A beach holiday

One of the jobs I had to do tidy was to try and hand over the guitar to the local school in Livadi. I walked up to it having bought the ingredients for icing for the carrot cake, for those who wanted it. As I walked through the school gate there was someone I recognised just ahead of me, he is the school head and I had met him a few times when I lived here. He asked me if he could help and explained what I wanted to do. He said his son was learning the guitar and was borrowing one from the school, so my gift had found a perfect home. I was so pleased. Next was a quick early lunch at Grans with some Greek, and then a drive around some of the beaches. Before I picked up the car, I popped into the local museum hoping the advertised display on rocks from Mega Livadi would boost its small resident showings. Unfortunately not! But it’s only two euros to get in. They had some nice black and white photos that I liked of Mega Livadi.



Back to the beach tour. The road takes you around Livadakia, then Ramos,  to the coast road going clockwise around the island starting at its southern tip. It wasn’t long before I came across the part where the wildfire had taken hold, it looked pretty devastating but there were already patches of green showing. The first beach is Vagia, I favour sunning myself at its far end. I took a black plastic bag, the beach generally is not too bad, but the ground between it and the beach houses gets messy unfortunately. I spent a happy hour, doing more Greek and  catching a bit of vitamin D. Next was Ganema, the lay-by is usually badly littered so I cleaned that up before walking along the beach. It was pretty clear, unusually so.  There was an unofficial bar that might have been closed down recently and perhaps that’s helped. The third of these three beaches which face each other, is Koutalous which I went to with my friends from Sifnos when they came here. I saw Father Daniel, unfortunately our abilities in our respective other languages mean it’s usually just being able to ask if we are both ok. I do know more and should try more on him. The taverna was just open, about to close at any moment, I weakened and had a Greek salad. I managed to check if they were open and communicated quite well, even if I was answered in English!

Then into mega Livadi. It’s one of the places where there were mines and activities where the iron ore was taken away and the infamous strike which was broken up by the government resulting in several deaths of miners. There was a group of students wandering around with a guide. The tavernas were all closed here, I expected that as the Dutch contingent don’t come here for their traditional Sunday lunch now. The good news is the old administration building is coming on leaps and bounds with a new terracotta roof and rendering. 

I then drove back to my room and had a rest, my next thing to do was drive down to the dog palace owners house and help her walk her dogs as her foot is a bit troublesome after the metal came out. We went to the last beach of the day Agios Sostis which is the name of the church on the beach. This beach is usually a litter mess, but amazingly it was pristine. I can only assume that the strong winds, that they have had all summer long has redirected the litter elsewhere or someone else is cleaning these beaches up. The ladies dogs love running about on the beach and they all went up too the church and beyond to have a look about. One of them went in the water, the wind is picking up so the water is getting a bit choppy. 



We then went back to her house and I drove to my rooms. I then decided to try to go to a really old fashioned taverna at the far end of the beach by my rooms, it used to be run by this old lady, but I think her son has taken it on and is still running it as she did. It did not look promising, it was dark but a lady sat in the gloom. I asked in Greek if the taverna was open but it wasn’t. I retraced my steps and admired a super sunset all around.

I had a meal at a nearby taverna, I was greedy and had two portions of a big white bean casserole. It was so delicious! I told the server that when I asked for a second helping. It was a nice way to end a perfect day.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deja Vu

Image
It is the last day of looking after the Cocker Spaniel who lives in the house where  one called Neville used to live. As time goes on the two Spaniels are converging, there are some subtle differences, the  youngster is becoming less black on his back. The youngster is very vocal, he talks non stop. Ignoring him increases the volume of the chatter until you involve him in some way. He loves doing things, non stop, action all day is the name of the game. He loves water, but he won’t swim. It’s been hot, so the walks I have done I have tried to ensure he had the opportunity to cool down. A walk from Aston to Henley, along the river Thames. Pub visit at the Angel on the Bridge. He loved that of course. Another day, another walk. This time around the pub at Waltham St Lawrence, another favourite pub, but we did the walk too early for opening time. Another dip in the lake by Shottesbrook. He found a dead mouse early in the walk, decided to carry it about, but thankfully dropped it!...
Read more

A few days off in the sun

Image
Like many tourists of yesteryear I have just got back from a holiday in North Wales, based in Colwyn Bay where my brother in law now lives. I have stayed there before but many years ago. He was down in our neck of the woods, so I hitched a lift in his MX-5 car to save me using the train or driving. The weather was still nice up there, just a little cooler, with a sea breeze thrown in for good measure. In the evening after we got up there, as  Monday is a quiet night, we had a few drinks in a local bar, where they have a reciprocal arrangement with a local pizza place, you order at the bar, they get delivered to you and you eat them with your beer. Result. All are priced the same. I had Peking Duck ( amazing ), he had Smoked Haddock ( also amazing ). The bar does all sorts of things like film nights, to tempt to punters in. We also had another drink in the local Wetherspoons, which I think was an old cinema, still featuring lots of its old fittings. On the next day we walked to near...
Read more

Remembering two tragedies

Image
After breakfast in my room, I had a leisurely start and left Penzance by foot to Mousehole, not pronounced as it is spelt. I walked through the town, heading to nearby Newlyn, which is a proper fishing village. Along the route was a lovely wide promenade and a Lido, cleverly designed to withstand the force of the sea and heated from a geo thermal spring. It’s called Jubilee Pool because it was built to celebrate George V’s Jubilee in 1935. There was a nice old art deco pub opposite, sadly with the parked cars it was not easy to see its full design. Along the prom, lots of people were walking, and many of them had black Labradors, which was nice as it got me thinking about the one I know who now lives in Oxfordshire, they contacted me today, I might see them next weekend. I carried on into Newlyn, a smaller conurbation with several buildings with a fish themed rectangular mosaic on their front walls, a nod to its fishing heritage which is ongoing. There was a statue to honour all the fi...
Read more