Putin Fan Club on Tour!

Continuing the saga - here are some of the former comrades dancing the midday away on the Friday on the magnificent Cruise Bacelona. http://www.grimaldi-ferries.com/england/index.jsp?lan=ENferries.com/england/index.jsp?lan=EN

It is a huge ship - which has only been in service since July. Boarding with the car was a bit shambolic - only about 30 private cars but poor signing! We endured it with a young Aussie couple who had been touring for 9 weeks in a British registered VW. Superb vessel - but very short meal service slots - and in the morning (it's a 20 hour voyage) a bit boring! Up on the pool deck the Russians got out the music (Barry White, Volga boatmen and Eurovision song contest) and had a bit of a boogie! Well stabilised ship - but nausea was just held at bay!

5. Friday to Monday - Costa Brava!

Very interesting sailing into port of Barcelona around 3pm! Several cruise ships with waving passengers - good views of city features! A we drove down the ramp a thunderstorm started, an we had to traverse the city on the coastal autopista in heavy rain again (as in 05!). Nonetheless we made it to our chosen spot with ease. This was chosen more or less at random from the bottom of the Thomson bargains website. We figured that at 84 pounds sterling for three nights half-board for two it could be quite bad and still good value! In fact the Indalo Park in Santa Susana is pretty good but the weather wasn't! On the second day the Russians (!) checked out en masse at 7 am and the Dutch families checked in. There was some pressure on the buffet service - especially at breakfast (10 mins to get a cup of coffee) but the food was very good and on Sunday there was excellent live music by the pool. The town is quite small and runs into larger Malgrat where we spent soem time. The sun came out for part of Sunday too!

6. Monday - To Girona and Madrid

There was no chance of flying direct from Girona to Fuerte this year as Ryanair have switched to UK routes (We heard today at a 5 Euro subsidy per head!) so we parked up near Girona airport as last year (though car wash place out of order - sorry Yvette!) and flew Ryanair to Madrid. This and the onward Tuesday flight came to 70 Euros total for two so the 75 Euros extra for excess baggage with Ryanair was tolerated! We took the free shuttle to the booked hotel arriving mid-afternoon. The Hotel Auditorium is the largest hotel in Europe. http://www.auditoriumhoteles.com/en/nuestros_hoteles/auditorium/auditorium.asp

Not surprisingly it is luxurious (with ADSL in each room!) but eating without choking on the prices was going to be a challenge. We followed instructions and took a very cheap and fficient public bus into the city. We had no tourist info - so just went to the underground bus station and followed our noses. We found an old-fashioned tapas bar - delightful - walked around a bit amongst traditional shops like this - bought a bottle of wine and took the bus back.

7. Tuesday - to Fuerteventura

We had a swim in the indoor pool at the hotel and then breakfast from the ultimate buffet! We checked out at noon as required and took the shuttle back to the airport. We had ages to kill but Bob discovered that the Easyjet desk was open and happy to relieve us of bags (which weighed bang-on 20kg each so nothing to pay!) The day's Guardian, some beers and a long walk round the enormous Barajas took us to boarding, some decent seats and an easy flight. Mike was there to meet us (his own Lanzarote plans having been scuppered by the Fred Olsen maintenance schedule!). Home again - and a chance to discover defects, breakages and confused keys!

This Season's Odyssey

Our route was a modification on that of 2007:- less Italy, no France, a pause on the Costa Brava and two flights needed at the final stage.



It all worked out well. Some highlights:

1. Monday - Chania to Piraeus overnight. We stopped off to pick up a small spare part at the Fiat dealer. Unfortunately the 100 m stretch of road outside it was closed to traffic and being dug up. Bob waded through ankle-deep mud to get the little but vital part and we fitted it in the car park at the port. On board we were hailed by two elederly couples -in Greek - "You come from Paleochora and have bicycles on your blue car!" With some French (!) we established that they live in Athens but spend every summer as we do. We had been saying kali spera to them each evening as we passed their home. In a fit of economy/meanness we had not booked a cabin. We found some so-called reclining seats but had a very bad night owing to a Bulgarian/Albanian coach party with no sense of personal space. In the morning we had a tedious wait to get off with the car - but not as silly as last year.


2. Tuesday - to Patras and the Bari ferry. We clearly need more training on "How to get out of Piraeus and onto the Corinth road in under one hour". We took a long break and after Corinth took the "non-national" road -slower and with odd conichey bits. Patras still has all the Asian illegals lurking and being chased, but we had a mellow time inside the port area in great sunshine and were boarded early. We had a very good value inclusive ticket, and were shown to a luxury cabin with pseudo-Japanese decor and a TV. A nice voyage!
   

We landed in Bari at 10 am Italian time. There were very few private vehicles to disembark, but it still took some time! We went to the back of the upper car deck and saw this! It smelt pretty good too!

3. Wednesday - across Italy. Bari port had gross roadworks causing huge delays for HGVs - much but not all of which we could pass. Then solid - not too hairy autostrada over the Appenines etc. Bob wanted to stop at Monte Casino which we had seen from the road last year. We made a detour and then realised that driving up to a hilltop fortress was going to be a challenge to those with vertigo, so we visited only the 1944 military cemetry. Very moving!

As evening came - and the threat of rain - we decided not to push on to Anzio, but to return to the Rose hotel in Latina (a most unprepossesing town- but well located!)



We got a warm welcome and a good returners' room price. We ate some good Italian stuff in the same (only?) nearby ristorante and had a leisurely start next day.







4. Thursday - Civitavecchia to Barcelona ferry. We took the coast road via Anzio (a bit run down - but interesting historically) and Ostia, then a fairly easy route round Rome (Don't mention the 10 km detour for diesel - how can a brand new shopping mall have no fuel?!) to arrive in C with lots of time to kill. We started a quiet late lunch outside the ferry terminal then the coach pary from Hell arrived. 50 Russian middle-aged women! (Again - no sense of personal space!)
Read on!

Summer 08 - Looking back - Yia-Yia Gaga Club!

Our migration is complete!
Paleochora this year was as delightful as ever as a village for summer days and nights. The down side was the weather - excessive wind and the early onset of autumn, and the absence of the kantina - missed conversations with the regulars and a disincentive to pitching up on the beach in dubious conditions!

Amongst a good few high spots were the series of meetings during July and August of the planning commitee of the Yia-Yia Gaga Club. The idea was hatched a couple of summers ago. None of us getting any younger, but determined to spend our time in the village! Answer? A day centre - with funding assitance from the EU - and all the services and pastimes we could desire. Various venues have been considered. The name refers to yia-yia - Greek for grandma.

In Fuerteventura we have the Saga Louts - older ladies who sing along at the Rock Island of an evening. A clear link!

The ragbag of people who should know better is seen here after yet another session of the Planning Group.


Clockwise from the front left we have:
Gaby: Wine procurement, personal hygiene
Ruth: Social calendar, mental agility programme
Julia: Animal protection,
Catherine: Youth Outreach, recruitment
Susan: Domestic services quality control
Jim: Investment strategy
Sam: Marketing, grant applications
Eion: Employee/TU relations, fraternal links
Bob: Financial control, planning and recruitment for over-80s
Eva: European integration (especially the Ja-Ja Klub!)
Charlie: Archivist, local history & cameraman

"Left hand down a bit!"

Yesterday there was a mystery appearance off of the Western shore. An enormous twin-hulled maritime lifting vessel of some sort (mobile dry dock?) was being towed by a relatively tiny tug. It had been seen two days previously about 20 km west, so progress is pretty slow! All through the daylight hours it revolved on itself virtually stationary and eventually passed round the Crocodile headland in the evening. What on Earth is it, and where is it going? How many months till it gets there?

Sunset

Everyone agrees the weather has been "all over the place" of late.

This has included some sunsets like this when the heavy cloud hangs low over the mountains,but in there is a warm bright sun.

Last night we wrapped up warm to go to Flora's Water's Edge dinner - our last and her penultimate. The menu included dumplings - appropriate for the conditions. Last week she had 50 covers - this week 15 - so the Brit-Norwegian- German- Swiss melange all sat at the same table. Afterwards there was community singing - enough said!

A hot lemon tart to die for! See : www.paleochora-holidays.com/watersedge.htm

Flag End of the Season

Today is the third consecutive lousy-weather Sunday! We have had gusts of wind to Beaufort 9 in the early hours, and rain on-and-off through the day. Whenthe sun goes in it is cold!

During this week, however there has been some real sunshine and the sea is still warm. It turns out that our last Greek sea-dip will have been on Thursday 9th. Not bad really!

The toll of the recent frequent wind problems is evident in the state of the three flags on the west beach. Greek and EU ones hang in tatters. The Blue Flag accreditation flag has collapsed completely and is tied round the post!

Last Sunday a fair number of the Northern Europeans here were oblivious to the rotten weather as they were nursing their heads. On Saturday highly talented German artist Martin - newly returned from nasty back operations - held a party in his new studio. There was a vat of red wine from his favoured kafenion in Kakodiki - accompanied by its maker who also offered his own special honey tsikoudia (raki). Which of these it was that did the damage is unclear! There was wurst of course, and Ruth made tortilla espanola. Martin has a magnificent music collection, and there were candles in the garden, which survived a sudden downpour. We retreated early enough to miss the nasty incident involving a headlock, broken camera and a better-left-nameless Frenchman.

Over The Hill

Kalo Mina! - greeting for the 1st of a month!



















September was not a great month!
The statistics from the weather station:
Max >= 32.0: 7 days, Min <= -18.0: 0 days - so not much beach time!


Max Rain: 17.81 ON 20/09/08 Days of Rain: 3 (> .2 mm) 2 (> 2 mm) 0 (> 20 mm)

and then there was the XL/Kosmar thing and the overall low tourist spending.

There is a real "end of the season" feeling here now - and in the poorer weather some of the tat looks worse.

We walked round the headland. In the "white elephant" commercial port there is the hulk of a boat that was brought in with illegals four or more summers ago.
Further round is the unfinished shell of a hotel or rooms which has been in this state for as long as we can remember. This year it has been tastefully embellished by a grafitti artist with a sense of irony.

Today we visited Mollie's shop which is up for sale.
Other shops have brought out their stock of woolies and rainwear.

On the other hand the better restaurants are still doing well - often with the grey (and/or pink) Euro, and our house cat Scaredy has ventured over the threshold - recognising how pleasant the flat is for cooler days and nights! We are spending time refining the migration plans.