Athens - My three children are attacking gooey balls of cocoa sugar paste with rolling pins. They pummel the mixture and cut biscuits with gusto.
We’re in ChocoFactory, the world’s first chocolate theme park. Thessaloniki in Greece might seem an unlikely place for this new venture, but it works.
The park looks and smells fabulously sweet. Willy Wonka would be proud.
The inside is every child’s fantasy.
A tropical jungle with real cocoa trees; Europe’s largest chocolate waterfall; a gallery of chocolate paintings and sculptures — one of which is the Parthenon atop the Acropolis. “More like the ‘A-choc-olis’ “, jokes my husband Marc.
There are science workshops, cooking workshops, a Time Machine (my children’s favourite) and a museum charting the history of chocolate, from the Aztecs’ primitive offerings to the first commercial Swiss bar. There’s milk chocolate, spiced chocolate, chocolate biscuits and ice cream to taste. The entry fee is five euros (about R70) — well worth it just for the goodies.
Most holidaymakers bypass Thessaloniki, heading straight for seaside Halkidiki.
In doing so they’re missing out. It’s the second city in Greece with impressive Roman remains — thermal baths, an agora and temple — around Egnatia Street.
The Baltazar market is memorable too and priced for locals. We splurge on leather boots, belts and olives.
If you do want some beach then Halkidiki — a triple-pronged peninsula — is the place. Sithonia, the central and least known part, is a 90-minute drive.
The terrain is mountainous and peppered with pine forest. Our hotel, the Athena Pallas, sits on its own secluded beach. On our last day we visit the nearby whitewashed village of Neo Marmaris for lunch. Family-run tavern Ta Kymata is to seafood what ChocoFactory is to confectionary.
We devour red snapper, sardines and mussels. But then the waitress offers a platter of desserts and we demolish that too, ending the trip as we began — on a high.
TRAVEL FACTS
Double rooms at the Holiday Inn Thessaloniki (0030 231 0563 100, ihg.com) start at £110 B&B. Double rooms at the Athena Pallas, Halkidiki (0030 23750 23000, athena-pallas.gr) cost from £160. Car hire (atlascarrental.gr) from £31 per day. ChocoFactory (0030 2310 291267, chocofactory.helexpo.gr/chocofactory).
For more information visit: visitgreece.gr.
Daily Mail