Last days - Goodbye, Skiathos, 27th/28th September.

PLEASE NOTE 
THIS IS THE LAST DAY.

TO GO TO DAY ONE - CLICK
 HERE

We awoke to a clearing morning. No car, so the plan today was local swimming, sunning, and generally taking it easy.

Although we had our 'own' beach, we walked over and round to the next beach, which bore our hotel's name - Kanapitsa. This is looking back to ours - Tzaneria.

These apartments caught our eye, they hold a great position on top of the cliffs, but of course, it was much further from the bus stop!

Swings and roundabouts.

The beach was mostly deserted. We lay on two sunbeds, and they didn't even bother to collect the money. You could tangibly feel the place winding down.

 We did some swimming and sunning - as I said, lazy day.

After a couple of hours and cocktails, we caught the water taxi. 

We were amused by the drivers tee shirt! 

After we landed, we climbed again, up above the harbours.

This is the Bourtzoi cafe.

The new harbour jetty where the bigger ferries land.

Across town to our favourite rocks.

A panorama of Skiathos town - click on it to enlarge.

Soon, we reached the top, and the clock tower.

 Good views from here, and another tourist kindly took our picture.

We dropped back into town and had the most amazing 'burger' at the lobby. It was a stack of art, no other way to describe it. I was JUST going to take a picture, when Sue decided to adjust it for a better shot. It collapsed!

Still, that didn't impair the flavour at all :-)

Some of the transport we saw looked as if it was coming to the end of it's useful life.

We came back to the harbour for one last cocktail. We watched a local guy fishing, another painting his boat, generally just meandering around, a bit subdued, knowing it was our last day.

A Tom Collins and a Pina Colada helped to soften the mood.

We managed to get a last swim in later on to work up an appetite.

 A last meander up Papadiamanti street later in the evening, and the tell-tale signs that this was it - the end of the season - the last day. Shops and bars were closing early, and signs saying 'last day of sale'. All the hallmarks of another holiday year being over. Sad really.

Sue & I had our 'last supper' - I had beef and mushrooms in a sort of tagine, Sue had the lamb stifado. Again, delicious. 

We walked back to the bus stop under a romantic full moon, with it's beams glinting across the sea. 

This isn't a good picture, but it was a magical end to a wonderful holiday.

At breakfast, we were one of only three rooms left in the hotel.
 All that was left was to pack, and leave this lovely island.

It was SO lovely, even our shadows fell in love.

Goodbye, wonderful Skiathos 💓

Day eleven, relaxing, 26th September.

Start the day the Lobby way - two lovely lattes and a pain au chocolate.

After coffee, we took a steady stroll along Papadiamanti street and just absorbed the chilled atmosphere. No chill in the air though, it was a lovely, warm day. You can see a video of the street HERE  plus one of the infamous mopeds and motorbikes HERE.
We fancied walking to our favorite spot on the rocks. On the way we passed the Plakes restaurant. This was also on the list of places, but for now, it was closed.

The courtyard looks beautiful.

Their menu looked interesting too, with quite a lot more than the usual menus we'd seen in other places.

The ruined bar restaurant. We (and others we'd talked to) could not understand why this prime positioned place was in such disrepair, and why someone hadn't bought it and rejuvenated it. We'll never know, but I just think it looks the perfect place to make a killing as a restaurant. It even has it's own beach.

Sue watches yet another plane coming in. As you can see, the sky was quite overcast now.

The sun had gone in, so we started to walk back to town. On top of the rocks is one of the very many 'micro shrines' that we've seen. 

They really are EVERYWHERE. This is a close-up shot inside it.

I noticed a distinct line in the dirt below us. On closer inspection, it was an ant track. We stopped to observe them. They are amazing creatures. You can see what they were up to by clicking  HERE

The sun was out again, but we could see heavy clouds coming in, so decided to make our way back.

As we walked up the road, we witnessed a magical moment. An old man was serenading his wife from the chair next to the fence. A neighbour was listening, along with us. No, he wasn't X factor material, but the passion and the simple act were very moving. 

You can hear him singing HERE

With thunder rolling, and the odd flash of lightning, we made for the shelter of a bar. We JUST got there, when there was the most almighty CRACK! of thunder, and the rain started.....

You can see a video of it HERE and HERE

The barmen were running around, gathering up the cushions that were getting soaked in the deluge. We sat and patiently waited, assisted by a couple of drinks. It abated quite soon, and we were able to walk into town, have a meal, and take the water taxi back to our hotel.

Day ten - Cinema, Banana beach, Skiathos back streets & Gravisi.

SKIATHOS TOWN.

Last night, the re-showing of the delayed Mamma Mia film was on at the cinema. With our re-scheduled tickets, we were able to get in to see it. It's really popular, for obvious reasons.

The seating was 'interesting', with movable seats (which lots of people did) and tables thoughtfully placed between the seats here and there to put drinks on.

They got the audience 'in the mood' with some traditional Greek dancing before the film. 

You can see a snatch of that HERE

There you see the moon above the cinema with no roof!

At various points, the staff rushed onstage and joined in. It all made for a very good performance, and not at all detracting from the film. You can see them HERE
Of course, this sort of thing is always better when you're actually there.

A relaxed town walk afterwards, before wending our way 'home' to our hotel and sleep - tomorrow we had no real plans.

Today, we decided on a lazy day. We went to banana beach, a long, super-sandy stretch that, I would imagine, is very touristy in the summer. To be honest, I don't think we'd use it in the season. Even now, with only a few people on the beach, the small beach bar kiosk (not at all rustic like previous ones, more a prefabricated place) was belting out music, completely spoiling the place. Also, there was hardly anywhere to sit, unless you wanted to hire a sunbed set.

 There was a place at the far left of the beach called 'bananista' - a bar, 'resort' area, and further collection of sunbeds and parasols, plus a more swish beach bar (with swish prices to match). It was all geared towards getting your cash.

This is the view of the beach from the bar.

Note, all the 'cool' cushions scattered around.

We did hire beds and a parasol (grudgingly, on my part) and did exactly what we intended - nothing, apart from swimming and snorkelling.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Amaretto bar at the end of the airport runway and watched a couple of more hairy landings on the infamous airstrip.

We explored the back streets of the hillside Skiathos town, and it's well worth a look. Lots of 'locals only' cafes, bars and shops. Not that they wouldn't serve you, just that not many visitors seemed to venture up this far. 

We found this super little coffee and spice shop. He had a special piece of kit that roasted and ground beans. He then sold the coffee, about 40 varieties. We would have had a cup, but the strange thing is, he doesn't sell it to drink??

We had a very enjoyable meander around, before setting off into the other side of town to find 'Gravisi', a pizza place. Now, we make some of the best pizza you can get - the guy who owns Gravisi said HIS was the best on Skiathos, so we just HAD to 'go compare'.

A beautiful little hidden gem, complete with 'Romeo and Juliet' balcony, and romantic outside tables with candles & gingham tablecloths.

I'm glad we only ordered ONE cheesy garlic bread as a starter!!!!!

Ours is 8 pieces of baguette!

This one was HUGE, and stuffed FULL of cheese, 

more like a calzone!

We really couldn't compare, as this was a totally different animal from ours, but we have to say, it WAS good - thanks Konstantinos :-)

Tomorrow, we take the car back, weather report is warm but cloudy, they say.

Day seven & eight - The Airport, Agia Eleni, & Mandraki.

This morning was the wettest. We had a VERY lazy morning in the hotel, drinking coffee and reading while the deluge played out. At around 2pm, it stopped, so we went out to explore a bit.

We began at the airport to watch some more planes coming in. We had (yet another) coffee, this time is the Amaretto cafe, or 'the airport cafe' as it's known because of it's position right next to the runway. They have flight radar on monitors, so you can see when the next one's due. When one is due, people rush out to get their pictures and videos, then come back in to finish their drinks.

In the evening, we went into town to the Bakaliko restaurant. 

Stuffed peppers to begin with - I DO love peppers, but these were even better than normal.

Pork in cabbage leaves, and a sausage casserole,

Mmmmmmmmm!

A bottle of wine and books were the order of the late evening, watching the lightning strikes over the sea. Beautiful.

Next day, things looked a lot better, so we planned to go to Agia Eleni and Mandraki beach, deciding which to settle on when we got there.

Damage from the further storms in the night was soon evident.

We explored the length of Agia Eleni, before trying to drive to Mandraki. After seeing the damage to the dirt roads, the big chasms cut into them by the rainwater running, we decided to walk instead.

It was quite a trek, but super views on the way made up for it.
That sky still looks a bit unsettled.

This tiny beach below us looked good, but we pressed on.

They look like, but CAN'T be - lychees??

At the crossroads! We turned left, as we'd now been walking for best part of an hour. The path went down through some very pleasant woodland, The shade was welcome, as it was getting really hot now.

Nice to see the odd fungi in the woods.

Mandraki beach and cafe. The tin hut looked very out of place, but the bamboo covered seating area was the usual sort.

A nice cold beer (we weren't hungry yet), and some shelter from the sun. We'd been swimming and snorkeling for most of the day, and poor Sue got stung by a bee (luckily, she has her own first-aider on hand to deal with such emergencies). Drinks here were very reasonable, and Maria, the owner, promoted her brothers restaurant at bus stop 18 called 'Jesteri' -  a concocted name from the three owners. 

The sun was beginning to go down, so we needed to get back to the car before it set completely - no street lights here!!
The walk back was much more comfortable in the now softer sun, and we could pick up the pace without suffering from the heat.

We also noticed a short-cut on the way this morning, so we struck down and took it, slipping around on the pine needle carpet underfoot.

We arrived in perfect time, and sat to watch the sunset.

I'm tempted to say we did a bit of swinging on holiday - but don't get excited - this was what I mean. 😁

We sat together and watched the sun go down. 

Content, content, content!

A fabulous evening - we really didn't want it to end.

We stopped at  bus stop 18 and took Maria up on her advice to eat at Jesteri. Her brother was actually the chef.
I love these open kitchens, like ours at home.
Note the pizza oven behind.

 

We chose Mushrooms a la creme, mixed seafood and pork steak.

Faultless!

The forecast for tomorrow was exceptionally good. 

We planned to visit a very special place - Kastro.

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