Day 21 Piraeus to Napflio

We picked up a hire car to start our week long road trip around Greece and our first stop was the Corinth canal, a very narrow stretch of water linking the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf and the Aegean sea. We walked the foot bridge and watched a boat pass by. The bridge, like many all over the world had some padlocks on it but weirdly most people had tied pieces of plastic bags and even a few socks on it. Perhaps we should have demonstrated our love by tying an old chocolate wrapper we had handy to the railing of the bridge over the Corinth Canal, definitely one for eternity!

Our next stop was in Ancient Corinth and the Acrocorinth which is a fortress on a mountain, built back in the 4th centurt BC. It was a bit of a hike to the top but the view over the Peloponnese is superb, however on the way back down the stone path was very slippery from all the centuries of people walking over it.

The Temple of Apollo was at the bottom of the mountain and was a nice place to stop for lunch before we drove on to see one of only two submersible bridges in the world, both of which go under the Corinth Canal. They work the opposite way to bridges that open up to let boats through, these ones submerge eight metres to allow boats to pass over the top. It would have been good to see it working and there was a sign that told you the next time it would be in operation but as it was in Greek it was all Greek to us. We drove over it while it was dry which was probably a good thing as its apparently quite slippery when still wet so not a good thing to be attempting in a hire car.

Our next stop was Epidaurus which has a magnificently well preserved amphitheatre, unfortunately a peaceful visit  was marred by tourists deciding to stand in the centre of the stage and sing .... an oldish British man showing off his amateurish opera skills wasn't quite as bad as the American woman who decided to sing the entire US national anthem right (multiple verses) - why is it always Americans? It then started to rain, making the rest of the site a bit miserable to view.

Our final sightseeing visit for the day was to Mycenae, a large archaeological palace and fort from 1300BC, which had gates that could secure it, one was the Lion Gate with large carved lions is still in place.

We spent the night at Napflio near the coast which is quite close to Mycenae and had its own huge fort that was lit up all night and which we could clearly see from our hotel room.

Day 20 Hydra to Piraeus

We enjoyed a quiet breakfast at the port with hardly anyone around and went back to our room to pack. When we went back into town we were shocked to find it swarming with tourists, in our quiet town, how dare they! There was a large cruise boat moored, plus heaps of yachts and ferries.

We left the harbour to try and escape them and found a gorgeous cafe on the edge of the cliff face with spectacular views of the entrance to the harbour and surprisingly well priced food and drinks so we settled into the deck chairs to wait for our 3.20pm ferry back to mainland Greece.

An uneventful ferry trip to Piraeus followed by a very nice Indian meal finished off the day.

Day 19 Hydra

We headed off for a coastal walk just before the cruises arrived into town and we had the place to ourselves a little, we found a place where what appeared to be raw sewage was being pumped into the sea. 

Hydra is interesting because of the lack of vehicles permitted (apart from the rubbish truck) so everything is transported via hand trolleys, donkeys, mules or ponies. Watching the mules loaded up with everything from house bricks to incredibly long pieces of timber (how do they get around the corners?) gives the area a quiet feel, even a little primitive. If you book accommodation on the hill you have to hire a donkey to take your luggage up so we made sure we booked a place close to the port. 

In the afternoon M went on a hill walk up to the Monastery before we enjoyed a very tasty Italian meal in an alley near our home. Hydra is really lovely but in hindsight 24 hours would have been enough, at least it's giving us some down time to investigate where we should be going next. 

We are discovering that bed making in Greece is different to home, sometimes the top sheet is just folded on the foot of the bed like a throw, but most times it is made on the bed but not tucked in at the foot so by the morning you find you are wrapped in it like a Grecian robe.

Day 18 Piraeus to Hydra

Our ferry to Hydra was leaving at 10am so we dragged our cases the 15 minutes from our hotel to the correct port gate over various rough pavements and roads under construction, it looked so much easier on the map. We were given very good window seats with a table so we used the two hour ferry trip to work out a bit of an itinerary for our next week or so of our planned road trip of Greece.

We arrived into Hydra with a few showers of rain and easily found our hotel. We had chosen a hotel near the port as there aren't any cars allowed, so people staying on the hill have to arrange for donkeys to carry luggage up. The other reason we had chosen this hotel was because it had washing machines available and it was 10 days 
since we had stayed somewhere with this facility so we were getting a little desperate.

We got the washing going and headed out for lunch, as it was also K's birthday she was answering calls, messages and emails. Hydra is a very pretty port and we took a walk around the point. We could see that the nearby Greek mainland sky was threatening with ominous clouds and lots of thunder so we headed back to get our washing inside before venturing out again. 

Once again the streets were swarming with loud groups of children, all on their own and they seemed to be about 13 years old. There were so many of them that they were really spoiling the old world quiet ambiance, finally K asked someone why they were there, apparently they are on school excursions.

Day 17 Mykonos to Piraeus

An early start as our ferry to Rafina left at 7.30 am but it was a very pleasant 4 hour trip to arrive at the port of Rafina on the mainland. Here we caught the bus to Athens airport and then collected a rental car so we could drive the coastal route to Sounion, stopping at the lovely town of Lavrio for some lunch. At Lavrio we were overwhelmed by the hordes of teenagers walking the streets and filling up the restaurants - what were they all doing?

We arrived at the stunning Temple of Poseidon situated on the southern point of Sounion, it's easy to understand why this spectacular cliff was chosen as a significant spot since at least the Bronze age.

From here we took the coastal route through Glyfada back to Athens, so we could collect a jacket M had left in the apartment we had stayed in. We knew it wasn't going to be much fun driving into Athens at peak hour at 6pm, and all the one way streets and lack of parking was difficult to handle. K jumped out of the car to go into the apartment to collect the jacket, where she was taken to the rooftop only for the man to discover he didn't have the key. While this was happening M was doing loops of the city. Eventually K made it back to the car, but a wrong turn meant we found ourselves in the middle of Plaka. Plaka is the tourist hub so tourists walk down the middle of the narrow dead end streets. After a few false starts and dead ends we managed to escape without hitting any tourists - a definite achievement!

We continued on to the port of Piraeus, dropped the car off, booked into our hotel and went across the road for a dinner of Thai food, of all things! It was a very strange set up where they gave us the menus and left the order pad and pen on top of the menu, so we figured out we had to write our own order! The chicken stir fry was surprisingly tasty and spicy but the Penang curry wasn't to K's liking as the beef had a strange texture and didn't taste like beef.

The hotel in Piraeus was a nice change from some of the places we'd been staying in, it was lovely to have a comfy bed and pillows as the beds in Greece have been rock hard and the pillows not the best (but what do you expect for some of the prices we've been paying!?).

Day 16 Mykonos

We had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 9am and take us to the old port to catch a 10am ferry to Delos which has a huge archaeological site. We realised when we arrived in town that we had been lucky that yesterday there was only one cruise ship in the harbour, today there were four. They are huge vessels that disgorge multitudes of 
tourists into cities in the morning and then suck them back in at night. It was a very different Mykonos today and we thought we may have chosen poorly to pick today to visit Delos.

The ferry left a little later than scheduled, and once we all swarmed off at the Delos end the organinsed tours went one way and the rest of us lined up at the ticket booth which was manned by only two people. We thought we would be smart and traverse the path in reverse to avoid the crowds, but we ended up finding that this had been a huge city, so there was room for everyone.

After catching the ferry back we went to the bus station to try our luck for a different destination. This time we found the next bus was leaving to Agios Stefanos so we jumped on that. Once we arrived we walked past the restaurants and bars until we found one that didn't charge for sunbed use and didn't have a minimum spend per head. Later on we lined up to catch the bus back and although all the seats were taken we managed to squeeze on by standing up in the aisle. What this meant though was that a number of people were left standing on the side of the road to wait for the next bus.

Day 15 Mykonos

Today we needed to sort out some forward planning so decided to head into the town to buy some ferry tickets. We decided to have breakfast at Ornos on the way through but when we got to the bus stop we saw other tourists waiting for the bus and because we knew they only went once an hour we decided we should forego breakfast and catch the bus as well. 

Half an hour later the bus arrived and we spent the morning wandering the cute streets and seaside of Mykonos town. It seems a nicer, as in less commercial town than Santorini, it still has some of the old Greek charm left.

We purchased ferry tickets for the next few days and then went back to the bus station. There was a bus there ready to leave with a sign in the window stating the destination was Paradise so on a whim we decided to jump on and see where we ended up. 

Paradise was a lovely beach with restaurants and cafes right on the beach and we spent a relaxing afternoon there before busing it back home to spend some time doing more bookings and forward planning for the next week or so.

Day 14 Paros to Mykonos

Our ferry was scheduled for quite late in the afternoon so we had a leisurely breakfast on the beach and a last look around the town before indulging in Greek orange soaked cake for lunch, we were sorry to leave Paros as we had enjoyed it.

The ferry trip was quite a surprise, it must have been because it was Sunday and people from Athens were returning from a weekend break but there were masses of children running around the deck and making a tremendous racket. We tried moving to a quieter spot but the noise just seemed to follow us, at least now we understand how the boarding and luggage system works on these huge ferries.

We arrived into Mykonos port and straight onto a bus that was going to the middle of town, here we had to change bus to take the one to our accommodation in Ornos. Unfortunately we had just missed a bus so had to wait an hour but luckily the bus stop at the other end was very close to where we were staying. It was a very short walk to Ornos beach and we found a lovely little restaurant for dinner.

Day 13 Paros

We went to the same gorgeous cafe for crepes for breakfast before catching a bus to the other side of the island to Naoussa. Here we found very expensive restaurants on the waterfront along with an interesting fort. We decided we had picked the right place to stay back in Paros town, we are very happy with our part of Paros and spent the rest of the afternoon on sun lounges not far from our hotel.

Day 12 Paros

We found a gorgeous corner cafe for breakfast before buying bus tickets to take us to the ferry to Antiparos. Antiaparos is a small island a short ferry ride from Paros, once we arrived we hired a tiny little convertible and headed off to explore the island.

First stop was the cave of Antiparos. Its a huge cave with more than 400 steps to the bottom, it is well lit and is quite incredible to see. It's unfortunate though that people in the past had broken off so many magnificent stalactites to sell. It was also surprising to see the graffiti in there, some of it dating back to the 16th century.

We continued down the road to St Georgios which was a lovely spot on the water for lunch, before returning the car and taking the ferry back to Paros.