First a short complaint: we are getting a bit fed up with the heat dome which is affecting all of Europe at the moment! Every day for the past 10 days has been between 35-40 degrees wherever we have been, which is significantly above the average of 29-32ish expected for this time of year. The excessive daytime heat has meant we have had to more carefully plan our days to not be doing much between about 12-4pm other than having lunch and resting up (hopefully in air conditioning). Therefore the plan this morning was to leave by 9am in order to walk around Thessaloniki before it got too hot. The plan sounded good, but we have been struggling slightly with the 1 hour time difference since Albania, and we ended up not leaving until 10am when it was already approaching 30 degrees outside.

We couldn't find a free walking tour in Thessaloniki so we opted for our own self-guided tour with a bit of help from the tourist map provided by the hotel reception staff. It was quite simple really, with most of the sites along two parallel roads: Egnatia, and the avenue along the coast, Leof Nikis. We started on Egnatia since it was the same road as our hotel, and walked down past a large area of ancient Roman ruins, the main square Aristotelous, then onwards to the Arch of Galerius (with engravings celebrating a Roman win over the Persians) and an early church from the 300s nicknamed The Rotunda. We then headed south through a very nice part of town with lovely apartments which looked just like a nice area of Buenos Aires, and to the White Tower which might just be the most famous site in the city. We learnt a little bit about the White Tower from the board outside but couldn't go in because it was closed on a Sunday. The walk back from the White Tower to the hotel took us right along the promenade on the coast, past a lot of restaurants which were completely full around midday on a Sunday with Greeks drinking iced coffees with friends and family. At this point it was seriously heating up, and Summer was struggling to walk on the pavement and due to the heat in general. We wet her paws at a water fountain and eventually made it back to the hotel in one piece.

At this point we were very grateful for a late 3pm check out at the Holiday Inn, and we rested up in the room before a quick Greek kebab lunch, and hitting the road for our beach break for the next two days in Leptokarya. We hadn't heard of Leptokarya before, but we found a lovely apartment here on booking.com, and it is a rather sleepy resort mostly occupied by Eastern European tourists. Sleepy is exactly what we were looking for so we can relax a bit while I work tomorrow morning, and get ready for the next stretch from Tuesday onwards as we wrap up in Greece and head into Turkey.