The intention was to get up early and go out early as we were walking up to Epano Elounda and wanted to walk up there before it became too hot, however, despite getting up early we ended up going out much later than we usually do due, as usual, to too much faffing about before we went!
We woke to a very dull room. Usually we can see the sun peeping in from the gap in the curtains but on inspection it seemed that the day thus far was quite overcast. Not to worry, it would be the ideal conditions for our walk this morning, not too hot or sunny, but just right.
We started the day by laying out our ’yoga’ mats in order to carry out our daily yoga challenge. Today’s session was Yoga for Stretching and it was just what we needed. Laying out on a sun-bed every day certainly makes the muscles sieze up. There was much oohing and aahing as we stretched our limbs, telling ourselves that it was doing us the world of good!
Breakfast this morning was absolutely lovely. Despite the overcast sky it was so serene and the lagoon was like a millpond. The clouds clung low across the distant mountains giving the whole scene an ethereal quality. It was beautiful and very sublime. We always appreciate Mother Nature but when you experience views like this it really is good for the soul.
After breakfast we found ourselves back in the room busy sorting out the blog. Can you believe this, it took all night for Maice’s photos to download from her iphone to her iPad. Why is that? Do they get get stuck up in the clouds somewhere? We were so engrossed in what we were doing that we didn’t realise what time it was until the maid knocked on the door at 10am and we realised we were well behind schedule. We were hoping to leave at 9am but now we were an hour later. Not to worry, we’ll just ‘go with the flow’.
We finally set off with Harry’s make-shift map in hand, found the church and walked up the hill towards Epano Elounda. Although it was still very overcast it was quite muggy and we were looking forward to enjoying our daily frappe in the local kafenion, the cafe, which both Paul (alias Alan) and Harry told us was a must to visit. The village was lovely, very rural and rustic, with a Cretan charm about it and we meandered slowly through the narrow passageways, taking photos here and there and of course the odd video, until we came upon the kafenion. It was lovely, very bijou, with it’s very colourful tables and chairs. The only problem was, it was closed! Of course Harry declined to advise us that it would be closed on a Sunday, so there we were, outside the kafenion, really looking forward to our frappe. How disappointed were we! We’ll certainly be having ‘words’ with Harry when we see him in the bar later this evening!
In need of our morning frappe, we found the goat trail that Paul (alias Alan) said was a more direct route back to Elounda. What he didn’t tell us was how uneven and precarious the actual path was, particularly as we were both bedecked in our flip flops. Will we ever learn!
Back in Elounda the weather was still overcast and quite humid so we regrouped over a frappe in our favourite cafe, Mylos to contemplate what we were going to do for the rest of the afternoon. We had options. Quite a number of options to be precise. We could either a) sit around the pool in our hotel b) sit on the private beach at our hotel c) take a sun-bed at the town beach d) take the bus into the next resort of Plaka or e) find a cafe where we could have a drink and play cards. We decided not to go with ‘plan a’ due to the pool being rather bijou and all the sunbeds being literally on top of each other. We also decided not to go with ‘plan b’ as the private beach is also rather ‘bijou’ and you can be viewed from the road and the restaurant. We debated about ‘plan c’ but dismissed that idea as it wasn’t sunny and we’d only be on the sun-beds for a few hours, and as we like to get value for money we thought we’d be wasting our money paying for sun-beds. As for ‘plan d’, we didn’t fancy getting the bus to Plaka so discounted that idea too. Which just left ‘plan e’…..find a cafe and play cards. So we decided to go to the Sky Bar back at the hotel, alias Harry’s bar, took our ipads and our extra large pack of cards and spent the afternoon up there drinking wine and Aperol Spritz!
It was rather cool this evening so we dressed accordingly. We donned our long sleeved long dresses, wrapped our cardi-scarves around our necks and set off into Elounda. We didn’t know where we were going to eat, what we did know was that we wanted something really hearty, the weather being as it was. And so we came upon Dimitri’s Steak House (non-meat food is available), a traditional family taverna where they serve good, wholesome Greek food. We really enjoyed it there and it wasn’t expensive either. Definitely one to recommend. They even serve a quarter giraffe of wine! Once upon a time, back in the day, we could easily consume a full giraffe of wine but now we can only just manage a half. Who knows, as we get older we may find it necessary to reduce our wine intake to a quarter giraffe……perish the thought! The evening was invaded by ‘Bouzouki Man’ who came along to the taverna and set himself up just inside the doorway, played a few tunes ‘Zorba’ tunes on his bouzouki, sang a couple of songs and then proceeded to walk around the tables with his hat. We felt obliged to drop in a few coins and after he’d gone round the restaurant he was on his way. Just like that. One minute he was there, the next minute he’d hopped onto his moped and driven off to some other unsuspecting taverna.
One thing we’ve noticed on this holiday is the way the bills are presented. Once upon a time they used to be brought to the table either on a plate, or just handed over. Now they are being delivered to your table in a manner of different ways….a) attached to a clothes pegs b) in a wooden box c) in a wooden box within a box, within a box d) in ‘fake’ boxes that look like books or d) in shot glasses. I suppose it’s a gimmick but it’s always a surprise to see which method each establishment decides to use.
During supper we received an email from our tour operator, Jet2 holidays regarding our departure on Tuesday and what time we were being picked up. They said, and I quote….. ‘I hope your have had a lovely time away! We can’t wait to hear all about it’! So we thought we’d send them a link to our blog, then they’ll definitely know what sort of holiday we’ve had!
We were rather stuffed after supper so took the opportunity to walk around the harbour before making our way back to the hotel and up to Harry’s bar for one last drink of the day. He was rather surprised, but did laugh when we told him about out visit to the kafenion in Epano Elounda. Ah well, you can’t be right all of the time!
On that note its’s time for bed. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is a sunny day and we can get back to doing what we do best, sunbathing. In fact, it’s time to cross everything, fingers and toes included, for my Goddaughter Celine who sits one of her final exams tomorrow. Good luck Celine…..you can do it! 🥰
Καλυνυχτα……..M&A xx
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