Friday, 19 May
Dolora and I slept in this morning. Breakfast started and eight and there are no group activities scheduled today so we can enjoy our time on the Greek island. It was hard to believe but we had our best breakfast of the tour. Instead of a buffet, we were served peach cake, potato salad, strawberries, bread, orange marmalade, tomato and cucumber, warm vegetable juice, orange juice and coffee and that was just for starters. Eggs Florentine showed up, a fried egg over spinach and a slice of toast. It was overheard that Hotel Mistral serves the best breakfast on the island. Dolora and I agreed.
After breakfast, Ioanna had an optional walk through town to a beach. The walk had exceptional views and we were filled in on a bit of Greek gossip. The taverna that I was looking for last night, Taverna Gitoniko (Ταβέρνα Γειτονικόν), had a little story. The owner was known to keep a lot of cash at home. A couple of years ago, two guys from the Georgian (the country) mafia robbed and killed him. They fled by hijacking a boat to Athens. Somehow the driver of the boat let the police know so the police met them when they arrived in Athens arresting the pair. Ioanna tells us this type of crime is rare in Greece, especially in the smaller towns. The owner’s wife and son ran the business for a while but it looks closed now.
You can take a boat to and from the beach. Cost is 10 Euros for either a two way trip or just the return trip. The beach is rocks instead of sand. The weather this morning was a little cool and windy. I went into the Aegean Sea a little past my ankles, Dolora up to her knees. The water was warm enough but the breeze made things a little cool.
We walked back with Dave and Peggy who had the same lunch plans as us. The extra steps were necessary to rationalize that plan. Our first stop was Flora’s Pastry Shop, baklava for me, milk pie for Dolora. Dave asked about croissants but Flora told him “No, only sweets”. We enjoyed our pastries with a coffee while watching people and donkeys go by. We agreed that we needed dessert after our dessert so we were in search of the Cool Mule for ice cream. After our ice cream, Dave and Peggy were still in search of that croissant from the nearby EU Bakery. Finding croissants for Dave and Peggy, we headed back to our room for a short break before dinner.
Dolora and I wandered the back streets looking for a place for dinner. We ran into Joan and Paul and they invited us to join them. It was dinner at Manna. We shared a Green Salad with goat cheese and peaches, Croaker for Dolora and Sea Bass for me. We had hoped to see the sunset but were a little too late. On our way for after dinner ice cream we ran into about half of our tour group. Everyone had already had or was getting ice cream at the Cool Mule.
Tomorrow starts early. Breakfast at 6:30, meet with our luggage and 7:00 so we can get on the 7:20 boat to Athens. It will be a two hour boat ride.
