From A to B (Ancona to Barcelona) Part 1: ANEK plus Ancona equals Angst!

The idea of entering Italy at Ancona rather than Venice was to avoid hanging about in Patras until midnight and the unpleasant ships now on that route. Our French friends from Kandanos had done this but reverted telling us of disembarkation difficulties in Ancona. Greyrocks should have listened!



We had lunch and a beach afternoon on Chania's Nea Hora, followed by some time-killing near the port at Souda, easy embarkation and a fairly pleasant overnight voyage. En route from Piraeus to Patras there was a navigational error. This shouldn't have happened after all these years. We suddenly found road signs for "ferry port", but it was for no ferries that we knew anything about. Greyrocks are SatNav refuseniks, but the new Hudl has GPS, and it was brought into use for the rescue. We had wasted about 9 miles and half an hour, but there was no urgency - other than to find out the result of the referendum which was by then imminent. We stopped at a service station on the Corinth road only to find their WiFi was down. A little later we stopped at a roadside bar in a medium-sized town and got the news. Needless to say there followed an extensive post-mortem including some rich language with us surrounded - we thought - by non English-speakers. Suddenly a woman at a neighbouring table said "Excuse me, are you from Sydney?" Bizarre!
We pootled along towards Patras - making a detour to a town with a little train up the mountain, a line of a dozen motor-homes on its little beach and a massive traffic diversion because of railway construction. This was, in fact, a feature of the whole day's journey:- long lengths of roadwork on both National and parallel minor road, lengthy and barely adequately signed detours and the sudden appearance unopened stations with no evident track. It was good to see some investment in infrastructure in Greece, but frustrating to be metres away from a better road with no way of getting to it!


It all seemed so simple at this point!

 In Patras we found the cheapest diesel in Greece and filled up in the hope (fulfilled) of not needing any in Italy. We had beers in bright sun at the marina and were given several plates of mezes. We checked in and repeated the procedure at a bar on the port complex and got through security to a small queue. We were siphoned off because of the bike rack, but still got on quite quickly and when we were given an upgrade to an outside cabin we thought things were going really well. It was a good ship, with plenty of public space and a decent cafeteria, but then we stopped - somewhere near Kefalonia. Nothing was said but it was clear we would be late into Igounemitsa. Ruth was awake when we did, and next day Bob went ask and was told that we would be something like two hours late. This really mattered as we had planned a hotel that we expected to reach in daylight. We sent a warning email to the hotel and enjoyed the rest of the voyage.

Good old ANEK (blue and yellow corporate colours, you note!)! A ferry from Greece to Italy with a huge German-speaking passenger base and plenty of French, has unscheduled announcements in only Greek and English! In this case it was that only the driver could go down to the car deck. Ten percent of people understood this leading to remarkable chaos all over the ship as folk with all sorts of luggage, buggies and cool boxes were re-directed down two flights of stairs to wait the eventual arrival of their vehicle. The delay meant that the competing Minoan ship was already berthed and one poor man in hi-vis was trying to regulate the merging of the two queues of HGVs, private cars and coaches, with school groups and elderly coach parties tried to get themselves and baggage into coaches that were in said queue, and families tried to locate and re-join their cars with children, dogs, etc! Ghastly! The whole procedure took us two hours, culminating in the complete closure of the exit whist a train went across the level crossing. A "never-again" situation!

By now it was dark. Route-finding was straightforward but we sat in a long tailback from the major road whilst a team dozen rally cars roared up the wrong lane. Welcome to Italy! Still, we settled onto the autostrada and thought we might still make it in time for a much needed beer. We were to stay at a well-rated simple hotel with a Forli address. We had a thumbnail map and a set of access instructions in Italian, but it was very dark. We had not set up the Hudl for navigation. We thought we knew where we were going, but at the junction no signs seemed to relate to anything! It took four difficult conversations with (slightly drunk) punters and staff in various bars, several U-turns in the middle of deserted industrial estates, and nearly an hour and a half of frustrations and - yes - recriminations before we found the place - and not an open bar in sight! This was an evening that was probably a seven-year nadir for Greyrocks!

Next day's 250 mile drive to Arenzano on the Ligurian coast was a doddle after that, and the motel were to use was visible from the autostrada. We made a trip down to the seafront and had a very good meal. Phew! And the next day we got over the border to Menton before buying cheap diesel and finding our chain hotel in Aix-en-Provence. Through all these days there was beautiful sunshine, but on the last leg - to Lattes - there wasn't, and it was touch-and-go on the rain front; but we made it to catch Reception before lunch, got installed and did a supermarket run before it started. Some good luck, but the meteo was not promising for this week and indeed yesterday Greyrocks was part of climatic history! Read on!







The End of Summer

Enjoying late summer sun at Limnaki cantina

Greyrocks is now in Lattes, near Montpellier - again!
We left Paleo on 19th September and not a great deal happened between Chloë leaving us and our own uprooting!

 September started during her stay and the consensus was that it was "October weather", but it still made for a pleasant ten days for her in her new gainfully-employed but holiday-deprived state. There were several days with serious wind so we drove to Grammenon or Gialaskari beaches. The former was a pleasant surprise. We had heard that the fairly new taverna there was giving the highly-rated one across the road a run for its money, and having had some time on their sunbeds - run by Albanian Arnesti, who used to do those on Limnaki - we took lunch there. It now a has a name - "Homous" - and it is very similar in style to Methixis in Paleo. Ruth may well give it its first Trip Advisor entry. As an escape from Paleo wind and for shallow sandy bathing it is a winner - plus the food!

And on that subject Greyrocks worked its way round Chloe's favourite restaurants and tavernas doing no good at all for Ruth's diet! On less windy (but sometimes cloudy) days she joined us under "our" tree with a hired sunbed, we played tavli and listened to live music at the cantina, and she joined a Friday Scrabble game. We put her in a shared taxi one evening and by the next morning Ruth was confined to bed -with a filthy cold thus missing a trip up to Kandanos for dinner, and Bob followed on a few days later. Thus our final ten days were not quite as planned.

It was also Paleochora Art Week (all 16 days of it!) This year's event was bigger than last but just as well-organised. On the prom and at the Sandy Beach statue there was a large and impressive collection of sculptures. We went to the opening at the "Town Hall" which was crammed, and were particularly charmed by photographs by Carolina - who works in Cosmogonia. They show poseable figures in key locations in Paleo and around.

As before there was further artwork at points around the village, although in fewer tavernas.

Once we had both recovered we embarked on the big closedown - aiming to dispose of stuff we would no longer need in Paleo. Greyrocks is now committed to the "block rental of tourist accommodation" solution for the summer. It has a few drawbacks as a plan, but is very much better than the annual rental of second-rate flats, which is all there is available now. (Our 2012 and -13 flat has remained unoccupied since our departure!) Hence we have set up the arrangement with Mary for next year's 100 days.

There has been less live music than usual this year in the village's bars and tavernas, but a procession of street entertainers. The depressing Romanian children have done their thing, and the Greek guys who dance came back, and in the early weeks we enjoyed the stilt-walker/fire-eater whom we believe to be Mexican but would only say he came from "Clownland"! Our favourite was, however the modern lyra player from Sitia who played outside Stavros one evening keeping us there for many hours.

How do you choose?

In the final week it was "touch and go" for the beach, and there was rain too (of sorts), but in contrast with past recent years we were able to both sunbathe and enter the sea on our last full day. The card school got back together for a session and Ruth came last, but at Scrabble she had two dramatic wins. We took Yvette for a wash and she got stuck.

We organised supper for nine at The Small Garden and there was a loud and not entirely friendly row about the Scottish Referendum. We set off in Yvette more or less as the polls opened and the rest is history. How would we learn the result? Watch this space!

 

Close encounters of the watery kind

5.7 earthquake on 30th August

Since last posting we have worked up to the crescendo of August 15th and come back down with a shock! It has been very, very hot! The consensus is that there were more Athenians than ever in the village for the long weekend of Assumption. This meant plenty of road and restaurant rage, mumblings by locals and Greyrocks giving any car (or Chelsea Tractor) with a Z or Y at the front of its plates a very wide berth! Early dinner or eating at home was also the order of the day! And then it was over

Four friends resident in Kalives came down for a couple of days. They largely did their own thing during the day but at night Greyrocks took them to two restaurants we thought would be a change for them from standard Greek fare. These were The Small Garden - frequently cited here and Kapetan Dimitris which goes from strength to strength. The main feature of their stay though - apart from hours of great conversation - was the intense heat. Here are the maximum temperatures for August as recorded at Paleohora weather station:

Next Greyrocks had another short break in Chania. The purpose was to take Yvette for her "preventative surgery" (cam belt, fan belt, water pump etc) and when completed to come back with Chloë from the airport. The delightful Danaos was full so we stayed a few doors away at another hotel, which was comfortable enough but we didn't get the sea view we were expecting and it had the usual features of Greek rooms in terms of shower and mattress! We did at last achieve "closure" on the duck front by locating the fairly newly opened China Palace restaurant in the square in front of the big church. Not perfect, but having discovered that it is owned by the much-slated one in Platanias we were very happy with what we chose, the very good red wine and the service! We were also able to watch some amazing break-dancing in the square. The beach was not too crowded, the sea was lovely and we had some good meals. Then C's plane was only half an hour late arriving, and we were soon back here for ten days en famille (although with the offspring lodged elsewhere!)

So, over the last ten days we have said "Kalo Ximona" (have a good winter) to a swathe of friends and "welcome" to rather fewer but still with musical instruments! The weather has gone somewhat awry for the time of year, we felt an earthquake, and Sifis still won't come out of the reservoir!