We extricated ourselves from beneath our lovely warm duvets, threw back the curtains, opened the balcony doors and welcomed in the day. Naturally it was still windy but the sky was blue and we could feel the warmth from the sun, even at 8am. Right, first things first. We kick-started the day with our daily Berrocca (other vitamins that support the immune system are available) followed by two doses of seven minutes per day exercises. One for the belly, and one for the arms!
After fourteen minutes we were exhausted, carried out our ablutions, got ourselves dressed and with that we headed down windy-alley to breakfast. You can’t beat a glass of fresh orange juice, a good healthy breakfast and a view to die for to set you up for the day.
After breakfast we took Harry’s advice, turned right and headed off towards the beach on the opposite side of the peninsula. The one that Harry said wasn’t windy and where we’d experience a lovely quite calm sea air. The walk across the causeway however was that windy we had a job to walk in a straight line and when we arrived at the cafe come restaurant we both looked like we’d been dragged through a hedge backwards! It’s quite a chic looking place but they didnt open until 11am and as it was only 10.30 we decided to walk straight to the beach, which according to Harry was only fifteen minutes walk away. Once there we’d find a nice cafe and enjoy our daily frappe.
We set off along the very uneven road until we came to a signpost that read ‘beach 3.5km’. Now, neither of us are mathematical geniuses but even we could work out that it would take more than the 15 mins that Harry said it would take to walk there. Ah well, that’s the Greeks for you……they always tend to exaggerate! We’ll just ‘go with the flow’ we thought and continued along the path. I mean, let’s face it. 3.5km isn’t that far at all!
So where was the beach? We’d walked uphill for about twenty minutes and hadn’t come across it, yet according to Harry we should be here by now! Eventually the very uneven road ran out and in it’s place was a rugged, uneven, narrowing, stony, croppy path. It was definitely not suitable for flip-flop wearers wearing beach attire and lugging beach bags. But, not to be deterred we carried on, feeling every rock and stone through the soles of our flip-flops. Surely the beach can’t be too far away, we mused. We’d been walking for at least an hour and the path was becoming more and more rugged so we regrouped besides a gorse bush and contemplated our current situation. To continue on wearing our present attire was really not practical. The coast was very rugged, there wasn’t a beach in sight and if we did ever find ‘the beach’ that Harry told us about, we’d have to walk back the same way. To be fair to Harry though, it wasn’t windy on this side, but was that enough for us to continue on? No. So that was it. Decision made. We turned around and made our way back along the stony outcrop towards the cafe. On our walk back we passed quite a number of people wearing sensible attire, you know, walking shoes and boots and carrying back-packs, not like us in flip-flops and dressed for the beach! Honestly, having worked in the travel industry for so long you’d think we’d know better. We’d have rolled our eyes at our guests for wearing that sort of attire on that sort of walk yet here we were doing just that! Plus, had we seen us wearing what we’re wearing on that walk we’d have been saying ‘look at those two idiotic women wearing flip-flops up a mountain’!!
We were about fifteen minutes from the cafe when we passed by a very small cove that we’d admired on the start of our walk, with a boat gently bobbing about on the sea. It looked very idyllic but what struck us was the two people sat on the very small patch of beach! Could this be ‘the beach’ Harry was telling us about? There we were thinking it was a beach with sun-beds and a taverna or two when really all it was was just a strip of sand in a tiny cove…..and we’d walked well over an hour to find it!!!!!
Finally, we found ourselves at the cafe just fifteen minutes away from the beach where we regrouped over our frappes and deliberated what to do for the rest of the day? We decided to head back to yesterdays beach, via the bakery where we’d pick up a couple of spinach pies for lunch then at 3pm when the wind chill factor set in we’d find a cocktail bar for a few afternoon drinkies. Perfect. Before we knew it we were soon sitting in a cocktail bar in the square drinking our new drink of the holiday…..Aperol Spritz. Not only are they very orange, they’re also very on-trend and very delicious.
On the walk back to the hotel we were accosted by Manos, the owner of Rakomelo, a restaurant a few minutes from the hotel who talked us through his menu and looked forward to welcoming us one evening. He’s a real character and we’d admired his restaurant the night before so we decided that’s were we were going for supper this evening. Well, we were not disappointed. The food was amazing. Grilled octopus, grilled prawns, a lovely greek salad washed down with a very delicious house wine. Followed by a complimentary bottle of Rakomelo, followed by two more complimentary glasses of Rakomelo and then ‘one for the road’. Honestly, we had such a great evening and Manos is such a great host. We’ll definitely be going back there again. So, for those of you who don’t know what Rakomelo is, here is what it is….
Rakomelo is made by combining Raki with honey and cinnamon. It’s a digestive spirit traditionally used by many Greeks as a home remedy for a sore throat or cough. In our case however, it was drunk purely for pleasure.
Back at the hotel we went to see Harry up at the bar for one final glass of wine. Well, he just roared with laughter when we told him about our trip to ‘the beach’. In fact he couldn’t stop laughing at the thought of us two trekking up the scraggy path looking for a beach with sun-beds and tavernas. Ah well, at least we put a smile on his face!
Today we’ve walked over 12,500 steps, all in our flip-flops. We’re tired, we’ve drunk all types of weird and wonderful drinks today and now it’s time for bed. On that note…..
Καληνύχτα. See you in the morning for another exciting episode!
M&A xx