Waterfront (Thessaloniki) - Cafes, Street Performers, Playgrounds

The seafront of Thessaloniki is the city's front room, a broad promenade along the Thermaic Gulf where people walk, cycle, skate and sit with a coffee at any hour. Its anchor is the White Tower, the sixteenth-century fortification that is the symbol of the city, and from there the Nea Paralia, or New Waterfront, runs southeast for several kilometres in a continuous strip of paving, lawns and planted beds. The older Port and the Ladadika district, a quarter of former warehouses turned into tavernas and bars, lie a short walk in the opposite direction, to the west of the tower.

The promenade was redesigned in the years around 2010, and it is organised as a series of linked spaces rather than a single boulevard. Along it are water gardens, sports courts, small sculptures and installations, and several playgrounds, which make the stretch popular with families on weekends. Among the best-known public artworks are the umbrellas, a row of large sculpted umbrellas along the central stretch, and the equestrian statue of Alexander the Great on the seafront. Street performers, buskers and artists use the open spaces in the evenings, and the lawns fill with people watching the sunset.

Cafes and restaurants line the landward side of the promenade, with a mix of simple kiosks and larger places with terraces. Locals have a habit of walking the whole length in the early evening, stopping for a coffee or a frozen drink, then continuing. Bicycles and scooters can be rented along the way, and a bike path runs along the water, making it easy to cover the several kilometres at a relaxed pace.

The view across the gulf is part of the pleasure. On a clear day the snow-capped outline of Mount Olympus rises on the far horizon, and at sunset the water and sky shift through orange and pink. The waterfront is free and open at all hours, and it is as pleasant for a morning jog as for an evening stroll.

A walk from the White Tower to the Concert Hall takes roughly an hour at an easy pace, and the stretch is mostly flat and suitable for prams and wheelchairs. Visitors can make it part of a day that also takes in the Archaeological Museum, the Rotunda and the old upper town, using the seafront as a place to rest between visits.