History is all in Trieste, too! Austro-Hungarian glory, a Fascist centre, ethnic cleansing and post-war carve-ups! It is also a favourite of many travellers.
We managed to dodge the rain for the afternoon and evening and spent far too much on small beers in one of the many grand piazze - not even Moretti!(Still, it was Ruth's birthday!)
A feature of the city is the number of very flamboyant coffee houses reminiscent of Vienna. We ate in one such near our hotel (The Greek restaurant in our own hotel being closed!).
.. with prosecco, local red wine, local cold meats and tender tagliata you could almost want to spend longer in Italy, but...
we had a ferry to catch. En route we encountered two major motorway hold-ups (with the newly familiar static queue of HGVs in the slow lane), and road works with diversions in Venice itself. We had little time to kill at the port. Then we struck "ANEK as the Ryanair of the sea".. again!
What a farce! At one point four elderly British women stood in a queue behind Eastern European foot passengers getting an airport-style security check. We were in various states of fury and anxiety having been hauled out of vehicles driven by partners and ordered to go through this procedure and meet them at ship's reception. There were those with no passport, those with both passports, and there was Ruth who had done this sort of thing before and was carrying her half the voyage's necessities:- most worryingly a supply of Croatian wine. She had spotted the disposal point for liquids! Whether the middle-class (and somewhat xenophobic) tirades in English had an effect or not suddenly a member of staff waved us all through and we went back to tell tales! Of course, if we were meaning to transport explosives we might just think to send them in the vehicle!
The ship itself was also a disappointment, but the earliest part of the voyage never is..
Our previous sailings on this route have been on large ANEK ships with plenty of sitting-out space (and a swimming pool) up top, a gyros bar, a cinema, three or four separate restaurants and working internet. No to all these on the new (improved?) one, so not our best time! We have also of late been getting a cabin with two low beds for the same price as a budget one (as Seniors we think). This ship seemed to cater for HGVs and coaches, and there were many very aged ladies travelling in groups so we think we lost out to them. Two nights aloft in the upper bunk for Bob, then! Still, time passes with some stashed TV films watched, and we met other holders of the grey pound, several of them going sailing!
Patras port has been improved and we were soon out and on the road. We drove to the hotel on the outskirts near the new Rio bridge, had a good breakfast, used the internet and twiddled our thumbs as it was not looking like the sort of day for sunbathing by the pool to kill time. So we set off again towards Athens sticking to the coast at points, and then it started to rain! Just before the real start of the city we stopped for a long lunch at the usual spot. No navigational errors getting to Piraeus, the rain stopped, we raided LIDL, dodged beggars and found ourselves with hours on our hands. We were however let early onto the ship and we did the usual port-watching with wine until sailing, and had an early night! It was a long slow docking, and the lift was available for a change. (In fact Ruth met a lady of 110 in it!)
We decided not to hang around waiting for shops to open and were soon turning off the national road near Kissamos to use the tunnel route to go South. In time there were notices in Greek warning of diversions. We ignored them, but thought the village of Topolia looked very quiet. Then a sign said "Odos Kleisto" or some such, which left no doubt that the road (and presumably the tunnel) was impassable! When we got back to the main road we thought we saw a look in the eyes of the seated old men we had passed twenty minutes earlier. So Bob drove the standard route down to Paleochora for the first time, and we survived, arriving outside Votsalo to quite a few "Welcomes".
We managed to dodge the rain for the afternoon and evening and spent far too much on small beers in one of the many grand piazze - not even Moretti!(Still, it was Ruth's birthday!)
A feature of the city is the number of very flamboyant coffee houses reminiscent of Vienna. We ate in one such near our hotel (The Greek restaurant in our own hotel being closed!).
.. with prosecco, local red wine, local cold meats and tender tagliata you could almost want to spend longer in Italy, but...
we had a ferry to catch. En route we encountered two major motorway hold-ups (with the newly familiar static queue of HGVs in the slow lane), and road works with diversions in Venice itself. We had little time to kill at the port. Then we struck "ANEK as the Ryanair of the sea".. again!
What a farce! At one point four elderly British women stood in a queue behind Eastern European foot passengers getting an airport-style security check. We were in various states of fury and anxiety having been hauled out of vehicles driven by partners and ordered to go through this procedure and meet them at ship's reception. There were those with no passport, those with both passports, and there was Ruth who had done this sort of thing before and was carrying her half the voyage's necessities:- most worryingly a supply of Croatian wine. She had spotted the disposal point for liquids! Whether the middle-class (and somewhat xenophobic) tirades in English had an effect or not suddenly a member of staff waved us all through and we went back to tell tales! Of course, if we were meaning to transport explosives we might just think to send them in the vehicle!
The ship itself was also a disappointment, but the earliest part of the voyage never is..
Patras port has been improved and we were soon out and on the road. We drove to the hotel on the outskirts near the new Rio bridge, had a good breakfast, used the internet and twiddled our thumbs as it was not looking like the sort of day for sunbathing by the pool to kill time. So we set off again towards Athens sticking to the coast at points, and then it started to rain! Just before the real start of the city we stopped for a long lunch at the usual spot. No navigational errors getting to Piraeus, the rain stopped, we raided LIDL, dodged beggars and found ourselves with hours on our hands. We were however let early onto the ship and we did the usual port-watching with wine until sailing, and had an early night! It was a long slow docking, and the lift was available for a change. (In fact Ruth met a lady of 110 in it!)
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| No through road this year! |
Well done. Please pass on your first impressions ASAP. See you soon
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