larissa, or drive on secondary roads for 2 hours. We decided to go the slow way.
As we put our suitcases in the car, it started to drizzle.
The first 20 minutes of the drive were beautiful. We were driving along the coast of the Aegean sea, past small towns with small hotels, beaches and gorgeous views – these must be summer resorts.
Then the rain came. Buckets and buckets of rain – hard and non-stop. Only as we approached Trikala, did it let up.
The Jewish Community of Trikala is one of the oldest in central Greece. It was originally made up of Romaniote Greek-speaking Jews. After the expulsion from Spain, they were joined by exiled Jews from Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Sicily. At the beginning of WWII, the community numbered about 500 Jews. Like in Volos, the Italians took over Trikala. By the time the Germans came in 1943, over 300 of the Jews surmised what was coming and escaped to the mountains. On March 24th 1944, 139 Jews that were left in Trikala were arrested and transported to Auschwitz. The Jews that survived returned to Trikala and eventually left for larger cities in Greece, or to the USA or Israel. 1n 1949 Jewish youth from Trikala were among the founders of Moshav Neveh Yamin near Kfar Saba. Today only about 40 Jews live in Trikala.
We headed first to the Jewish cemetery – situated on a small hill overlooking the city. We saw a gate with a Jewish star, up a flight of steps, as we drove by. The cemetery was surrounded by a stone wall. Being on a steep hill, we would not be able to use the ladder to see over the wall. We walked to the gate, and followed the wall around the corner, until we were behind a large bush. Here the wall was not too tall – a little over a meter high. Mark easily climbed over the wall and disappeared into the cemetery further up the hill. I remained concealed as much as possible behind the bush, hiding myself from the traffic on the street below.
Mark discovered a large, beautifully situated cemetery – on a small hill with panoramic views and under many, many pine trees. Unfortunately, the dampness here caused moss to grow on the graves, making them unreadable. Although the cemetery is supposed to have graves that are over 450 years old, the oldest grave he saw was from the 1970’s. He also discovered the main gate to the cemetery. Apparently, the door we saw from the road was the back entrance – there was a beautiful wrought iron gate on the other side.
Mark strolled through the cemetery taking photos while I hid and worried about him and wondered if there was a security system. About 15 minutes later he returned, unharmed and happy with his excursion.
We then found the cemetery driveway and walked up the hill to the main gate. From here, on a clear day you probably had a view of the boulders of Meteora, but the overcast sky made it hard to see that far.
Just as we were returning to the car, the rain started again.
We had asked to do early check-in at our Airbnb, so drove straight there. First impressions of Trikala were very favorable, the most charming town we had seen in Greece yet.
Our apartment was near the center of town, and it looked like parking would be a problem. Carrying suitcases in the rain would not be fun. When we arrived, our host was waiting for us – he had placed his motorcycle sprawled across a parking space directly opposite the apartment, to reserve the space for us. That was good hospitality.
We had originally booked a different apartment, but a few days ago, they cancelled the reservation. They explained that they experienced some damage to the place, and it will not be repaired in time for us to stay there. Because they cancelled on us, AirBnb voluntarily gave us $25 credit towards rebooking an alternative place. AirBnb has perfected how to keep me a loyal customer.
After settling in, we decided to ignore the rain, and continue our visit. We had two places to find in Trikala – the synagogue and a Holocaust memorial.
Before WWII, there were three synagogues in Trikala – the Romaniote, the Sephardic and the Sicilian. Each served one of the distinctive groups making up the Jewish community here. Both the Sephardic and Sicilian synagogues were destroyed during the war. The Romaniote, which was used by the Germans as a stable, was burnt but survived.
There were articles in the paper a few weeks ago that this synagogue had finished its restoration and was now open to visitors. There is no Jewish community office in Trikala, so there was no one to ask about visiting. It was also Sunday, so tourist offices and city hall, other places we could ask, were closed. We thought maybe there would be a sign on the synagogue of whom to contact.
Wearing rain jackets and carrying umbrellas, we reached the synagogue. It is located in the middle of a narrow street and is beautifully redone. The gates and doors were locked. There were photos of Jerusalem on the windows, but no signage with information. We would not get to see the inside.
From there we searched for the Holocaust memorial. This required a bit of detective work piecing together information from old articles about the unveiling ceremony. Eventually we found it, a block away from the synagogue.
Dedicated in 2018, the memorial is made from railway tracks placed in the shape of a tear. A stone column on the side has the dedication in Greek, English and Hebrew. It is placed at what was once one of the main entrances to the old Jewish quarter.
It was still raining, but not too hard and we decided to continue towards the historic center of Trikala and visit the castle grounds. I continued to be favorably impressed by the place. While in other places, restored houses sit among many that are not yet restored, here most everything was already redone. Nice.
We reached the castle at the top of the hill and enjoyed the panoramic views of the city. Walking the pathways was difficult. Here the paths were made of stone that was very slippery when wet. Mark suggested stepping only on the concrete between the stones, and that made it possible to move forward slowly.
The rain was getting stronger and stronger. In spite of the rain jackets and umbrellas, we were soaking wet. It was time to return to the apartment.
Wet clothes are always a problem on the trip – apartments don’t have dryers and it takes about 24 hours for them to dry and we usually do not stay that long in one place. Luckily this apartment had 5 radiators – we turned on the heat and placed our clothes and sneakers on the radiators to dry.
Tomorrow we were going to Meteora – the place I most wanted to see this whole trip.
Trespassing Abba! Oh my!