Aegina, Saronic Islands, Greece

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May 5th 2013

Published: May 6th 2013

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MandiT

Lambs on the Spits

Aegina

Sunday May 5th, 2013. Aegina, Saronic Islands, Greece

Piraeus is the port stop for Athens which is only 30 minutes away by train or taxi. As we had been to Athens fairly recently we had made other plans.

Today was Easter Sunday (Gregorian Calendar) so we knew that virtually everything would be closed. For this reason we had decided to 'go local' and do what the locals would do. We skipped breakfast and walked to Dock Gate 8 where we caught the Flying Dolphin Hydrofoil to the island of Aegina (with 2 minutes to spare!). We alighted the boat at the town of Aegina and almost immediately found a place where we could hire a bicycle. It was 5 euros an hour or 10 euros for the day - so we hired two bikes for the day. We started south and headed for the town of Perdika which was 10 kilometres away on the south west tip of the island.

To start with it was quite flat. There was little or no traffic (a bit like Christmas Day in the UK) as it is a very important religious holiday in Greece. Many houses had whole lambs roasting on

M at Perdika

Aegina

spits (the equivalent of our traditional turkey or goose at Christmas). We stopped just outside the village of Marathonas where we found a taverna on the beach. We took some refreshment and watched the locals swim in the sea. There were a couple of young men roasting their lamb on a spit on the beach. It smelled lovely. M went and took a photo (after asking permission) and managed to get us invited for lunch. It was very kind of them to ask us but we still had a long way to cycle. We remounted our bikes and continued on towards Perdika. It started to get a little more hilly. We passed another restaurant just outside the village of Aiginitjssa where they had 5 lambs roasting on spits. We enquired about lunch and were told that the first two would be ready in about half and hour and the rest in a couple of hours. We decided that this would be a good place for lunch.

We continued on the road to Perdika hugging the coast which was beautiful. We decended a long hill into the town. We found our way to the Marina where we took some pictures

D at the Restaurant

Aegina

and found a cafe with WiFi. We passed a pleasant hour there watching the flash yachts come and go. There were lots of small fishing vessels (not working today of course!). We remounted the bikes and left Perdika by a different (longer but less hilly) route. We followed the coast back to the restaurant we had found earlier. Two of the lambs had already been devoured. We sat down and were treated to Tzatziki with chunky walnut bread to start, follwed by a huge hunk of lamb from the spit with whole roasted new potatoes and a greek salad topped with a slab of feta cheese. There were no tourists at all. The whole lot including wine cost 40 euros. After lunch we cycled back to Aegina where we rode through the town and took some photos of the church and other buildings. We returned the bicycles and went to a local bar to wait for the return hydrofoil which was due at 5.00pm.

We returned to the ship and collapsed exhausted until it was time for dinner. There was no show tonight except for the passengers doing a Strictly Come Dancing competition. We joined Bill and Jennifer for

D at Perdika

Aegina

dinner for the last time. After dinner Bill treated us to a Spanish Coffee in the bar on Deck 2. We will definitely keep in touch with the two of them when we get home.

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