Another lazy day

The tame hogs rode early to make the most of the remaining couple of hours of moped rental and decided to go around to the other side of the bay that we can see from our balcony.  The day was bright and clear, a perfect day for riding or being on the beach.  In the land of churches it came as no surprise that right at the end of the road around the peninsula there was yet another church which took a while to photograph because I had to get the boatyard out of the picture.  I could see the masts from our balcony and thought that it might be another harbour but it was a place where boats are stored dry over winter or are left to rot so it didn't make for a very picturesque background.

On the way back we made two stops, one to Mycaenean ruins which we could barely make out and the other to Kolybithres which is a bathing beach that Kirsten and Carl went to 17 years ago when they were last here.  Last time they were young and newly married, now, not so young with children almost as tall as they are; how times change.  The seasons, they are padding past at an astonishing rate.

We just had to stop at our favourite bakery at the top of the hill for some more donuts and greek custard pastry before we continued up to a monastery which only let appropriately dressed men in.  Women or men in shorts were verboten which annoyed Caron no end; it's remarkable in this day and age that these institutions still have such antiquated rules even for visitors.  The view from the top was pretty remarkable and I must say that there is some attraction to the simple life of contemplation and growing things to eat but I think I would be bored and contemplated out within a month or two.  Rather the hurley burley of business searching for some peace and quiet every now and then than the stillness of a monastery searching for some excitement in life.

The afternoon was spent down on the beach and I am feeling a bit like my father sitting on a beach in jeans and a jacket while Megan is in a bikini.  Just for the record, Carl, Kirsten and Caron were all similarly clothed against the wind.  A huge yacht i.e. one that is big enough to have an 18' rubber duck hanging from it's stern has dropped anchor in our bay and there was lots of talk about doing a cruising holiday but Carl and Caron are less than enthusiastic about the proposal.

We had supper at Kous Kous which apparently means 'gossip'; not so sure about that but it made for an interesting story and Alistair, Megan and myself shared a set of meze dishes which made for a really delicious supper and afterwards I took my camera for a walk trying to capture the old town of Naoussa.

The small boat harbour below has an entire square filled with tables and I can only imagine how noisy and festive it will be in just a month or two's time.  Even in the time that we have been here we can see how the numbers of tourists have climbed.  The edging of the harbour quays are all made from marble which, at least for us, is highly unusual.

Anti-Pasta

or more correctly Antiparos which is a small island just off the coast of Paros which we have been told is worth a visit.  First up was a visit to our local moped shop to hire our trusty steeds for another day but this time there was a problem because nobody other than myself has a motorbike license which is apparently a requirement for the insurance.  It wasn't a couple of days ago but apparently it is one now so I ended up hiring all four motorbikes to satisfy the insurance requirement.  Thinking about it now we should just have dispensed with the insurance and then all would have been well.

Hogs obtained we barreled on down to the ferry which we made by the skin of our teeth at 11:00.  I could see the ferry crossing from about 5 km away and then it was a race to get there which I did but I wasn't sure that Caron and Kirsten were going to make it so I parked with my front wheel resting on the loading ramp.  Caron and Kirsten arrived in short order and we all boarded and the ferry left immediately.  When I was racing to make it I crouched down to get out of the wind and there was a squeak from Megan behind me as she took the force of the wind for the first time; I must have looked quite comical the two of us crouched down on a moped racing away.

 The ferry trip turned out to be really short and within about 10 minutes we were on Antiparos so we had to celebrate with coffee and pancakes or chocolate fondant.  The service was a bit slow and the dishes arrived sporadically but when they did arrive they were delicious.  The town of Antiparos was tiny and we headed down south on the only road and went to see the caves which were well signposted.

 

 When we got to the entrance it was 5 Euro per person and all we could see was this large cave entrance with a little church in it.  As picturesque as there were it seemed a lot for 5 Euro so we were about to walk away when the ticket lady gave us a brochure and the caves were a lot bigger than they looked so we decided to go and have a look.

From an inauspicious start the caves were pretty amazing and had a concrete steps all the way down to the bottom, 411 steps if the brochure is to be believed.  The older graffiti like in the picture above must have been quite an effort because as easy as it is now with built in steps it would have been a very difficult  at that stage with candles and the vertical drops and scree slopes to navigate in near darkness.  Once we had finished it was up and back into the blinding light and the blustery wind which was making the mopeds a bit of a challenge to control.

Heading further south, or north according to Carl whose world appears to be upside down, we came across what looks like a building development arrested by the Greek financial crisis which had a few restaurants next to the ocean, one of which was open.  While everyone was sheltering in the restaurant ordering I headed over to a blue topped church I had spied on the way in but it turned out to be quite a lot further than I thought and by the time I managed to return everyone was half way through their meal. 

The greek cuisine is a bit weird because they have excellent ingredients and tastes but overdo the quantities so if one orders fried zucchini one gets a whole plate of only fried zucchini and, nice as it is, a whole plateful is too much.  Likewise, an order of fried shrimp is a whole plate of fried shrimp without relief and good as it is, it is just too much.  Since I hadn't ordered I stole from everyone else's plate and some zucchini, aubergine, fried feta, crab salad, bruchetta, shrimp and octopus made a fantastic meal.   A little variety on the plate goes a long way for me and I can't believe that the greeks haven't cottoned onto this because I am pretty sure that I am not alone.

The picture above is the gang looking bored while I stop and take yet another photograph. They are very happy to have the photo later on but the taking of them is somewhat on the boring side.  Actually they were just acting bored while I took the photo below showing a windmill on the southern side of Parikia which is the major town on Paros.

After a long day in the saddle and the wind we stayed at home and I made supper which consisted mainly of heating up last nights leftovers and then a greco-italian inspired meal for Carl and myself of pasta with an olive, tomato and feta sauce with toppings of greek youghurt and origanum.  Not half bad if I say so myself.

An unbelievably lazy day

We woke up to low hanging grey cloud and occasional drizzly rain so we decided that today would be a lazy day reading and that is what we all did for pretty much the entire day.  We did make a foray out midmorning to try and buy some supplies and warn the moped man that we were coming back tomorrow but since it was sunday almost all the stores were closed and we were soaked with the heaviest rain of the day.

By very late afternoon the weather was breaking and we were all, myself in particular, feeling a little cabin feverish so we went out for a walk in the late afternoon sunshine.

 Carl and Alistair spent almost the whole walk throwing Paros back into the ocean so I think that their arms and shoulders are going ache somewhat tomorrow.  I skipped stones a little bit and even tried it with my left hand which felt completely spastic but I did manage to get the stones to skip but I won't win any accuracy competitions with my left arm; probably not my right arm either actually.  Alistair is getting the knack of getting the stones to skip quite nicely.

The dark raincloud in the back was what rained on us earlier in the day but now with the sun shining in under the clouds it made for some great backdrops.

You can't see it in the photograph below but there is a bit of a drop below the tree hence the strained smile and the hands clutching the bough.

One of the amazing things I always find is that if one just moves and walks the views just appear out of nowhere but you really need to put yourself in the position that the opportunities can be taken when they appear.  Our apartment is in the set on the far right horizon so we would normally be looking at where this photo was taken from.

The van der Riet family in the last light of day.  The sun set about 30 seconds after this shot was taken so we were a little lucky to get it.

Walking back into town we had a look at the charter yachts which are starting to fill the harbour up and they really are enticing.  They seem to have triggered something in Kirstens imagination so who knows; maybe there is a yacht holiday somewhere in the future.  I volunteered to skipper and cook and play deckhand but I think that they are worried about the cooking ...

Supper was at another of the waterfront restaurants and Carl had set his heart on lamb kleftico which was on the menu but not in the kitchen so he will have to wait for another day.  We started with two meze platters between all of us which had just a taste of a whole set of different dishes which was rather nice and I should have called it quits at that point but everyone else was ordering mains so I did too but only managed to consume about 2/3rds of the plate before I had to abandon the effort.

After supper Kirsten wanted to shop but Carl was really tired so he went home while I waited around while Kirsten searched for 'baubles and beads' as Carl puts it.  From there it was pretty much home and to be surprisingly tired given that we hadn't actually done anything today.

A day of rest, cats and spiders ...

Caron and I slept pretty well last night but the same could not be said for the van der Riets who attracted the attentions of some Mediterranean mosquitoes.  We didn't have a single one but they seem to have had a bit of a plague.  The plan for the morning was to ride up to Lefkos and an ancient quarry and what greeted me when I opened the front door was as below; low hanging rain clouds but we  decided to chance it anyway before we had to return the mopeds at 10:30.

 The trip up was quite quick and surprisingly cool and I was expecting a few moans from the girls about their hands being too cold but there wasn't a peep from them.  After a brief detour into an actual modern working quarry we found the ancient one and walked around a bit trying to work out how it actually functioned.  Our guesswork was put to rest at the end of the tour by a very friendly Greek sort of curator who showed us a model of how the marble was mined.  They would use cold chisels to score a line and then at intervals gouge out deep notches into which they could insert wooden wedges which, once watered, would expand and crack the marble along the line.  Quite a painstaking process and once they had minded a slab, they would put it in a sort of wooden sledge to be hauled up a smooth slope using a windlass type contraption from the top.  Pretty ingenious but it must have been very hard work.

The three 'hogettes' in front of a marble retaining wall; it is pretty hard to think of marble being used as a retaining wall in S.A.   Once we had finished at the quarry we continued over to Lefkes and stopped at some huge and ancient olive trees which I had spotted yesterday but we didn't have an opportunity to stop yesterday.

What you can't see in the photo below is the large spider to Megans right and the one just above her left ear.

   The one on the right we had seen and Megan carefully maneuvered here way into the bowl of the tree without disturbing the spider for the photo's but when she came out she tried to jump over the strands and her head when right through the we we hadn't seen and then there was furious action as spiders and Megan all took flight; accompanied by the appropriate squeals from Megan as she tried to get rid of the spiders web attached to her head.

It may not be the most interesting photograph but I found the whorls fascinating.  From there it was on to Lefkes where we hoped to get some coffee but the shop was closed.  When we had driven in we had seen someone with fresh bread so we went in search of the bakery which turned out to be tiny and we bought some still warm sugar encrusted donuts there.

 Wandering around Lefkes munching our donuts was a real highlight for me, lots and lots of alleys and a new view around every corner whether it is a courtyard with tables  in it or a tiny balcony with room for only a single chair and small table.  It was gorgeous and because it was on a steep hill we had the views of the surrounding farmlands as a backdrop.

Aside from the scenic aspects they must have the friendliest cats in the world; one ginger one literally ran up to get scratches and then started purring very loudly and at one stage while I was sitting down had his front paws on my leg, his back paws on the other seat and was getting scratches from both Kirsten and myself and was drooling away.  Even when we left the cat followed us to the edge of its territory before giving up on the attention.

As we left Lefkes I noticed that my fuel gauge was blinking to indicate very low fuel so I was holding out that it would make it back to Naoussa 30 minutes away.  In spite of that it didn't stop me from making some time to take some photographs of one of the many, many churches that dot the landscape and with the dark rainclouds in the background it was very dramatic. 

Having made it back without running out of petrol, the rest of the day was spent just lazing around and reading until we went into Naoussa centre for some souvlaki and icecream for supper and as a treat we had deep fried dough balls like mini vetkoeks smothered in brown and white chocolate.  An excellent supper indeed.  When everyone else went off to bed Carl and I stayed up, having a cigar and some excelled whisky on the verandah and read our books and looked at the night sky view over the bay every now and then.  What a way to end the day!

Around and about on Paros

We didn't start the day with a very well formed plan other than that we were going to hire mopeds and then go and visit the butterfly valley.  I wasn't very sure about this plan both from the moped part and the butterfly but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

First up was to hire the mopeds which went off quite quickly and they fortunately didn't notice that my license was expired.  In total it was 64 Eur for the four mopeds so Carl had Alistair behind him and I had Megan behind me and everyone feeling a little bit outside of their comfort zone.

We took off and right at the top of the first hill there was a roadside bakery so we had to stop and have a donut. I thought that we are going to be stopping quite a lot because trying to navigate from a tourist map and from memory is a recipe for disaster.

Above is the "hogs" on the ferry terminal with Anti-Paros or, as I am calling it, Anti-Pasta which is going to be another day on the mopeds next week sometime.  On our way down we managed to take a route which turned into a one way so we merrily carried on; nothing quite like breaking the law and then just blaming it on being a tourist.  Once we popped out the other end we understood why it was a one way, trying to cross the next intersection was very tricky and required a little confident driving which was definitely just put on.  After negotiating around Parikia we headed up to the butterfly farm which happened to be closed as it isn't butterfly season so we headed on down to the ferry terminal for Anti-Paros to find out how ofter the ferry leaves and how much it is.  Every half an hour and 1.10 EUR per person per passage which seems very reasonable.

 After we left the terminal we wound our way along the coast road planning on intersecting the ring road and then carrying on around the island when we stumbled on this restaurant in Alyki and it looked so good that we just had to stop and have lunch which we had under the umbrella above.  Just the most magic place to have lunch of squid (Alistair), grilled sepia which is grilled cuttlefish (Megan),  fried calamari (Kirsten) and more squid (Carl).  Caron had grilled sardines and I had deep fried succhini and grilled feta cheese and we all ate ourselves to a standstill.

We had already called for the bill and some pudding arrived unbidden and this has now happened several times where the restaurant just gives you a bit of a parting gift to eat and it turns out that this is a bit of a tradition here.  At this restaurant we were presented with a sliced banana, three scoops of thick greek yoghurt all covered with a sweet quince sauce; just delicious and our food tanks are now overflowing.  Two meals ahead and two dumps behind as Andre would say.

The view over the water to the next beach and the next restaurant along wasn't too bad at all.  Megan and Alistair dropped some bread in the water and before they could blink there was a serious fight on between dozens of fish for the food.

  Once we had left the restaurant we carried on around the island stopping on the odd occasion for photographs and then headed up towards Lefkes where I wanted to go to a monastery high in the mountains.  Unfortunately the road turned into a dirt road and it was late and everyone was a little unsure about mopeds on dirt so we descended down to Lefkes and had a great cup of coffee looking out over the valley and down to the sea.

Arriving back Kirsten and Carl had some supper, I don't know were they are putting all the food.  I couldn't face eating anything because my cold and perhaps a bit of a touch of the sun has given me a fever so I was sitting outside watching them eat dressed in two jackets and Alistair was in a t-shirt.

After supper we wandered into town and around the alleys and even though it was quite late pretty much all the stores were open and children were playing in the central play ground or shooting hoops and it seems quite the thing to do to take a stroll around the place.

By the time I got back I was really, really ready for bed so that was it.  Carl and I were talking and one of my sentences came out with all the words present and account for but in completely the wrong order which is when I knew that I had had enough of the day.  Altogether a fantastic day in the sun.

We only have to give the mopeds back tomorrow morning at 10:30 which is enough time to get back up to Lefkes if we start at about 07:00.

Paros Day 1

We didn't do much at all today and mostly lazed around and read and relaxed.  The day started with a trip to the local store to buy provisions for the next few days which is interesting because we can't read Greek so we just have to go on the pictures and a little bit of guesswork.  Sometimes this throws up some nice surprises but it seems that supermarkets are supermarkets the world over, the sizes may vary but essentially they all have what we need to live.  Greece has a different schedule to S.A, they get up very late and go to bed really late not to mention a little bit of a siesta in the late afternoon.  The view from our balcony looks like this ...

 The house we're in is amazingly cool, even when it is quite hot outside the house is chilly so much so that we are keeping the doors and windows open to let some of the heat in.  At about midday the Van der Riets went down to the beach to swim and laze around and I joined them for a bit but Caron put in a serious siesta of about 3 hours.  The water is quite chilly and it takes a little getting used to; I might consider a swim if it gets scorchingly hot and I really need to cool down.

At about 17:00 Carl and I went for a 25 min run up and around the back of Naoussa and coming back down through the centre of town we checked out the beach which Kirsten and Carl found last night and decided that a second visit was in order so once we had showered we all traipsed back down to the beach which is a little tucked away.

While we were sitting there this, I presume, Greek Orthodox minister came strolling past and I couldn't resist a snap.  He greeted us with what sounded like 'Christ be with us' but in Greek so the the only word we made out was Christos and the rest was guess work.

As the sun when down I got a little snap happy so I have dozens of more or less the same view but with changing light.  The adjectives and photographs that describe or show the scene don't really do it justice, it was just perfect.  A slight breeze and warm enough that one didn't feel chilly and the golden glow of the setting sun painting the scene in gentle colour.  Just amazing.

 The restaurant that we were at was horrendously expensive and fortunately Carl paid the bill :-)  The cocktails that we had were pretty good but the pizza thereafter was pretty average.  Nonetheless, it made for a great evening.

One has got to love the colours in the photograph below.

Once we had finished and the sun was well and truly down we wandered through the streets to find that the day only really started after dark and that all the shops were open which made it a slow walk home because as a lightbulb is to a moth, so is a shop to Kirsten and Megan.

Although we didn't really do anything today, we were all pretty tired and very ready for bed!  I think I am going to have to explore more of the centre of town and see if there aren't any more hidden gems lurking there.

Travel day Athens to Paros

Not too much to write about since we spent most of it just travelling.

We had arranged to get a taxi to take us from the apartment to the port and we were all a little concerned that the taxi wouldn't turn up at 06:30 when we had arranged to meet.  We shouldn't have worried because we had no sooner walked out onto the pavement with our suitcases than the taxi arrived and 10 minutes later we were at the port.  Even the tickets and the boarding process was really quick and before we knew it we were off on the 4 hour trip to Paros.

Arriving in Paros we took a taxi to Naoussa which is 8km from Pariki where the ferry terminus is and by the time 12:00 rolled over we were settled into our accommodation for the next week.  Oh that all travel days consisted of only half a day of actual travel and that all taxi services were as budget friendly as the greek ones.

Once we had settled in we walked down to the port and had lunch at a restaurant beside the fishing fleet with the fishermen having their communal lunch on the deck of the vessel.  I wasn't that hungry so I nibbled off everyone else's plate instead of ordering my own and in the afternoon all I did was read so it was very asocial that whole afternoon and evening.

Kirsten and Carl + offspring went down into the town at about 19:00 and found a great souvlaki fast food place which is what we had for supper and they also found a great area to have a drink right on the water so we'll all go there tomorrow.

Below is the view from the balcony of our apartment at night, obviously!

Last day in Athens

Our last day in Athens has arrived rather quickly.  Four nights seems so long when one is planning the trip but it goes past so quickly especially in a city like Athens where there is just thousands of years of history to cram into very few days.

We booked a couple of tours for the day starting with a "Food Tour" which turned out to be well worth the money and great to have a local guide.  In all of our interactions thus far with locals the one topic that they all bring up is the 'crisis' and how it has affected them personally and it is very evident from the number of closed and boarded up shops.  The walking tour took us through the maze of streets around Plaka, Monastiriki and Psiri and within a short period of time we had absolutely no idea where we were but the tour consisted of going past various places of interest with a few stories and then a stop at a delicatessen or shop for a bit to eat and then going on.  Well worth the money and the effort.

We have all heard of the Italian mafia but apparently there was a Greek equivalent who dressed as depicted on the column next to 'Carlos da Greek'.  The mafia worked for the politicians to buy votes so corruption was endemic in society and that was another topic which came out quite strongly that the young people had had enough of it whereas the older generation were entrenched in it.  Our guide, Melina, described as a war of generations and that they, the younger one, were going to win because the older one was simply dying out.  Apparently in the past if a mafia member was caught by the police they would cut off his one mustache, one sleeve of this shirt, the cuff of one pants leg and the top of his boot to indicate to the other mafia members that he had been in custody.

 The photo above is just one of many examples of streetside cafe's and given that the streets are so narrow taking a table in the street must add a certain element of danger to dining out.  We spent quite a bit of time in various spice and delicatessen shops which were all quite colourful and aromatic.  The area, although there are obviously tourists, caters mainly to the greek population and the guide recounted how traditional greek pies were at first shunned by people because to be seen to be purchasing a pie implied that the wife didn't know how to cook.  Quite different to S.A where it's not that we don't know how to cook; we just don't have the time and energy at the end of a day to do so.  Lucky for Woolworths!

The last stop on the tour was to a souvlaki pita shop which is like the  national fast food of a pita rolled in a cone and filled with all sorts of delicious fillings. The difference was in the price, at a souvlaki fast food one would cost about 2 EUR whereas more-or-less the same dish at a restaurant was about 10 EUR.  The difference is in the presentation ... the word 'marketing' was used in a derogatory way at this point.

 The meat and spice shop above had a vertical garden growing above it which has amazing and something I would really like to do at home. By that of course, I mean for Caron to do ....

 The central market was quite a hive of activity and the guide warned us to be particularly conscious of our bags and aware of people because they have lots of problems with pickpockets and muggers.  The market itself was a typical market with a wide variety of fresh produce and I think that the kids found the meat market a little eye opening ... especially since the slaughtered lambs still had their eyeballs intact so one had the feeling of being watched as one wandered past.

In the afternoon we did a Segway tour which, although quite fun, was a little disappointing.  I think partly because of the limitations of the Segway which means that there can't be any steps anywhere on the tour which means that the choice of sites is limited and partly because the tour guide wasn't great.  She was actually a graphic design artist but this was the only job she could get so that was it; a lot of people we bumped into were just starting or had just started a new job.  Getting to grips with a Segway took a little practice but not too much and by the end of the tour we were all reasonably competent.  There was one exciting moment in the tour where Alistair was trying to go as fast as possible on a wide expanse of marble and managed to overpower the Segway and went flying off it and landed in a heap.  Nothing damaged other then a bit of pride and a nice marble roastie.

One of the place we went past was the presidential palace which we had accidentally stumbled on previously so we saw the guards doing their slow glutinous march again but we had an added attraction of a stray dog that took part in the ceremony and stopped the traffic by standing in the middle of the road and barking at the traffic.  As soon as the ceremony was over the dog retired to the sidewalk and went back to lying in the shade.

To complete our day while were were on the tram on the way home a man started to talking to us ad the same story came out, manage to get a new job as a night porter at a hotel.  Pensions have been cut so they have to carry on working as best they can - pretty miserable times it seems.

So that was Athens, tomorrow we leave to Paros ... the one think I really would have liked to have seen was the New Acropolis Museum but it was not to be.

Athens Easter Monday

As is unfortunately usual for me about a week or two into a holiday, I have the start of a cold developing.  Sore scratchy throat which will then turn into a cough which will last about a week and then I'll be fine again.  It's just really very annoying and makes everything a bit of a chore instead of a holiday activity.

Since we clearly didn't walk enough yesterday (sarcasm) we hit the road again but this time we vaguely knew where we were going.  Unfortunately, unlike yesterday, it was cloudy and a bit rainy the whole day which doesn't make for great photographs.

It is still a public holiday but there are more things open including the public toilets which was a relief to everyone.  After we had paid our 12 Euros per person to get into the Acropolis we walked past ancient ruin after ancient ruin.  I liked the theatre of Dionysus who was apparently the god of wine; I think I would have got on well with him.  Greeks have a very lackadaisical attitude to smoking and pretty much ignore any non-smoking signs.  However, if you aren't Greek the same rules don't apply and Caron was reprimanded for smoking outside the theatre and that wasn't to be our last run in with the monitors;  we sat down in front of the Parthenon to have a bit to eat and had fortunately pretty much finished our apples before the monitors reprimanded us and we had to move on.   Don't touch, don't eat, don't drink, don't smoke ... only look!

Having got that out of the way, it's a pretty amazing place and there would be a lot more of it if the Italians hadn't blown most of it up and the british hadn't stolen what is know as the Elgin marbles , so named after the thief that took them.  I was amazed at the sheer size of the Parthenon as well as the workmanship of the columns which are amazingly regular given that they were, I presume, hand carved.
 

 From the acropolis we headed downhill to the Ancient Agora which was once the central marketplace of Athens.  The photo below is of Alistair and Megan beside the Temple of Hepaestus which is apparently the best preserved classical Grecian temple.  The fact that it is still standing after two and a half thousand years of weather, earthquakes and invasions is remarkable.

 After the Agora everyone was running out of steam so we retired to a greek restaurant; acknowledging that it is absolutely a tourist trap, it is none-the-less an authentic greek restaurant amongst the ruins of Athens.  Pretty decent food as well and not too pricey all things considered, we even got some free desert and extra beer.  Note Caron doing here Socrates 'The Thinker' impression!

On our way back we just sort of wandered through the Plaka district and there are ancient ruins around every corner and the Greeks have an unusual take on how to accomodate ancient things.  This tiny chapel was obviously in the way of the developers so they just build right over it but they weren't shy to skewer the church with one of the columns.  Note the homeless person on the steps and the fact that the highrise building is actually abandoned and boarded up so while the modern building has fallen into disuse already, the ancient chapel is still in use.

Once we arrived home we all pretty much retreated to our individual worlds and read our novels and had drinks and snacks.  The shops were still closed so we just had snacks for supper but we weren't really that hungry anyway given the meal that we had had a lunch time.

Two views from our balcony, one looking towards the port of Piraeus at sunset and the other southwards over the park about 22:00.