Blogs from Greece, Europe - page 5

Same as lots of times before, we are not where Travelblog says we are but it’s close. We are about 5 hours walk away or just 20 minutes on the ferry at a little town called Loutro. It’s car free which gives it a certain charm straight away, and it means you either walk in (some) or you ferry in (many). Walkers or ferryers probably means you’re a tourist and the town certainly is geared up for tourists. The waterfront is sun lounges, restaurants, bars and kiosks that seem to specialise is cocktails, long drinks and good wine (their descriptions not mine!). The grills and rotisseries were going as we arrived and that was mid afternoon although it’s like that many tourists will head back to other accommodation venues in the evening. Chickens, lamb and beef ... read more

It’s an early start as we make our way back to Athens where we’ll be staying overnight before beginning the long haul back towards Oz. As far as we can tell there are hardly any flat pieces of land anywhere on Kalymnos. We’re flying to Athens which has got us a bit curious about where they might have managed to build the island’s airport. But no problem there it seems, they’ve just cut the side out of the top of one of the hills. We’re not used to getting stunning views from airports, but that’s exactly what we’ve got here. We must be up on one of the highest points on the island and we’ve got an excellent panorama down over the port and across towards the southern coast. The sunrise is spectacular. Now we’ve just ... read more

Don’t bet we are at the location mentioned above. The internet is slow and intermittent here so I dare not check. We are close to Askifou and obviously still on Crete which is all you probably need to know. Found gyros last night. Still surprised we don’t see it more frequently and still surprised how relatively cheap it is. We pay about half the price of any other ‘main course’, still get chips with it (everywhere we have had gyros with chips in it!) and we always enjoy them. Again made the trek to breakfast and yes I still think it’s a bit weird. It’s not like it’s an impressive breakfast either. There are some hard boiled eggs but nothing else is cooked, there’s no cereal of any description, no pastries and only a couple of ... read more

We’re walking again. That’s good because less can go wrong when really your well being and comfort are in your own hands. The official start of the trail, and a use that term loosely, is a the village information center. The centre appears to be a front for a couple of hotels and enterprises in the village but that is sort of irrelevant to us. We went there then immediately started to follow the exhaustive set of directions I received from the walking company. There are turn by turn directions meaning in the villages there may be instructions each 10m or so! Over the 13 km today the directions proved very good. Bit frustrating continuously checking the iPad but still effective. The trail is not a circular track, like the Juliana Trail or even a continuous ... read more

So close to DISASTER. Mr Silly left his iPad at the restaurant of our hotel and was happily on the way to the airport when the driver received a call. Well we turned back, the hotel host drove towards us, we met in the middle and everything was fine (apart from losing 5 minutes). But the scary thought of how close this was to a disaster will haunt me for a while. As it was we were told the drive would be 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes but it took 3 hours and the only hold up was with iPad and really that was less than 10 tops. We stopped for photos at the Corinth Canal and for driver coffee and pastries so I don’t know if he was unaware of the time schedule ... read more