We left lovely Assos and drove up the high hill behind the town. As we headed south, we passed one of Kefalonia's (and one of Greece's) most famous beaches - Myrtos. We weren't interested in going to such a popular beach but we were happy to see it from above. It was beautiful!
Our destination - and our last one on Greece! - was the town of Lixouri on the Paliki Peninsula. The peninsula is only connected to the rest of Kefalonia by a small isthmus. It's almost like another island. Our accommodation here was amazing. We had trouble finding something at the time and ended up with an entire house. It's wonderful to have so much space. There was even a garden, a spa and a canopy on the roof with a hammock but it was simply too hot to use any of these.
The small town was lovely. Restaurants lined the seashore as well as the main square where we had dinner on our first night.
Just as we were heading home from dinner, we heard music and a marching band appeared! They paraded along the main road and the square then set up near the seashore and played music. That was unexpected!
We had driven through some of the villages above Lixouri on our way in and they looked gorgeous so we worked out a walk we could around some of them. First stop was a pretty village where cousin Val's grandfather came from. We went to the cemetery and found lots of graves with her family's name on them.
We climbed up towards another village and had spectacular views over the peninsula towards the larger part of the island. It was lovely and green.
We found some Mycenaean tombs! Tunnels were carved into the rock and they led to a chamber.
In the chamber of this one were four graves, again carved into the rock. That's a pretty serious effort!
Not everywhere was pristine though. Some Greeks seem to have a thing about decorating rural fencing with random items. This one collected hub caps and strung them along his fence. Other things we saw decorating rural fences and gates were skulls, a wooden Balinese carving, pots, plastic bottles and so much more.
For the first time, we saw a few timber buildings in one village. Maybe they were erected quickly after the earthquake? You almost never see timber used for buildings here. I guess it's just not available. They had asbestos rooves too.
Even though we had left early, it was really hot and we were so grateful to finish the walk. There was a restaurant near where we parked the car. It was too early to be open but the lady was there and she was happy to serve us cold sparkling water. It was heaven. We sat under a tree decorated with Greek good luck "eyes".
The good luck must have worked as the lady then brought us out some complimentary spoon sweets! We hadn't had these for ages. Spoon sweets are fruits preserved in syrup. They're incredibly sweet but they're wonderful in very small doses. The ones the woman gave us were cherries, my favourite!
I had researched where to swim to avoid the summer crowds and had chosen Lagadakia Beach, as it is supposed to be "a peaceful escape from the crowds" with no umbrellas and teeming with fish. I don't know what the writer of that info was smoking but the small beach was chock-a-block with umbrellas and there were a few small fish. I had fun snorkelling though.
The reason we chose to come to Lixouri was because Phoebe lives there. Phoebe is the woman we met last year when her brother found John's phone in the mountains. She was lots of fun so we thought it would be great to see her again. We met for dinner at a lovely restaurant. We asked the waiter to take some photos of us, a silly one (in recognition of the silly photo of Courtney on John's phone) and a 'nice' one. I don't think the waiter should give up his job to become a photographer!
It was the night of the soccer World Cup final so we found a place that was showing it. It was a late night for us and I was grateful when Spain got a goal in extra time so it didn't have to go on any longer or I might have fallen asleep!
Due to the late night and the heat, we skipped the next day's walk and just went to the beach. This one was Petani Beach, the most famous one on the peninsula. As we were there early, it wasn't too crowded although parking was getting busy already. It was a lovely looking beach.
The water was crystal clear. There were interesting rock formations and some small schools of fish.
Phoebe had mentioned she was setting up a weaving exhibition the next day so I caught up with her to check it out. She teaches workshops. It was a hot walk in the middle of the day to reach the building where the weaving was. Inside the building was even hotter! With sweat pouring off us, Phoebe showed me her work. It was lovely! She made some of her pieces on her grandmother's loom.
Our house had a washing machine and we had madly been washing everything we could as we didn't know when we would next have access to one. By the time I got home from seeing Phoebe, the clean clothes I had put on were wet with sweat so into the machine they went again!
Sadly, this was our last destination in Greece. We packed up, returned the rental car and caught a plane to Athens. At Athens airport, we boarded a bus to move from the plane to the terminal. While we were waiting for people to board the bus, I watched the baggage handlers unload bags from the plane next to us. A guitar in a case came down the conveyer belt from the plane. It had two handles on it. The baggage handler picked it up by the handles, lifted it to his chest and threw it the metre or two to the baggage trolley! Oh my god!
It's been a fantastic seven weeks or so. Greece never fails to disappoint with its endless sunshine, gorgeous beaches, fabulous food and the laid-back attitude of the people. We will miss it. It's such a special place. If I could find a set of bathroom scales, I think I might realise that getting away from Greek food is a good idea though!
Bulgaria, here we come!
Heather and John
Heather and John
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