Time to head home

 

Wednesday arrived too soon

We all awoke and stacked and packed and had a slight challenge in that our bathers / swimmers  / togs and towels which w head left out drying if night were all drenched....we think due to the sprinklers in the yard!

Mr Alex & Ellen came by to say farewell and give us some gifts - comquat liquor, jellies and other delicacies from the area.

We made our at to the airport (only 1 slight detour) and checked in our hire car and the Canadians went to check in at International as they were flying dirt key from Corfu to London and then onto Calgary while Trish and Sabdy went to domestic to check in for their flight to Athens.

Sandy C was pleasantly surprised to discover she could check in her bags from Corfu to Athens to Dubai to Singapore to Darwin - well that is the plan....will see if the bag arrives the same time at Sandy.  Trish was unable to check her bag through....issues with flying Qantas and them being One Alliance not Star Alliance - blasted ridiculous. Both Trish and Sandy C were happy to discover their bags weighed under 23kilos....Impressive after 5 weeks away and only 1 post home!

We all met up again for a last chat and snack and then said a farewell for now...NOT goodbye as we are sure to reconnect again soon. Somewhere for a new adventure.

Travel buddies are now down to 2 - Sandy and Trish - 2 of the originals.

Sandy and Trish waited patently for their flight to Athens, then after a long queue in Sthens to collect Trisha's bag they navigated their way to the International departures. Sadly we missed Tina and Jenny who were boarding their flight to Doha as we made our any to the gates. We were unable to enter the Emirates lounge as Sandy wa snot flying business class...NOt happy about that so had a drink in the public bar.

We boarded just a tad late and after 4.5hrs arrived in Dubai.

Both a tad weary we headed towards the lounge only to be told once again Trish could go in BUT not Sandy.....

Trish being the good friend that she is stayed out and we headed to the Heineken Bar for the 4 hour wait.

Greece: Corfu

Greece: Travelling to Corfu

Monday- We had to get up horribly early at 4AM to catch our plane to Athens.  We arrived to a nearly empty terminal then realized (after 30 minutes) that we were in the wrong spot!  Off to the correct terminal next door and the long line we went.  We flew to Athens then on to Corfu arriving around 11AM.  We were met by Mr. Alex and his wife Ellen who led us in our rental car to our lovely villa in the Corfian countryside.  No view of the ocean but a large backyard with a beautiful pool.  

 

After a quick lunch at home, we went in search of a pharmacy for Sandy S. who was a bit under the weather.  After procuring drugs (the legal kind), we drove to the port in Corfu Town and got on the hop on/hop off bus for a tour.  The tour took us by the old fortress of Corfu built in the early 15th century as well as the "new" one built from 1572-1645.  We went by ruins of Roman baths and an early Christian church as well as the birthplace of Prince Philip.  We stopped off at Anemomylos to have a cold drink in a cafe and enjoy the views of the planes landing at the airport, Mouse Island, and a couple of monasteries.   Beautiful!  From there we spent some time exploring the shops on the little streets and then eating a delicious meal in a restaurant on the Esplanada between the imposing arches of the Liston and Spianada Square which is the largest in Europe.  

 

 

 

 

 

Finally to end the day, we (except for one who shall remain nameless) had a refreshing swim in our private pool.

Tuesday

After a leisurely morning where we caught up in out blog and social networks we headed out to explore the North west coast of the island.

Sandy S took the wheel for the day and did an awesome job through some challenging bends, curves and steep inclines.

Upon advice from Mr Alex our host at the villa we headed towards Canal D'Amour......on the any we looked through some various other bays and small beaches including Sidari. So many amazingly picturesque places that one could stop at for a while or a long time.

We arrived at Canal D'Amour and decided whilst it had paddle boats (which Sandy C was still keen to try) it looked a tad shallow and we would travel further to other beaches for our dip. We stopped there for lunch at a gorgeous spot right at the top called 'The Rock'

 

 

We journeyed on and found our way through some windy roads to Agios Georgios.......Sandy S did a great job in a small village of backing down a road to an intersection as a truck was blocking our way....super effort! We took the opportunity to have a dip where 3 seas meet - the Segean, the Adriatic and the Ionian. Cathy and Sandy S took the Greek way and changed into their bathers / swimmers / togs by the side of the road. Sandy C talkedher way into a restroom (WC in Greek terms) nearby to get changed. Very refreshing and not too cold for the Sandy's.  Trish was first in the water! We had fun taking selfies with Cathy's waterproof camera.

We then made our way up towards Palaeokastrista...Mr Alex has told us this was an awesome spot for a lookout over the coastline....well it certainly was BUT not the easiest road to navigate and traverse. We found a lookout and did a Uturn to stop but had a slight mishap in a ditch. The artist who had a stand selling his and his wife's products on the curve helped along with other tourists push and list our car out and we were soon on our au again (after Sandy S and Cathy purchased a few things from his collection).

As we continued we found a fantastic local taverna ( The Verandah) with a view where we decided to stop for dinner and had the best time meeting the local owner (and his pretend twin brother as he changed clothes) along with the cook / chef who told us many times she was not his wife or his sister BUT also advised Sandy C not to have the lamb (which she was committed to for her last night in Greece) as not the best on the menu..we appreciate the honesty.

 

 

After a relaxed meal and yet another gift of desert (yogurt and grapes soaked in liquor) we said farewell with hugs and hand shakes and made our way back to Villa Poulades.  A few night caps then off to bed........a tad sad at this being our last night!

Greece: Exploring Crete

 

Exploring  Crete

Wednesday

We decided to travel down the eastern coast of Crete today heading for Agio Nicholas and Plaka.  We headed out with a Canadian driving(Sandra) on the highway (a real highway) and then got into a smaller coastal road at Neapoli.  Actually we got onto the smaller coastal road after heading down a few (very) narrow streets that resembled tiny alleyways.  Once on the road again we headed to Agio Nicholas which was a pretty seaside town with a "lake" connected to the harbour and a bustling shopping area for Trish.  We had a lovely drink on the patio at a spot on the lake and meandered through the shops for a bit. 

 

 

 

 We came home via Plaka where the other half (the rich ones) stay and stopped to look at the island of Spinalonga. Spinalonga was a Venetian fortress that was later used  as a leper colony.

 

On the way home we stopped to eat in Amoudra at Taverna Mitato.  

After dinner we headed home to our lovely villa in the tiny village of Palaiocastro.

 

 

Thursday

We all were up a tad earlier today as we had agreed to head tow Konossos earliesh to avoid the heat and the crowds.

Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archeological site on Crete and is considered Europes oldest city. On the ruins of the Neolithic settlement was built the first Minoan palace (1900BC) where the dynasty of Minans ruled. The site was discovered in 1878 and excavations began in 1900AD.

 

Cathy & Sandy S participated in a guided tour which they found very informative, although a certain person in their tour did ask a LOT of questions and appears to think Cathy needed him to translate the majority of what the guide was saying. One of the more famous symbols was the two headed axe.

 

 One of the surprises was that the Queen had a working toilet in the palace even so long ago...with water coming in and waste going out.

 

 

 

After navigating their way through Gazi to locate a local bakery Cathy and the Sandy's headed back to the villa where Trish had been resting up her sore hip. They chilled for a while and then headed down to the local beach for an afternoon dip and followed this with dinner at the local taverna. 

 

With probing questions from Sandy C the waiter  disclosed that he was a local and that they opened the taverna for about 7 months each year. In the winter months there is only about 20 people in the small village of Paliokastro and that the war from the sea comes up into the taverna.

On the drive to the taverna from the villa the travel buddies decided to video the drive and share the uniqueness of the village.

Greece: Crete

 

Departing from Crete and heading to Mykonos

Friday came all too soon and we were up early and heading back to the port to catch our ferry to Mykonos.

With little traffic and excellent navigation we arrived within 30minutes and obtained our tickets and headed to the fast ferry.

We stowed our luggage in the lower deck once again and found our way to our VIP seats on the top deck.

To Sandy C.'s surprise we pulled out of port at 9am......she had thought we had a 9:30am departure.......it was actually 9am so luckily we were early and all settled on  board!

 

As with many things we have found Greek time is slightly different from advertised schedules........we were due to arrive in Mykonos at 1:30pm (yes that is the correct time as Sandy C checked). We actually docked around 2:30pm.

We made 2 stops along the way.

Ios

Pheorus

 

 

We eventually arrived in Mykonos at the port...a challenge getting transport and collecting our hire car....waited over an hour in the line and a local man (we named him Antonio) and his partner in crime (we named her Maria) came along and indicated to us to meet him on the other side of the road....we took risk and went with him, that was another adventure as he did not speak much English (we think he was Italian) and did not know where we were staying despite Cathy (who ha slope dup our villa on Google Earth) pointing it out several times. The back door flew open and luckily Trish & Cathy prevented our bags falling out as we drove the steep roads around the port.

Eventually we located the villas and Sandy C located the villa representative who helped us with our bags. Much to the confusion of Antionio and Maria Sandy C and Sandy S then got back in the van and asked to be taken  to the airport to collect the hire car...he could wirk out why we were going to the airport without our bags......

We got to to airport and then stood in the queue at AVIS for over an hour......people before us and after us were all advised that there was NO car available - despite them booking one and in many cases pre paying. Sandy S was a tad anxious about the reaction from Sandy C if they were told the same thing....BUT luckily NOT! In fact we were given an upgrade from a medium SUV to a Mercedes........lots of power Sandy C was assured tiger us up the hill to our villa. Then another delay as the computer system collapsed and the poor sales clerk had to do all our paperwork again manually....

Finally we got the keys and found the car......Took us about 20 minutes in the car park sorting out the seats, the gadgets and the workings of the car BUT we eventually headed back to find Trish & Cathy at the villa....what a saga!

 

Once we were safely back to the villa Trish & Cathy greeted us with a beverage and nibbles...they had settled us in to our villa which we were quite impressed with.

 

We went for a drive to explore the town centre and soon realised driving and parking in the actual centre (Chora) was not ideal....we squeezed our way down the narrow congested 'streets' and turned into a large, after parking realised the grumpy lady wanted 10 Euros and our keys...not keen on that with our Mercedes hire car. We left that car park and struggled to get out of town....

Decided to take the car home to our villa after doing some grocery shopping and stocking  up on the basics....another unique experience.

We had planned to catch the sea bus from the port back to the town centre BUT as we get to the end of the road Matthews Taverna was calling us......a much simpler option after a challenging day. SUCH a great decision, the service, the food and the beverages were DIVINE!

 

Greece: Mykonos

Greece: Mykonos

Saturday

We were up earliesh again as the sun was streaming in our villa windows.

After a leisurely breakfast overlooking the bustling port we headed out to the town of Ornos, which had read about in our guide books and online.

Saturday we decided to go exploring and found ourselves in the town of Ornos! We spotted a beach and tried to park only in agreement with the lady in the nearby shop that we were just looking. The beach was packed with chairs and loungers squeezed very close together! We found a spot to park nearby the town centre where we saw our sketchy "taxi" driver we named "Antonio" from yesterday. He was still confused that Sandy C. wasn't on a plane elsewhere! We tackled the very few shops, walked to a different beach and had some expensive drinks at the beach bar. Cathy had a  drink called "Weirdo Ripper" which was the most expensive drink she ever had. We people watched and relaxed amongst the serious beach dwellers. 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to the villa, had a late lunch and got ready for  town. We caught a sea bus to town. We could see the pickup point from our Villa! This worked much better than trying to park. The wind was a concern so if there are pictures that will explain about or hairstyles! Trish especially enjoyed the shops which could be discovered down hidden alleys winding in all directions. After everyone managed to make some purchases we found a lovely restaurant named Alegro. We enjoyed a lovely meal as we watched the sunset.

 

 Trish and Cathy left the table early to get back to a shop that was reopening ‪at 9:00‬. The two Sandys settled the bill and made their way to the sea bus. Cathy came running to say Trish was still trying to settle up but they would try to make it. The two Sandys ended up leaving alone on the sea bus. They headed back to the villa to wait for Trish and Cathy. Sandy S. watched for the girls to disembark the last sea bus but they were not on it. Shortly after the two late night shoppers showed up after a taxi ride from town. They had an interesting wait watching the town fill up with partiers! 

 

Sunday

Early ‪Sunday morning‬ the Canadians got up early to catch the sea bus to Mykonos town to catch a much bigger boat to tour the island of Delos. This island is considered sacred because it is the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, two of the most important deities of the Greek pantheon. Our guide was wonderful and brought life to the amazing history of the ruins. The museum housed many statues and mosaics that had been recovered from excavations that started in 1872 to present. The first inhabitants of the island started building ca 2,500 BCE. The island of Delos is located at the centre of the Cyclades and halfway from mainland Greece to Ionia, the eastern islands of Chios, Samos, Rhodes and Crete. This made it a prosperous, commercial harbor and a very important port in the eastern Mediterranean. But it fell to ruins and eventually was abandoned after it was attacked, destroyed and looted because of its wealth. 

During the tour the wind picked up which made the boat ride home quite bumpy!

After getting back to home base, Sandy and Trish were ready to start their day after a relaxing morning by the pool. We went exploring the other side of Mykonos island and ended up at a very trendy club that obviously catered to the upper class! We invaded their space for rather expensive drinks and then headed back out.

We then went for a swim down at the Saint Stefanos, a few minutes drive away from our villa. A tad cold but very refreshing.

Luckily  Sandy C had got out of the water and was able to save the keys to the Merc plus our gear as the water rushed in as a result of a big wave a chased by a passing ferry....would not have been good if the car keys sailed away!

For our last evening on Mykonos we headed back down to the beach area to a lovely Greek taverna, great service and food once again was divine.

We had a lengthy chat to the waiter who advised us he works 7 days a week 10:30am in the morning till closing at night for 6 months, he then has  2 weeks off and works in Athens for the winter. He wants to work hard and get ahead while he is young so 'when he is old like us' (as he not so tactfully said) he can travel!

 

 A lovely end to our last day on Mykonos!

Travelling to Crete

 

Travelling from Santorini to Crete

Tuesday

We were all up early and stacking & packing as today was the day we leave Santorini.

We loaded up the luggage bays with most of our gear, said a fond farewell to our ever helpful hostess Niki and headed off in our trusty small car. First stop was the local pottery shop and then the bakery for our late breakfast.

We then made our way to Fira and after a few small wrong turns found our way  to the Hotel Golden Star where Sarah was staying the night prior to her flight back to Hong Kong via Athens and Moscow the following day.

We parked and wandered back up to the main town square, browsed some shops, all brought a few trinkets with Trish finally settling in some funky new sunglasses.

 

We soon found our way to the Fish Spa. Sandy, Cathy & Sandy delved their feet in with heaps of fish who were keen and eager to eat their dead skin! Trish & Sarah booked in for pedicures....long overdue says Trish....only to discover  the shop worked on Greek time....don't worry at all about the actual time we booked you in for, just come and wait!

 

Sandy, Sandy, Cathy & Sarah enjoyed a last meal together overlooking the caldera at Classico Cafe.....view to die for!

Sandy & Sarah finally got a photo of them together that could be shared.

 

Cathy then collected Trish who was still having her pedicure, they made their way very quickly to the car where the Sandy's were waiting and we all said farewell Sarah.

We then headed back to Akrotiri where we load our car up with all our luggage, drove to to the bottom of the apartments in preparation for our bus transport to the port to be ready for our  to Crete.

Thanks to the advice from Tina who had travelled on the same ferry the day prior with Jenny we ensured we were near the front of the line when the doors opened to board as the ferry docked. Well that was the plan and Sandy was first out the door....however as the ferry docked the swarm of people all moved on mass and there was no line just a mass of people pushing and dragging luggage into the haul. WE made if safely (nearly a casualty as a bag came very close to landing on Sandy's head). We made our way to our VIP seats (as we are VIP's of course) just as the ferry got under way.

 

A relatively short trip (around 100mins) saw us arriving in the port of Heraklion (The capital centre of Crete). Madness at the port its car rental agencies, taxis, private transfer etc.

We eventually located our car hire man and through a lengthy exchange and confusion were about to be off when we realised he had not left the key.....a slight problem. The Sandy's chased after him and en we were in our way through the busy street to head towards Paliokastro.  Slight detours and missing signs saw us arrive in the village and then after some re checking and back tracking we arrived the villa we had booked for the 3 nights! Very comfortable. We eventually said farewell to our hosts who were very chatty and wanted to let us know many things.....and headed down to the village to the local mini mart.....quite an experience at 10pm at night.......

 

Finger foods and snacks for a late dinner with us all reconnecting with our social networks  and enjoying a beverage in the night time breeze on the balcony.

Santorini: Farewells

 

Santorini: We start saying farewells

Monday morning arrived way too quickly and VERY early in the day Trish & Sandy took Squizz & Annie to the Airport for their flight to Athens. It was sad saying farewell to 2 of the original travel buddies who had started this trip with Trish & Sandy way back on June 11th! Annie is heading home to Port Macquarie via Dubai and Sydney whilst Squizz heads to Dubai, then Singapore to meet up with the family and then continue onto to Vietnam for 10 days! It has been fantastic having them both with us for the last few weeks!

Additional commentary for the blog from the weary travelers!

An early start for Sandy and Trish to drive Annie and Squizz to the airport. Seeing the length of the check in queue, Sandy and Trish quickly decided to say goodbye and go. Leaving Squizz and Annie to queue for quite some time and then wait in the packed departure area. A short flight to Athens then a 6 hour wait to jump on the flight to Dubai. There was a brief thought to jump on the metro into Athens to pass some time. Lucky this idea was not followed through as later an announcement advised that due to a strike the metro had closed. Once in Dubai, another long wait (about 5 hours), Squizz and Annie went on their separate ways, Squizz to Singapore to start her Vietnam leg and Annie home to Port Macquarie.

Squizz sent through some pics showing their journey through Athens and Dubai.....many weary travellers! Squizz stays on the watch over their belongings when Annie just could not last any longer and lay down her weary head!

 

We all had a slow morning and then the remaining travel buddies set off for the local town of Akriotiri searching for some brunch.

We needed to do 2 trips as we were now down to just one driver.......

Sandy dropped Cathy, Sandra S & Sarah at the Thira Dolphin for them to make their own way down the windy paths to the small village.

By the time Sandy got back with Tina, Jenny & Trish the walkers had already arrived. The first choice taverna for lunch was not yet open so we made an alternate choice.  All were pleased to have some food and re charged their batteries.

Cathy, Sandra S & Sarah spent a short while roaming the few shops in the village while Sandy took the first group back home to the apartments.  Once all home we relaxed, napped, read etc. Cathy took off again to explore and was determined to find the path between Thira's Dolphin and the village.  She quickly found the winding steps and then explored more pathways with many steps, houses built into the cliffs, many churches,  and a couple of barking terriers.

Too soon it was time to say another farewell, this time to Tina & Jenny. The ladies were  heading off to Crete via the fast ferry.

It has been a whirlwind few days since they joined us in Pefkos. They are off to do the Samara Gorge walk on Crete and then will catch the overnight ferry to Athens for 5 days.

The remaining travel buddies then freshened up as the winds blew outside and headed to Perissa for an afternoon stroll and some dinner.