Wonderful Holiday (Part One)

 Well. We are back from holiday (actually we've been back several days as I start to type this update which will, just to warn you, be epic and long and with many pictures and videos) and what an amazing awesome and wonderful holiday it was indeed. I can highly recommend the place we stayed and you can go book yourself in by clicking here if you want to. Let's get stuck in to catching up.

Rosie watering her flowers

About to slide at the park

Chips and pork ribs for lunch

An awesome spider

Really effective pool skimmer

Rosie watching the lizard - can you spot it?

There it is

Louise a little unsettled

First of all a few pictures from before the holiday as we got steadily more and more excited about going (Rosie in particular "I want to go on holiday!" and "I want to go to the beach!"). She has been helping out with watering the garden with Angela quite a lot, which is good, and on Daddy Saturday I got to take her to the park and have some lunch out with her which was lovely indeed. Angela found an awesome, and quite large, spider in the garden while watering one of the days which Rosie was also very impressed by. We also received our new skimmer attachment for the pool which made a huge difference immediately - definitely highly recommended. There was lots of time for playing on the balcony with Rosie and while we were playing Catch and Catch You one day we spotted a lizard hiding in one of the drain holes. Rosie again was very interested and sat watching it for ages. Indeed yesterday, when we were out there, she kept saying "where is the lizard?". Her memory really is astounding. Finally, however, it was the last day of work for me and our house sitters had arrived. We were all packed and Louise was really unsettled knowing things were about to happen. It was time for our holiday!!!!

Here we go, sunglasses on!

The ferry pulls out of the harbour

Sandwich time on the boat

We are in our guest house

A beautiful calm harbour

Rosie pointing out the moon (I think) or maybe a boat

I finished work, we piled into the car, and started driving. It did not take long to get to the border and it was very quick to cross (though I had to have a test which was quite uncomfortable being shoved up my nose). The drive to the ferry was easy as well, I took over about half way and drove the remainder all the way to the accommodation. Rosie was particularly impressed with the tunnels we drove through on the Greek side of the border going down from the mountains. The ferry was waiting for us and we drove straight on, had some sandwiches (and saw some jelly fish as we were pulling out of the harbour) and then suddenly we were back in the car driving around the island towards our destination. We arrived and found the place really easily, the hostess was superb and welcoming, and the location was perfect. It was right by the old harbour with lots of free parking with seconds walk of the front door but was also tucked on a little courtyard just back off the main road. Perfect. A safe place for Rosie to go outside, not much foot traffic, and quiet. After arriving and having a little snack we even had time to go for a paddle in the sea before bed. Perfect.

First morning morning swim

Beautiful sunrise

Angela and Rosie having fun in the sea

Rosie and her Chocolate Croissant

Relaxing on the beach

Lovely lunch

The next morning I was up bright and early and before everyone else and took myself down to the beach for a swim. I went to the same beach we'd paddled in and was a bit disappointed as there wasn't much to see in terms of fish, and the water was cloudy and dull. I still enjoyed it but it wasn't the fish tank experience of our last trip to Thassos. After breakfast I took a quick walk to see if there was somewhere better but on this time up that headland I did not see the rocky path leading to the beach I'd swim off for the rest of the break. It was beautiful, though, as the sun rose behind the crags. Our routine for the holiday established itself on the first day, with some differences as this first day we took a walk along the beach, had a quick paddle (for those on mobile there is a video or two scattered throughout this update which you can find by visiting my channel here) and then went and had breakfast at a little beach bar. It was very nice with chocolate croissant for Rosie and sausage roll and cheese slab for Angela and I but we didn't bother going out again for breakfast as it was also very heavy for the entire day! We spent the rest of the morning on the beach, in and out of the sea and waves, and went to a lovely restaurant with superb service for our lunch. Looking back at these pictures I'm surprised we didn't end up back there after.

The little cove round the corner

Rosie having great fun with mummy

Swimming in the protected water

A parachute glider thing being towed by a boat

Rosie laughing and splashing

Beautiful view from where I was sat

I have this picture printed out on my wall already

Rosie and her dinner (she didn't manage it all)

Coffee being burned to chase off the wasps

At Angela's insistence I did another recce of the next bay after this and was very pleased to find the rocky path mentioned above and I was able to make my way round to a little bay with clean waters and a rocky beach. Perfect for my morning swim. After our afternoon nap, which was hugely needed for all of us, we went back down to the little beach near the harbour and Angela and Rosie went for a swim. I'd caught the sun somewhat sitting on the beach in the morning and so sat in the shade with the big camera and snapped a bunch of photographs while they had great fun watching fish swimming in the shallows and floating and swimming. Rosie is so confident with the water it really was awesome that she had no fear of it. The pool helped so much in this regard. Afterwards we got ourselves dried off and headed out for dinner. Rosie had apple juice and a Greek burger (burger without bread) and it was a lovely meal if plagued by wasps. It was our first experience of seeing coffee being burned to chase them away and it did seem to work. Then back home and it was another early night for all of us; everyone was asleep for 9!

The cove, before my swim

Such a beautiful spot

Rosie reading her books

First to the beach

Rosie playing with her bucket and spade

Burying Daddy's feet

And so suddenly it was Saturday morning and I was up early, packed my bag, and clambered round to the hidden cove and had a lovely swim in clearer waters with more to look at (but still not that much, to be honest) and quite a swell coming in breaking on the pebbels. It was lovely and I was very happy Angela had helped me find a place to swim. After breakfast, and some reading, we packed the car up and drove the couple of minutes up and round to the bay that was only a couple along from my swimming spot, but which has a road to it and a small bar and some recliners. We were first on the beach and even though it did fill up a bit it stayed beautiful until we left to head home for lunch and our nap.

Octopus tentacles drying in the sun before dinner

Walking out with Rosie

Floating as deep as we went

By the harbour wall having fun

Building sandcastles

And burying Daddy's feet

Lunch was sandwiches and then nap was for all of us and after that it was my turn to take a swim with Rosie in the little sandy beach directly opposite where we were staying while Angela stayed out of the sun. It was lovely, magical indeed, to float with her and watch the fish and just relax so much. After swimming we got out and played with the bucket and spade again, first of all making some sand castles and then Rosie got to burying my feet again. It was very hot in the sun and I had to cover up with the towel when I was out of the water.

Ladies ready for dinner

Frosted glass of beer

The placemat at the restaurant

Toasted Cheese and Sesame Seeds with Pine Honey

Spicy Chorizo

Rosie and her Spaghetti Bolognaise

The rack of ribs

Dessert to top it off

Playing a quick solo game

After this lovely swim we headed back and got ourselves dressed up for dinner. We were going to a place we had seen walking along the front that looked amazing and it turned out to be the best place to eat that we went to all holiday; we would go back again on the last night. This was my first beer of the holiday as well, and it washed down the amazing food perfectly. Rosie had some spaghetti bolognaise and then helped me polish off the dessert but between that I had my favourite Greek starter, the baked cheese in sesame seeds with pine honey (amazing) and then we shared some spicy sausage (astounding) and a rack of ribs (superb). It really was incredible and great food. I highly recommend visiting The Symposium in Limenaria if you are ever in the area. After dinner we headed back and I got a little bit of solo gaming done before we were all to bed again, very early.

Right, this update has got long enough. I'm going to wrap it up here and publish and continue the holiday in the next post. Thank you for reading!