On to Crete

The 45 minute flight was very straight forward, although the Greek representatives of Ryanair, our carrier for the short flight had obviously been to the same charm school  as their English (sorry I must stop saying English all the time and say "British"), counterparts.

We picked up our car after a slight issue with Europcar who wanted to try to charge us as if we had not already paid for the one way hire (we were picking up at Chania and leaving it at Heraklion).

We immediately decided we would like Crete, despite the above, as the countryside was very green and verdant, the fields and roadsides wee full of wild flowers and the roads were relatively straight forward and quiet.     Chania is on the north coast of Crete and although we were told it was worth a stop and we knew it was unlikely we would make the journey again during our stay, we decided to head straight to where we were due to stay on the south coast in Damnoni, near to the resort of Plakias.  It was a two hour trip and we arrived at about 6.15 pm, close to the coast having to navigate an amazing overhanging gorge.  

We were staying in the Hapimag development in Damnoni Bay which is delightful and has all the amenities you could want.   We settled into our apartment and headed off to one of the tavernas on the beach for supper (Restaurant No 1) .   It was not a bad meal but not somewhere we thought we must rush back to but better was to follow.  One thing which was apparent though is that eating out in Greece is very inexpensive.   We have been paying in the region of 25Euros, including wine and tip for the two of us;  this has tended to include, whether we asked for it or not, a piece of a delicious pudding type cake.    The wine, although also inexpensive, has been fine.

The other consistent thing about Crete has been the weather.  It is not yet warm into the evening, but the weather during the day has been a very comfortable mid 20s with clear blue skies and the water has been a very comfortable temperature, slightly chilly to start with, but we have acclimatised very quickly. 

We decided fairly early on that we would not spend a lot of time touring what is a very big island.  We would look at the local area and enjoy the sun and sea, but long journeys were not planned. 

On the Wednesday, we visited the resort town of Plakias just two miles away;  the town is typically Greek and full of beach fronted restaurants, some supermarkets and other shops for tourists.   

We decided that we would not eat there and after a glass of wine looking out to sea, we headed back to another of our tavernas along our beach on Damnoni Bay for a delightful supper under the Tamarisk trees at the Damnoni Taverna (Restaurant No 2) , including garlic bread which was more like an Indian paratha (but very good) and some very tasty oven baked potatoes .

On the Thursday, we drove along the coast to the west to a village called Rodakino.  The trip is shown as scenic on the map and we were not disappointed.  The road carves its way through the mountains which were covered on their lower slopes with wild shrubs and flowers, particularly yellow daisies and the shrub form of phlomis (so the LLW tells me), leaving a wonderful sea of yellow.

The roads were reasonably well maintained but slow as there were regular hairpin bends and we started off behind a lorry.   At Rodakino, which is still quite high up, without having planned to do so, we took the turning down to Koraka Beach and arrived  at what seemed to be a restaurant on the sea front.  However, it turned out to serve only drinks and they pointed us further along the coast road.   At the end of the road is a little enclave which is probably typical to those of you who are familiar with the Greek Islands;    there were a half dozen properties, several having rooms to rent most with air conditioning which is probably new to us but very necessary in the summer) and at least one was a restaurant called "Virgin Mary" ("Restaurant No 3");  it was nothing fancy, there was no menu (at least not so far as we could see), but the food was tremendous and the owners were very friendly.  After a brief delay for the LLW's call from a "closing meeting", we had a delicious  pepper stuffed with a blue cheese and oven baked lamb (with the inevitable chips), red wine and water.    After this, without request, a delicious piece of portokalopita, the Greek orange cake, appeared and a bill for 21 Euros!.  

We headed back along our winding, but spectacular road, replete, but determined to go back before we left the island and immediately we got back checked out the recipe for the cake.  

Whilst we are on the subject of food, the local oranges have been fantastic. The skins are somewhat rough and mottled but they are quite simple the juiciest and sweetest oranges I have ever tasted!

Friday was our cycling day.  We had reserved two of the four bikes available at Hapimag and were about to set off, fairly early, only to find that one of our selected bikes was two flat tyres.  After a quick change of bike, we were on our way.  We planned to cycle via the "back route" to Plakias using fairly unmade up roads.  There was the odd huff and puff and getting off to walk up hills from the LLW, but we arrived in good time and cycled along the sea front one way and then the other way to  the harbour.  

After about 6 miles of cycling we stopped for a coffee on our sea front café and then gradually made our way back to Damnoni Bay and cycled along the front there and up to the top of  a bay just over  the headland    Having showered and changed we then treated ourselves to lunch at Restaurant No 2  where we had delicious fried zucchini and souvlaki, plus a delicious piece of orange, walnut and chocolate cake/pudding.    The fried zucchini were cut very finely and did not come in batter so far as we could see, but the waiter said they were slightly coated in flour;  we do not know if they had been deep or shallow fried, but we assumed, being vegetables, they must be very healthy!!!  They were certainly more appealing than the "boiled greens" which is a regular feature of the English translation of a Greek starter on many menus.   

On Saturday, we decided we would have a drive to the east and headed off amongst the olive groves to the Preveli Monastery.  The Monastery is perched dramatically on a small promontory, surrounding by the now ubiquitous  wild flowers.

Just along the road from the monastery is a war memorial reminding us of the British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in Crete during WW2. Cretans helped hundreds escape from Limni beach where they were picked up by a British submarine.

 

In Athens

We arrived at our Hapimag address in Plaka  on Saturday evening and had a stroll through the very lively streets before turning in. The location of our apartment is perfect and we can walk everywhere!

It was now Sunday 26th April and today we are heading off for lunch at Tiki and Nolly's house. Tiki (Eftychios Hadjioannou) was CEO of Eurodata one of ICL's dealers when we lived in Greece and we became firm friends. Last time we visited we were shown Tiki's vineyard and we have been promised a tasting of his latest wines!

After a leisurely morning with breakfast at a café in Plaka we watched the world go by until it was time to head off to Tiki's.We walked to the Metro station at Monostiraki and caught the metro to Kifissia where George Koliris had kindly agreed to meet us. All was spot on time and George was there within a few minutes of us arriving. Kifissia was very busy and clearly it is a popular Sunday outing for shopping, coffee and cakes! Also invited to the lunch was George Askaroglou and his wife Anna who we also know very well. Askaroglou was Technical Director at Eurodata and Koliris was Sales Director.

George K was uncertain of the route to Tiki's house so we had agreed to go first to George A's house (do please keep up!!) and follow him. We duly arrived at Tiki's very large house complete with an enormous basement to house all of the wine making equipment and wine racks (500 bottles of red and 275 bottles of white from the last harvest).


It was beautiful day so we were delighted to find that a BBQ and eating out on the terrace was the plan. Now Tiki has always been an expert BBQ man and we have fond memories of lamb and octopus on the BBQ all those years ago. The new BBQ in his garden is quite something.

We had a wonderful afternoon, excellent food, great company and lively conversation. Tiki's winemaking has really progressed and the white was good but the red was truly excellent (and the spirit made from the grape skins, similar to Marc or Grappa was good too).

In typical Greek fashion lunch finished about 6pm and we then headed back to our apartment. During the lunch conversation, Tiki told us that his elder son Antony and his wife Christina, now lived in Ragava Street in Plaka and would love to see us if we had time. We knew Antony, and his brother Philip, well from our time in Greece when Antony was 12; he is now 46!  In fact there is an excellent photo of Antony and Philip from the time we lived in Greece taken by Ray in Tiki and Nolly's house

George Koliris took us back to Kifissia station and we were soon back in our apartment; we called Antony to see if we could find a time to meet and after much debate it was decided that the best time was now!! So off we went for the 5 minute walk to Antony's house and we spent a really nice hour or so with them in their lovely house right in the centre of Plaka. The street is actually very quiet but literally just 2 mins walk from the hubbub of tourist Plaka. Their house is fascinating with some exposed walls dating from 500 BC.

The next day, Monday we had a day to ourselves and after a leisurely breakfast at a café and a visit to the osteopath for Ray to sort out a niggling spinal nerve problem, we wandered around Athens, including climbing up to the Acropolis.   From the Acropolis, you can see clearly the density of the city, something which also seemed very apparent on our approach to Athens Airport when we first arrived.

As we said after our last visit to Athens two years ago the city is immeasurably wealthier than it was when we lived here in 1980/81 and we were surprised at how busy the city was and certainly no shortage of tourists. Having said that, there are quite a lot of closed businesses and our friends here are very, very concerned about what the future holds.
 

Back to Greece

It is 2am on Wednesday 22nd April and we are up at this ridiculous hour to ensure we catch our 05:45 plane from Gatwick to Athens. No problem with traffic or parking and we settled into our "free" airline lounge courtesy of Barclays Premier.
 

Another excellent easyJet flight and in under 4 hours we landed at Athens where we were met by our good friend George Koliris who Ray worked with at ICL in Athens in  1980/81. There had been a slight change of plan since in typical Greek fashion the ferry company had changed the timetable of the ferry to Kea from 15:30 to 18:30. Originally we had planned a lunch around the port area but George and his wife Evi, very considerately, thought that we should go back to their house for lunch, have a couple of hours rest, and then head of to the port of Lavrio. So after an excellent lunch of fresh grilled fish, we crashed our for a couple of hours and then were driven to Lavrio. The ferry crossing to the Island of Kea only takes an hour and it was a calm, sunny evening; the only concern being that because the ferry was late leaving Evi was worried we would miss the view of the sunset from their house on Kea! However, we were treated to an excellent sunset as the ferry approached the port of Korissia on Kea.

Whilst Kea is very close to the mainland it is one of the Cyclades islands (think Mykonos and Santorini), but has none of the noise or crowds that those islands sometimes suffer from. The next morning George and Evi took us on a tour of the south west, west and north of the island visiting Pisses, Koundouros and Otzias. Koundouros is where the rich have their villas and apparently in the summer the bay is crowded with anchored yachts of all shapes and sizes. As you can see from the photo, it was not like that when we visited!

An excellent lunch was partaken at a Tavera in Otzias in honour of George's name day (see later) and we then visited Korissia again for some supplies.

George and Evi's house is high up the mountains about 2 km from the islands capital of  Ioulis. The views down to the port are stunning and the island was looking well nigh perfect with beautiful wild flowers everywhere and the LLW was particularly impressed by the Cercis trees in full bloom.

Thursday April 23rd is of course St George's day and in Greece one's "name day" is marked by endless calls from friends and family calling with best wishes - and we are talking of 60/70 calls received by George Koliris on the day. When he was engaged in the phone  talking they called Evi and she answered on his behalf! I made a mental note to consider buying shares in OTE, the Greek telephone company!!

We absolutely loved Kea and will definitely be back; it is a stunning island and at this time of year is very peaceful. We had a very interesting visit to the archeological museum in Ioulis where the treasures were beautifully displayed.

After three nights on Kea we were al due to head back to the mainland but not before a stop at the Red Tractor Farm, which is a development of apartments, a vineyard and olive grove and a biscuit and chutney making enterprise which is owned by a Greek friend and his wife,, who is from California, although has been in Greece since the 80s.   They make cookies out of acorn flour which are very good and a number of chutneys - the lemon and black onion seed specimen we bought being very good. 

We then called into a garden centre (hooray says the  LLW) which is owned by George and Evi's son in law, Nichos.  The LLW was fascinated by a caper plant, which has very attractive foliage, although capers are most definitely not her thing.  

After crossing back to the mainland, George and Evi dropped us off at Markopoulo Cross where we picked up a taxi to take us to Glyfada, where we were meeting Olivia, her daughter Marianna, her son in law George and her new grandchild Stephanie. We had an excellent evening with them all at a Taverna in Glyfada.

We have not yet mentioned the financial problems in Greece and whilst most of our friends are weathering the storm fairly well, they are all very concerned about the direction being taken by the current government, an unholy alliance of far left and far right. Our eveing in Glyfada brought this home to us because Marianna and George told us that they are moving to the UK in September since George, a civil engineer, cannot find a job in Greece and Marianna has British citizenship having been borne in England.

After our meal Olivia drove us into Athens on her way home to Kifissia (a smart suburb of northern Athens) and we were duly delivered to our next stop, the Hapimag residence right on the edge of Plaka.