No time to read right now but I will enjoy later....

Yeah, another Jamikins and Bikerscott TR!! And one to a place we will be going to for the 1st time in just 11 days.

Sounds like you guys had a great first couple of days on Naxos. I've taken note of the restaurants you've eaten at and your day on the quad bike sounds like a good way to explore the island.

Which hotel are you guy staying at? I read through twice, but couldn't find the name, so apologies if you mentioned it.

Can't wait for the next installment!

Jo

I am enjoying this, though I don't usually read or enjoy trip reports.

You seem to have the right mix of detail and personal comments.

Oh goody, just in time for my trip (leaving in --wow-- 10 days!).
Paule

Thank you for another great tale! You are right about games! Now "hu" is a good word, one I have not heard of. That letter u is hard to use up when you get down to the end!

Oh, YEA!!! A Bikerscott and Jamikins tale! Love it!!!!

Thanks everyone! We are loving it!!!

We are staying at Hotel Spiros and highly recommend it! Lovely pool, short walk to the beach and fabulous hosts!

Now we are off on a boat trip in the sunshine!!!

Great trip report, and fun to read!

A couple of notes:

The reason starters are so huge is they are meant to be shared. With your group of eight you could each order a main course and about four starters. Usually each diner gets an empty plate, and you pass around the starters between you, just as you do at home. This is a really nice way to eat, as you each get to sample several starters instead of just one! Order enough starters and you won't even want a main course.

The conventional ferry (Blue Star) takes just under five hours, not eight, from Piraeus to Naxos. Blue Star cruises at about 23 knots, while Highspeed 4 cruises at 35 knots. Both, of course, have to slow down and dock at Paros.

Enjoy the rest of your trip! It sounds like you are all having a great time. Right now I am a few miles away on Antiparos.

Yeah, we are staying at Hotel Spiros too, so it's nice to hear that you guys are enjoying it.

Can't wait to read more.

Jo

Wonderful. A Goldilocks TR-not to much detail and not too little-everything just right. More, please!

TD, what a great term to describe a trip report that is not too detailed and too basic--"Goldilocks TR"! Thanks for a great adjective!

I just read through my previous post and noticed the howler: With your group of eight you could each order a main course and about four starters.

Whoops!!! Let me try again: "You could order about four starters for your group of eight and a main course each."

Always love your trip reports.

I'll look forward to the next instalment

Hahaha Heimdall! We understood and tried to be smarter last night but as you will read STILL ordered too much!

Glad everyone is enjoying the ride!


Day Four – Beach, Anyone?

Today was our scheduled day trip to Delos and Mykonos, a relatively short boat ride from Naxos. Jamie forced me to set the alarm for a completely unwholesome hour – 7:00am – to give us time to get ready (and to make sure everyone else was up and getting ready as well) so that we could get down to the harbour front to buy tickets.

We found a tour agent and bought the tickets with no issues – they even had a credit card machine which was a bit of a result. The in laws also bought tickets, and we all set off to find the boat. Just as we thought we’d found it, a guy came up to us and asked if we were looking for the day trip to Delos and Mykonos – even better, someone to show us how to get to the boat! It turned out that he was actually trying to find people to tell them that they were cancelling the trip for the day as there was a forecast for heavy wind later that afternoon, and that all small ships were advised to stay in the harbour (this on a beautifully clear and still morning – not a cloud in the sky, hardly a hint of a breeze). Bugger.

We changed our tickets for the Thursday tour and walked back to the hotel to regroup and consider our options. The only way forward it seemed was to spend yet another difficult and trying day on loungers at the beach. I can’t tell you how rough this is – the sand, the sun, the dips in the ocean whenever we get a bit hot, the guy that brings us chilled white wine by the litre…

Some time later, we’d had enough beach life and felt that it was about time we thought about having some dinner. Back to the hotel to have a dip in the pool to wash off all the salt, change, and work out where to go. We’d had a recommendation that a restaurant right on the harbour front called Meze was pretty good, so the four of us went there, Sparky and KTown still not back from their hire car tour of the island.

We found seats quite easily as it was still pretty early (7pm, which is very early for dinner on Naxos) and ordered a selection of appetizers to share around the table, and some lamb chops for my father in law (the pickiest eater I’ve ever come across – if his mother didn’t boil it to death as he was growing up in post-war Britain, he doesn’t want to know about it). Yet again we’d ordered far too much and were a bit daunted by the mountain of food in front of us.

The food itself was pretty good – not the best we’d had in Naxos but definitely tasty. We shared a big bowl of tzatziki, octopus croquettes, bread, meatballs in sauce, saganaki (two ways, by accident), the aforementioned lamb chops, and a giant Greek salad. Fortunately Sparky and KTown happened to walk past and helped us finish the remains. They also ordered some mains, KTown finally getting her grilled kalamari, which still wasn’t exactly what she was looking for (she’s got it in her head that she will be able to get grilled squid in Greece in exactly the same way a particular restaurant in Vancouver does them). Yet again we were flabbergasted by the price – all of that food, plus a litre and a half of wine and half a litre of retsina only came to €78!

The final straw was a glass of ouzo with water for each of us. We’d had a lot to drink over the course of the day, and while I tried to drink it, I just couldn’t. I had to leave the table to get some air in an attempt to stop the spins (the nearly terminal stage of overindulgence – I wasn’t drunk, I’d just had too much to drink, if that makes any sort of sense). We stumbled back up the hill and down the other side to the hotel, where I lasted about 10 minutes before falling into a deep sleep (or coma, it’s all semantics really).

Sounds like you really toughed it out that day! Can't wait to read more!

"the pickiest eater I’ve ever come across – if his mother didn’t boil it to death as he was growing up in post-war Britain, he doesn’t want to know about it"...

This reminded me of my Russian grandmother -- I always said if a cooked/boiled vegetable was still recognizable, it wasn't cooked long enough!

Day Five, Six and Seven – Tours Cancelled, And Wind

Being extremely clever, we’d checked in at the travel agent last night to see if the planned Santorini boat tour was still on for this morning. Due to extremely high winds, they’d cancelled it in advance and thus we had a very nice lie-in, rather than having to get up at 6:30am to make it to the boat in time. Much more reasonable than arriving to find a cancelled tour.

Rather than the boat tour, we decided to make yet another foray onto the beautiful St. Georges beach and lounge about for the day. We’d managed to convince Sparky and KTown that a few minutes of sun wouldn’t immediately kill them, despite their ginger hair, and so they joined us. The in-laws, on the other hand, chose to spend the day exploring the town (after the father-in-law locked the mother-in-law for a few hours while he went out for whipped crème covered waffles).

It turned out the boat people weren’t kidding about the wind – it was HOWLING down the beach and made the previously entertaining lie-lows a bit of a liability on the water. We picked our loungers, got settled, and spent quite a good day baking slowly in the sun, with brief interludes in the surf to cool down. The several carafes of wine and a club sandwich helped the time go by.

Even we get tired eventually of sitting at the beach, and SPF 20 only buys so much extra time in the sun for us painfully pale Londoners, so after some time we declared a draw with the UV rays and came back to the hotel for a brief cooldown/salt-removal dip in the pool. This, it turns out, is essential for really getting rid of the last of the salt and sand not removed by the outdoor shower. Very fine sand, it’s amazing the places it gets in to.

We met the inlaws back at the hotel and decided to have a quiet night in, playing team trivial pursuit and making our own dinner at the hotel. We all went out to pick up supplies and feasted on greek salad, two type of sausages, smoked turkey, a local Naxos cheese, bread, and probably far too much wine than was strictly necessary. It was boys against the girls in the trivial pursuit match-up, and we lost. Badly. To be fair, they rocked ahead with a 6 point question about knitting, which is clearly unfair.

The end of the evening is a bit of a haze to be honest, so I’ll move on to Day Six.

Breakfast on the beach with Sparky and KTown seemed like a reasonable way to start the day, so we did just that. The In Laws had been up much earlier and left the hotel with a mission to hire a car and explore the rest of the island. After breaky, Sparky KTown split up from Jamie and I – we wanted to spend some time wandering through the old town which they had already done.

Yet again, we found a place built entirely on a hill, and we managed to work out how to almost always be going up it. The old town is full of tiny little alleys and little tourist crap stores, selling all sorts of necklaces, bracelets, and other bits of apparently handmade art (to be fair, some of it may be handmade and some of it is actually quite cool – much is definitely a step up from the normal tourist crap being peddled at many tourist hotspots in Europe).

We found a place for lunch (advertising itself as the oldest taverna is Naxos, along with at least 3 others) called Vasssilios and enjoyed a tasty, if slightly pricey meal. We’ve decided that dining outdoors under a brilliant blue sky or a clear starry night sky is the best way to dine, and will endeavour to continue this tradition as long as possible (probably just until we get back to rainy old London town).

Lunch taken care of, we sweated our way up to the ancient gate guarding the harbour of Naxos. There may have been some explanation of what it was for, but we missed that. It looked old, it was giant, and photogenic – that was enough for us. Also, it was bloody hot – we’d chosen the hottest part of the day for our walking tour to the shade-free hill to see the gate (it may have been a door, in retrospect. Either way, it’s big. Can’t miss it.)

This accomplished, we felt it was time for a swim and possibly a further beverage, so back to the hotel we trudged in the afternoon heat. The pool was cool and refreshing and hit just about exactly the right spot. Sparky and KTown met us at the pool and we sat reading for a bit, beer and wine helping to further relax us. The In Laws returned from their successful driving tour and helped us finish our wine. At some point the decision was made to go back to Nikos for dinner, the In Laws declining as they’d had a late lunch.

Dinner was excellent yet again, and the free carafe of wine, free dessert, and free final shots of the local moonshine made the walk back to the hotel a bit more of an adventure than we’re used to. Someone kept shifting the road back and forth, and I swear they moved our street at least two blocks to the left. Or it may have been the right.

Day Seven we’d planned to go out on one of the sail boat tours of the southern part of Naxos and a few other islands. Sparky and KTown were feeling a bit under the weather for some reason, but Jamie and I were fine. We talked them into coming along anyway, and found our way down to the harbour and the Oreanthi with Captain Panos and wife Irene.

The Oreanthi is a 45 foot sailboat that is used for day tours of various destinations around Naxos and the Cyclades. Given our track record, it should come as no surprise that with three consecutive previous days of such strong winds that all boat tours on fairly large ferries were cancelled, the day we chose to take a sailboat tour it was dead calm. We motored out of the port and headed along the coast, cursing the weather gods along the way.

Two hours later we arrived at our first destination – a tiny island and it’s even tinier beach. The waters down at the south end of Naxos and the surrounding islands is apparently really low in algae and other water clouding agents, so it’s like swimming in a really big swimming pool. Where we anchored, at 6 meters, we could see the bottom as clearly as if was 6 feet. Even when sailing between islands when the water was properly deep the bottom was as clear as you would like.

We made three stops for swims, spotting any number of fish (mostly little minnows, but a few bright blue ones, some yellow ones, and a dozen or so very silver and very long and skinny needle-looking ones. We even saw a couple of middle-aged people engaging in extremely vigorous sex on the deck of their boat as we came around the point, and not long after a small zodiac full of completely naked people, including a very attractive young woman who spent some time standing up completely starkers watching us watch her, before jumping into the sea.

Lunch was tasty – spaghetti with tomato sauce, bread, and a giant greek salad. Again, eaten under the blue sky on a beautiful sail boat on a clear sea, with naked women swimming nearby. It doesn’t get much better than that.

After lunch we motored over to the final stop, a brief visit to an inhabited island for a quiet explore and more importantly a beer at the little taverna which also featured a toilet for KTown and shade for all of us.

The final leg of our journey was back to port at Naxos. Fortunately the wind had picked up a bit and Captain Panos got the sails out. I love being on sail boats, especially ones that are actually sailing as opposed to motoring. It was even worth the loss of my straw cowboy hat to the wind to have an hour of proper sailing in the Aegean.

Dinner for our final night in Naxos was back at The Oasis – not necessarily the best restaurant in Naxos, but the one with the best single dish we’ve had here - Gouvetsi – orzo and beef in a little terra cotta bowl – highly recommended. After dinner we walked back down to the ice cream parlour near the harbour for a final cone, and then came back to the hotel to finish packing and drink the last of the wine.

Tomorrow is a quick flight back to Athens, where we pick up a van and drive to Nafplion for a few days. We’re really going to miss Naxos – it’s a beautiful town with great beaches, friendly people, fairly good food, and cheap to boot. We’ll definitely be back at some point, and now are thinking that buying a sailboat is probably a good idea too!

PS – Jamikins promises pics on our return – we forgot the cord to transfer the pics to our computer – DOH!

Sounds like you're all having a great time! Looking forward to the pics!

Loving this!

You guys do the best trip reports...love them!

As an aside, I haven't been in Greece since 1979 (shame on me!), but I do remember lots of days that were kind of "shaped" by drinking wine and relaxing semi-nude on beaches. Couldn't do it again at my age (well, could do the semi-nude thing but not the drinking), but it sure sounds like fun!

Glad you two had such a good time. We love the Greek islands, they have such a simple beauty. We stayed at the Hotel Grotta on Naxos and walked past the Portara every day on our way to eat at the port.

Funny you should say you didn't like Greek food until you had it in Greece. We felt exactly the same way. Melbourne has an enormous Greek population but they must keep the really good food to themselves. We have had wonderful food in Greece, not so much in Australia.

Take care
Kay

Holy man its hot in Greece! 37 degrees here tonight at 5pm!


Days Seven and Eight – On To Nafplion

I hate travel days. Up too early, too much stress, and a lot of waiting around. Today’s mission was an 8:55am flight to Athens, a shuttle bus to the car hire place, then me driving a GIANT nine-passenger van to Nafplion.

Jamie and I got up at 6:30am and had our morning showers and packed up the last of our stuff. Olympic Air has a 20kilo luggage limit per person, rather than BA’s 23kilo limit so the night before we’d bought a cheap little €10 beach bag that we could put our heavier stuff in and check in. Turned out to work a treat – our big suitcase was just under the 20kilo limit, and the cheapo bag managed to not fall apart on the flight, which was a major result.

The hotel owner at Spiros was super nice and offered to give us all rides out to the airport, saving us fare for two taxis. Apparently the taxis on Naxos will charge up to €12 for the two kilometre trip, so it was a very nice gesture. We made it to the airport, checked in, and boarded the little plane for our flight back to Athens. Entertainingly, despite the 25 minute flight time, we had full in-flight service with the stewardess bringing drinks around a few minutes in. We’d no sooner finished our cokes and weird little packet cakes than she came back around to collect the trash, and then we were landing.

After a bit of confusion we found our shuttle bus to take us to the car hire place. The woman driving it was a bit annoyed with me as I hadn’t heard my mobile phone ringing – I had no idea that they were going to be calling me, the instructions said that the bus arrived every 15 minutes so I figured we’d just wait for the next one to show up. Turns out I was wrong. Oh well.

The van we got is a huge 9-seater Volkswagon Transporter in baby blue – huge thing and it drives like a cloud (feels like it’s floating its way along the road). Oddly enough, with 6 passengers we also somehow had 6 back seat drivers as we set off. Sharp words had to be said.

The drive to Nafplion was uneventful other than the obscene rip-off involving petrol. They provided the van with 1/8th of a tank – about 10 litres of petrol, which they reckoned would get me about 100kms. Our instructions were to return it with about the same amount of petrol in it. How I’m meant to manage that is a mystery – I reckon they get the vans back with at least half a tank left, siphon off the excess litres and send it out with the next sucker at 1/8th of a tank. Cheeky buggers. That and it has an 80 litre tank, which cost €150 to fill.

We’d read that the parking at our pensione in Nafplion was a bit questionable, and had taken the recommendation to park at the free parking down at the port and walk up. The free port parking was easy to find, with loads of available spots. We parked up, and after waiting in the scorching sun for the Father In Law to go and get directions to the hotel that we didn’t need (we had a sat nav which showed us the way – he just likes to feel useful) we set off up the hill to find our hotel.

Ironically, even with the instructions he’d managed to get, Father in Law tried to take us in completely the wrong direction, and got quite shirty when we pointed in back the right way. Gazza the sat nav isn’t always right, but I trusted him in this case (plus, father in law having the map upside down was a first clue that something wasn’t right).

First off, I have to say that there are a LOT of stairs to get up to the hotel from the port. Especially when carrying 20 kilo suitcases. Even more especially in the 37 degree heat. By the time I got to the top, it looked like I’d been standing under a very smelly shower. Deeply unpleasant. Sparky and I guarded the suitcases at the bottom of the last set up steps up to the reception area while everyone else went to check in. KTown was thoughtful and kind enough to bring us both cold and well-deserved beers, which we enjoyed in the sun listening to the cicadas.

We checked in, found our rooms, found the air conditioning and cold showers, and washed the day of travel off our skins. We were all starving and despite it only being only 4:30 in the afternoon, we walked down into Nafplion in search of dinner. After a lot of random wandering up and down various little roads, we found a little restaurant which seemed to offer decent looking food. Everyone ordered too much again, however it was all tasty. Jamie and I had our first souvlaki of the trip!

We finished the night on the little balcony in front of Sparky and KTown’s room enjoying the heat of the evening and a few tasty beverages as well. The air conditioning was a godsend in the night, and the beds were far more comfortable than in Naxos – I woke up with a less sore back than I have in almost a week!

This morning, KTown and the father in law decided to hike up the 999 steps to the castle at the top of the hill overlooking the town (apparently there used to be an even 1000, but the first one at the bottom was broken by an invader for reasons that are unclear to me). The rest of us took the more sensible decision to sleep in a bit and then drive up to the top.

After a few false starts we found the right road and parked the van at the top. KTown and father in law had made it up the stairs in pretty good time, taking only an hour, so had been at the top for almost an hour by the time we got up there. The views from the castle are amazing, only slightly spoiled by the 5 bus loads of tourists from the cruise ship which had anchored that morning that turned up. We spent about an hour wandering around in the blistering heat, turning slowly into little puddles on the stones.

We finally admitted defeat and drove back down the hill, stopping in briefly at the hotel for the climbers to have a shower and for all of us to cool down before loading back into the van and driving to the nearby beach town of Tolo.

We found a relatively inoffensive beachside café for a relatively inoffensive lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the beach, with Jamie and me taking the opportunity to spend as much time in the sea as we possibly could – I think we may have been fish in a past life.

Everyone else baked in the 38 degree heat, a few beers helping to keep them hydrated (or at least happy about the heat). At about 5pm, Jamie and I felt that we’d done as much as we could in terms of developing gills for one day and everyone else was looking decidedly ready to head home. We packed back into the van, which at this point, having been parked in the sun all day, could have been used as an industrial oven. Gazza got us back to the port parking lot without any drama, other than me obviously breaking all the rules of Greek driving by going at the posted speed limit more or less and pretty much staying in my lane. I realize that this makes me the ***hole here, but I’m pretty okay with that.

This evening I think everyone is feeling a bit low energy after the full day in the heat of the sun, so I think a game of team trivial pursuit has been called for. The view from the breakfast terrace overlooking the town and the sea is pretty spectacular, so I can’t think of many other better ways to spend an evening.

You two manage to have so much fun. Be gentle to your father in law, one of these days it could happen to you.

My Greek memories are coming back. On one of our crazy trips we hopped on the ferries and visited 9 islands.

I couldn't manage 99 steps let alone 999!. Good going F & MIL!

StCirq, when we were in Greece, we saw an older woman (my age now) nude sunbathing who came under the heading of shouldn't be in a bathing suit let alone her birthday one.

Tagging to read later, seems too good to rush through it.

My yogurt almost came out my nose when I got to laughing at your description of FIL's sense of direction.

Is "on inoffensive lunch" an example of "damning with faint praise"?

"Sharp words had to be said" reminds me of Italy with BIL and sister. He is quite mild mannered, but we had just picked up the rental car and as we went down the street a pedestrain stepped onto the cross walk. I just gasped and began a word when BIL firmly stated, "There is only one driver in this car and he is sitting here in this seat." He is really a good driver, and I got the message loud and clear.

More please !!!!

Oh, no! I've been away from Fodor's and missed the first installments. Must bookmark now for future reading!

Well we are back in chilly London and Scott promises to finish this off shortly. We had a fabulous trip - loved Greece! I am going to clean up some photos - so stay tuned!

I am eagerly awaiting the rest of the story and the photos!

Always, always enjoy your reports! Thanks.

How did I miss a Jamie & Scott report?! Problem remedied. Can't wait to see photos and hear more.

Bravo!

It seems even brother Sparky and gf can't match your ability to drink and even you guys might have reached your bacchanalian limits in Greece. Or was it the sun that affected you?!

We were in a hill village on Naxos and kids were playing and
speaking English. Since I'm a nosy old biddy, I asked one
6 yr. old where she was from - "4th and Macdonald" she replied. The village had sent a lot of folks to Kits and
in turn they sent their kids back to spend summers there.

On another trip we ate in a resto on Samos and thought the
food was 'typical' Vancouver Greek - turns out the owners
were from, once again, Kits.

Love your reports - still laughing about your Winter's Tale
in Portugal. You have more fun on your trips than the vast
majority of travellers and you can share your good times
through your TRs - Thanks!

Thanks for all your comments - and it truly is a small world! We ran into a friend from my childhood's dad while in Athens! Crazy!!!

Here are the pics:

Naxos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150805113115462.734709.805595461&l=5d641da55a&type=1

Nafplio: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150805306960462.734754.805595461&l=a4e358447c&type=1

Athens: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150805420375462.734776.805595461&l=b65abadd46&type=1

Bikerscott promises to finish this report this week!

Looks like a great trip! Thanks for the photos!

Sorry for the delay - the inlaws have been staying with us and between entertaining them and work its been a bit hectic!


Day Nine – Ancient Greek and Scorching Sun

Today was a relatively early day – we were up and loaded into the Blue Beast by 9am, trying to get out before the real heat of the day kicked in. The mission for the day was to visit some of the sights of Ancient Greece – Mycenae and Epidavros.

The drive out to Mycenae was back along the road we had taken into Nafplion, and despite a bit of a detour down some very narrow back roads, Gazza took us out there with no issues. It did take 45 minutes to get there, and by the time we found the parking lot it had really heated up. The parking lot was full of busses, and it seemed like there was a lot of room for more.

As with all historical sites in Greece, there was a nominal fee to enter Mycenae. It’s amazing to think that the culture from what appeared to be a fairly small city gave its name to an entire period of Greek culture. The city itself is surprisingly well preserved, considering it’s something like 4000 years old. The sun was HOT and the site was fairly crowded with large tour groups.

We walked around, following the paths through the ruins and reading the signs along the way. Eventually we’d seen pretty much everything there was to see, the Father In Law had read all of every single sign, and the hordes and heat convinced us that it was time to move on.

We all piled back into the Blue Bus for the longer drive to Epidavros, both new and ancient. First mission on reaching Epidavros was finding somewhere to have lunch. We drove through the main part of the town, which seemed to have a fair number of restaurants but couldn’t find parking. As the Blue Beast was about the size of a small aircraft carrier, I wasn’t up to driving around through the little side streets, so we kept on until we finally found a place to park up.

We walked back into the main part of town trying to find somewhere to eat. It turns out what we had thought were restaurants probably weren’t as we couldn’t find much. The in-laws, who are not foodies in any way, picked a slightly dodgy looking little sandwich shop, whereas Jamie and I, along with Sparky and KTown felt that we wanted something a little less manky looking. We eventually found a place and the four of us sat down to another giant and fairly tasty lunch.

Sufficiently lunched, we turned the beast around and drove deeper into the hills. Ancient Epidavros was known for two things – medicine (epidural?) and the unbelievable acoustics at its theatre. The theatre is a huge thing and apparently the best preserved Greek theatre in the world. It’s also completely bizarre – a whisper at the bottom is clearly and distinctly audible all the way at the top. We tested the acoustics by dropping ever smaller bits of pebbles onto the ground in the centre of the stage – even the smallest they could hear. Just before we left, a girl with a beautiful soprano opera voice showed up and sang a bit of an aria, a fitting way to hear it.

The rest of the ruins of Epidavros were pretty interesting – they are doing quite a bit of restoration work and trying to both stabilize and rebuild some of what’s left. After standing around looking at the old walls and columns, what I think they really should be working on is putting in some shade.

By this point, the temperature had hit record highs. We stopped in at the disproportionably large café on our way out (maybe it makes more sense in the busy season?) for water and beer and to try and cool off. A litre of water each later, we walked back to the van, glad that we’d had the forethought to park in a bit of shade under a tree.

On the drive home, we stopped at the Carrefour for supplies to see us through the next few days – mostly wine and bottled water. The concept of a foreign grocery store seemed a bit of a challenge and we spent what seemed like forever waiting for everyone to find gin and other essentials. Father in law bought a large bottle of fizzy orange drink, which he didn’t realize was fizzy. When we got back in the van, he started to shake it violently – Sparky shouted at him to stop, but he kept going saying that it was just orange juice. We all explained that it was basically Fanta, but he was adamant. He opened the cap. As expected, a fountain of orange soda erupted in the back seat. Damn.

Oh well, rubber floor mats and a hire car, so no harm done other than a pervading odour of orange and sticky back seats. The drive the rest of the way home was somewhat subdued.

We thought that after the heat of the day, and the relative expense of the last week, that we’d just order some take-away pizzas and have a games night at the hotel. The owners gave us some suggestions for local takeaway that was worth having, and we had an excellent, if somewhat boozy night with pizza and the board game Aggravation (game of which Jamie won two of three).