Tuesday 19 September 2017

Greece is the Word


September wouldn't be the same without my annual post about my holiday in Greece (sorry, no writing post today).

As many of you will know, if you've been following my blog for a while, Greece and its islands are my favourite place to holiday (apart from the Lake District). We try to go every year, picking somewhere new each time - although we are finding it harder and harder to find new places to fit our tough brief: quiet, scenic, green, little harbour, pretty beach.

To date, I have holidayed in Stoupa, Kardamilli and Parga on the mainland along with the islands of Corfu, Thassos, Kefalonia, Samos, Skopelos and Ithaca. All lovely. 



This year's choice was Paxos, a little island off Corfu, and what a delight it was - although at one stage we weren't sure we were ever going to get there. Due to the inefficiency of the long term car park staff at Gatwick (resulting in a wait of 50 minutes to hand in our car keys) we missed our flight. This also meant that by the time we'd caught another, at five in the evening, we'd missed our hydrofoil connection and had to stay overnight in Corfu Town. Not a great start to our holiday. Anyway, we got there in the end and it didn't spoil the rest of our beautiful week.



We stayed in a house just outside the harbour village of Loggos on the side of an olive-clad hill. This is the view of our pool.

The position was perfect, just fifteen minutes walk through the olive groves to Loggos and ten minutes to a choice of four small pebble beaches.



This is one of them. September is the perfect time to visit as the summer crowds have left and when we walked down to the beach for a swim at six o'clock, we had the beach practically to ourselves. What a treat. We're quite used to pebbly beaches, so the lack of sand didn't bother us. In fact, it's nice not to have sandy towels and feet!


Of course, as usual, we ate much too much. When we first holidayed in Greece we'd buy our lunch and eat it at wherever we were staying but in recent years we've found we can't resist the lunches in the tavernas: tatziki, tiropita (cheese pie) Greek salad, fried courgettes and saganaki (fried cheese) washed down with some Mythos beer. No wonder we always come home heavier than we arrive! I'd better not mention the bakery in the village which sold orange or walnut cake steeped in Greek honey and the best baklavas ever.



In the evenings, we were spoilt for choice as there are several lovely tavernas. In fact we never had a bad meal and after we'd eaten, we'd wander along to a bar on the harbour front for coffee and baklava and to watch the world go by.

I'm home now and my week in Paxos has given me the motivation to work on my first novel which is set on a Greek island. It's been put away while I wrote my second novel but now it's time for an airing... I can't wait!

If any of you have any recommendations for our next Greek holiday, do let me know.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds heavenly, Wendy! The perfect break to re-charge those writing batteries.

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  2. Lovely photos - I'm basking in the Greek sunshine in my writing cave this afternoon. Thanks for sharing, Wendy.

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  3. lovely post, Wendy. I love Greece...and baklavas!

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  4. I'm not a habitual visitor to blogs but I stopped at the pic posted in Tuesday news. I adore Loggos. We stayed in Loggos town a few years ago and the whole holiday was brilliant. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Breakfast in the Taxides bar and evening coffee and brandies there too. The taverna on the next door beach, and the very insistent proprietor! Lovely beaches, particularly the next one along, though I have to have those little swimming shoes. We even met Neil Fynn of Crowded House.

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    1. We did all those things, Gilli and the taverna on the next beach had the absolute best souvlaki.

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  5. Looks and sounds wonderful, Wendy - no wonder you go back each year!

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  6. It looks stunning, Wendy. Years ago, I went to Delphi, and loved it. But no pebbly coves (I prefer those, too).

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  7. Lovely post, Wendy. It's not bad here in Northants today, but it can't compete with the Greek islands.

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  8. Sigh... I love Greece!
    Zakynthos has some beautiful spots. The second time we went to Corfu, we booked a cheap mystery deal. That was 1995, but still, we paid just £199 for a fortnight's holiday with breakfast every day. All we knew was that our holiday would be on an Ionian island - and that was enough for us! A couple of days before, we knew the fight was to Corfu, but had no udea if we would be carrying on to another island. On the plane, one man seemed outraged at the notion. "Do you know that some people on this plane DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THEY'RE GOING?"he said to anyone who'd listen. "Not even which island! They'll probably end up in some gotty hotel miles from anywhere! Huh! They must be mad. Talk about tight! I'm glad I paid my £599 to know I've got a decent hotel." We sat just behind him, not astll perturbed.
    Once off the plane, we were divided into coach groups and we were on the same coach as £599 man, and the fact we were £199ers came up in conversation with another couple. £599 man glared, probably feeling self-conscious as he realised we'd been behind him and heard his tirade. At a village not far from the airport, half the people got off. A while later, we reached Kassiopi, a beautiful little harbour village with a ruined castle on a nearby hill. "Last stop," said the holiday rep. "You're all in this area. We'll drop you off at your hotels." £599 man was muttering about how some of us were in for a disappointment.
    Ten minutes later, we stopped at a smart hotel just up the hill from the harbour and the rep called out the hotel name. £599 man got to his feet looking smug. Then the rep called our names and the name of the other couple we'd got chatting to. "You're here too. You're lucky, the breakfast is great!"
    Cue £599 man descending into apoplexy. "They get BREAKFAST? I paid £599..." We left him complaining to the rep and walked into our lovely hotel! 😁

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  9. Felt as if I was there Wendy. It sounds absolutely idyllic - and the food mmmm.....:-) xx

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