We woke up to find big black clouds in place of blue skies, heard the thunder rolling in the distance and raindrops falling, at first lightly on the pool then the heavens opening and the most torrential of downpours. It was only 7.30am and apparently we were in for a day of this!
Breakfast as usual was served at the M&A Cafe overlooking the pool. We were half sitting inside the room and half sitting on the balcony as the rain was hammering down now and bouncing off the floors. Never mind, it was certainly fresh and we enjoyed watching the storm.
As ever, talk turned to what we should do today and due to the inclement weather it was suggested we walk to the end of Alykes, which is the next resort to us and look at the shops. So when there was a lull in the rain, we set off, with the intention that when it rained again we could take refuge in one of the many bars or cafes along the way. So far so good. We had made it to Alykes, walked along the river, somehow found ourselves on the wet sand, past all the very forlorn looking sunbed's and then back on the road again. Dianne bought a few bits and pieces to take home and then the heavens opened. You would think it would be easy to find a cafe to take refuge in, but like the tavernas yesterday, trying to find one that was open and had comfy chairs, that being our main criteria, was again, proving difficult. We remembered the forlorn looking pink sunbed's from earlier, sat in front of an equally pink interiored ice-cream parlour, so we headed there. We got in just in time as the storm really took off and it was thundering, lightning and torrential rain......oh yes, not forgetting the secret wind-aki's contributed by both Pearl and Maice! You name it we had it. Zeus was obviously not happy today. So we ordered two Baileys Frappe's for Maice and I, a jug of coffee for Pearl and some very sweet looking coffee caramel with cream on the top drink for Dianne and enjoyed the storm from within.
After about an hour we decided to head back to the apartments for lunch. The rain had subsided and we felt it safe to venture back without getting a soaking. How wrong we were. Just as we got to the river walk the heavens opened again and we got absolutely soaked, right through to our bras and knickers. People must have thought we were mad as we were laughing so much as we were trying to run along the street, careful not to slip...... all of us looking like drowned rats. We ended up taking refuge at the bakery where we bought some spinach and cheese pies and stood outside under the canopy waiting for the rain to stop. Peering through the window back into the bakery we saw what must have been the Baker come out into the shop wearing nothing but a grubby towel around his nether regions. Honestly, you do see some sights here in Greece!
We decided that as we were already wet through we may as well just carry on in the rain and we arrived back at the pool bar 'absolutely dripping', much to the amusement of the few tourists sat around the bar. As Dianne had the biggest room which could accommodate the balcony table inside, we made ourselves presentable and met up fifteen minutes later, in our pyjamas, for lunch and entertainment. The spinach pies, washed down with village wine were delicious and after we'd eaten we played charades, then continued on with our rummy tournament. When the wine had run out, we had no option but to take ourselves and our cards down to the pool bar where we ordered four Mythos beers and continued playing. As Maice seemed to be getting the opportunity for high scores, due to being strategically positioned between Pearl and I she came up with a solution where we chose a number between one and four and then picked a piece of paper and whatever number was on that we moved to that seat. Ha, it turned out it was only Maice and I that changed seats and I went on to win some big hands.
Tournament finished for the day, talk turned as usual to supper. Where could we go that wasn't too far away so we didn't get soaked. We left the decision to Pearl and Dianne as it was their penultimate night in resort. Dennis collared us just before we left with some 'logical' puzzles for us. Now, we have all concluded that between the four of us, none of us are logical and we seemed to be getting our brains into a bit of a tizz. We thought we were a tad disadvantaged as we had consumed wine and beer! The final logical test was this one, which we decided to do over supper.....
'If 1 kilo equals 1 brick and a half brick, how much do five bricks weigh?' Answers on a postcard please!
For supper we decided to eat at the Acropolis taverna where we had eaten on the first night as it wasn't too far to walk if it started raining again. I must say, we do enjoy the food here and after a giraffe and a giraffe-aki of wine had been consumed we headed back home. We quickly popped into the Bliss bar where we are going on Wednesday night for a meze supper as we wanted to know what time it started. We were offered a free glass of wine which somehow turned into a large giraffe of wine! We felt awful as we couldn't drink it all, so not like us at all, but I suppose we had been drinking most of the day. Finally, we made it home just in time as the storm had returned with a vengeance. When we were sat in the Acropolis we saw the local news and there was a picture of a 'twister/tornado' that had materialised in Laganas, at the bottom of the island and not too far from where we had been the day before. Quite amazing.
Overall, despite the stormy weather we've had another great day. The Greek weather forecasters tell us we're in for the same tomorrow, so we have Plan A and Plan B in place. We'll let you know which we went for in our next blog!
P,M,A,D xxxx