West from Lárissa , the road trails the river Piniós to Tríkala , an enjoyable provincial town with a scattering of Byzantine monuments nearby. For most travellers, it's simply a staging post en route to Kalambáka and the Metéora; frequent buses join it with Lárissa, and there are connections north and west as well. The rail line linking Lárissa, Tríkala and Kalambáka was refitted with standard-gauge track in the year 2000, but it seems unlikely that a projected high-speed train link from Vólos to Igoumenítsa through the Píndhos mountains will ever materialize.