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 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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Days six - The storms & Evangelistria monastery.

A cloudy day dawned today after immense storms during the night!
I was woken around 2am by the thunder and lightning. I went out onto the balcony of our room to marvel at nature. WOW! This was one hell of a storm! Even though I was well under the balcony, I was still getting wet with splashes from the deluge pouring down. They don't 'do' gutters much here, as they don't usually need them. Tonight, they really needed them. Water was flooding some parts of the hotel (we were OK), and even coming through a couple of the corridor skylights! The poor owner said he'd lived there 38 years, and never seen this much rain in such a short time.

You can see short videos of the storm from our balcony, click Here  HERE  HERE  HERE and HERE

At breakfast, the rain still hadn't abated.

This was our patio view. Click HERE

We now had the car, so decided to drive to the end of the main road, bus stop 18 - Koukanaries. The rain had stopped, but there were heavy clouds all around.

We sat on the mostly deserted beach, and watched the storm approaching!

Click HERE to see the lightning striking out at sea.

Not much of a photo' day, but we still enjoyed the show (and got to read some of our holiday books). We watched from our car as the car park at Koukanaries filled with water, eventually to calf depth. How do I know? Well, a gallant guy gave his wife a piggy-back to the bus stop, and that's where the water came to on his legs! The people already at the stop gave him a big round of applause. The rain came with a vengeance. So much so, that the imminent scheduled bus didn't turn up for over an hour! When it did, the dozen or so people at the stop had to walk down to road to get on - there was no WAY the driver was going to take his bus into what looked like a swimming pool!

When the storm calmed, we drove off to bus stop 18, parked up, and did another restaurant on the bucket list. This one was called 'Orsa'. Although opposite another one that was rated, the salt and pepper, we decided either would be good.

Again, super food, this time our first beef stifado.

We thought, with the weather as it was, we'd just do a bit of exploring in the car. Now, apart from the one main road on Skiathos, a lot of the others are 'interesting'! After the sat nav tried to send us up a flight of steps, I turned it off, and we resorted to map reading. Twisting and turning, we managed to get quite high up. Here's a view over the airport and Skopelos.

This was one place we were hoping to find, Platanos restaurant.
The entrance is very welcoming.

Some great objects in the courtyard, these shells are some of the biggest I've ever seen.

A nice old anchor (and there was a propeller there too).

Great views, looking down to Skiathos town.

We pressed on, stopping at this chapel. 

Why wouldn't you? These places are dotted around the island, and look simple enough, but inside........

Amazing! And just open to the public. I can't imagine how they'd fare in the UK.

Each one, no expense spared. Just look at that lovely chandelier and floor.

Icons and paintings of saints all over the place.

Intricate murals too.

Saint George seemed to be a favourite, here and in others we'd visited.

This sign pointed to another 'must do', as described by previous visitors and friends, the Evagelistria monastery. We parked the car, and decided to walk to the monastery.

What a lovely, simple and surprisingly new-looking building. We were expecting an antiquity.

This is where the jaw-dropping starts!

This place is incredible, it really is. From the dozens of cats around the place, to the herb gardens, the intricate stonework, you really just HAVE to be there to take it all in.

This part was out of bounds - it was the monks living quarters.

What a peaceful place to walk and think. You can't help but feel reverent when here. Look how well this land is tended.

The shrimp plant, as it's known. Sue told me, and I can see why.

The terraces of fresh herbs.

Cats relaxing in the courtyard.

I saw into a room where there was what looked like a senior monk. He was talking to a couple in hushed tones. We went in gingerly, feeling as if we were almost desecrating the place by just being there. I can't explain why, it just felt like that.

We saw a younger monk by the door, fingering his prayer beads, and looking deep in meditation. He looked up briefly and smiled.

The older monk had, by now, finished talking to the other couple, who left. 

He engaged us, and was really, really friendly. He exuded calm. We liked him right away. I asked if it was OK to take pictures inside, and he said yes, but no flash on the paintings. No problem.

We looked up at this stunning ceiling. To see it is to wonder! HOW was it done? So many styles, and tiny bricks. Was one of the monks a master builder?

I asked the old monk. He said no, it was all done by a group of the brothers. Where did they acquire such skills, I asked? He told me they built it on the ground again and again, until it was perfect. They then transferred their knowledge to the roof, and this was the result.

I have NEVER seen anything like it before!

We left, astounded. Back to normality, as these kittens briefly raised their heads from their afternoon nap to see what we were up to.

Back in Skiathos town, we parked up and walked into town along the harbour road, with views over the harbour. 

 That sky still looks VERY angry, doesn't it?

We ate at 'Portabello'. This time we had the moussaka, another traditional Greek dish. Again, tasty to the max! Their garlic bread was great - something we're specialists on!

We again strolled back down Papadiamanti street, taking in the ambiance of the place.

Then, a few spots of rain started to fall. Then a LOT of rain. We ducked under the canopy of a creperie. Of course, it would have been rude not to have one - so we did. Sue loves them, I'm not as fussed, but I must admit, it was lovely. The rain came really hard again, and the shop opposite the creperie was selling small umbrellas for five euros. Someone joked they were only three euros when it wasn't raining ;-)

By the time we left, the rain had eased a little, so we didn't get really wet. Not as it mattered. It was warm, we'd had a great day, and we still had a large portion of our holiday left.

What's not to like? 

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