Thessaloniki; Saturday, 15 October, 2016

I had an early breakfast and headed off into town to pick up the first tour bus of the morning. Having only done one circuit the previous evening I completed a second circuit on the opposite side of the bus before staying on to head back up to the upper town.

I had a long wander around the fortified upper town taking in much of walls and the towers and eventually making my way up to the fortress at the very top of the hill. Unfortunately, the fortress is only open Tuesday to Friday and then only 8-3 so I wasn’t going to have a chance to look around inside, but I had a wander around the edge before heading back towards the bus stop.

I caught the bus down to the next stop at the vast archaeological complex of the Galerius Palace that stretches underneath the city streets for hundreds of metres. Above ground there are only a few visible elements with the Galerius Arch and the Rotonta being the most visible and the first I had a look around.

I then wandered back down through the complex stopping off at the interpretation centre and then having a wander around the edge of the palace buildings which have been uncovered further down the road. As I was wandering around I walked past a run of nice looking restaurants, so I took the opportunity to have a very late, and very filling lunch, before staggering back off to complete my walk past the palace remains.

I eventually wandered down to the end of the complex on the waterfront and as there was one waiting to go out took one of the last open-top tour buses of the evening for a final tour round.

Dropped back at the White Tower I had a bit of a wander around before stopping off in a café to grab a very light bite to eat. With my belly full again I set off on the long walk back across town to my tiny hotel room.

I put the keycard into my room door and it flashed red, which it then proceeded to do on the three times I checked. Clearly my card had wiped itself during the day, or hadn’t been programmed correctly, so I headed back down to reception to get it re-programmed.

It turned out that the reason my card wasn’t working was because that was no longer my room. My string of tweets to the Hotel company had clearly had way more effect than the letting off steam I had intended them on having and the manager was very happy to hand me a new keycard to a much bigger room.

I moved my stuff between rooms and then headed down to the bar for a nightcap before turning in for the night in my much, much larger bed.