The Peloponnese and Dear Old Friends

Dear Friends and Family, At 6:15 am we bid adieu to Stuart and Angela and headed for the Heraklion Airport. All went smoothly and much to my relief (and surprise) there was no baggage fee! Just about on time, about 8:30 am, we headed for Athens, arriving about 9:15. We had a little trouble locating the agent for the rental car agency, but within a half hour that problem was solved. It seems that while they urge you to keep them apprised of any changes in your schedule (and we had a couple), they don’t seem to read them. So they had a different flight number and the wrong time. But, as I say, it all turned out find and by 10:30 we were on the road to Assini, about 2 hours away. We did make a lunch stop in Korinth. There is this little local taverna, filled with a bunch of old guys, nearly none of whom have English, but for some reason a few years ago we began making a ritual stop there for lunch. So, we stopped and had some of the best tzaziki I have ever tasted. Nearly took the top of your head off with the amount of garlic. Fantastic. After 45 minutes or so we were back on the road, only to make instigate our second brief ritual: buying two liters of Retsina from a little roadside stand that we pass each time. A woman runs across the road from the nearby taverna and fills two plastic one-liter bottles from an old wooden barrel. With our Retsina we can survive anything! About half an hour later we arrive at Ingrid’s.

It is really like being home. We have known them since 1994, and have taken friends and family there or recommended it to others. With the energy of Ingrid, it is a very different energy from Crete. For about an hour we sat at the little bar

And caught up on the last year and a half since we were there. They are well and Ingrid is looking especially good. She did say, however, that it has been a hard year. With so many fears about the future of Greece, many have stayed away so that just when Greece needs help, tourists are abandoning them. However, as Ingrid says, she and her family “are suvivors.” They will make it work. In fact, she told us of her proactive approach to the season as she contacted all her former guest and urged them to help her by considering her place as a vacation this season. Many of them responded. But even so, Europeans seem to be cutting back on the length of vacations as well, so many hotels in the area standing nearly empty. Very hard times. After a bit of catching up, we went to our room.

We settle in and tried for a nap, but it was very hot. Apparently the last day of a prolonged heat wave of 6 days with it near, at, or above 100 degrees. It is supposed to break tomorrow and be in 80s. We stopped at the bar again before going to dinner and spent a bit of time with Yorgos, Ingrid’s delightful husband. Then it was off to our favorite taverna, Kastraki, just a quarter of a mile down the road on a pretty little bay that looks over to the tourist town of Tolo.

It is a lovely setting and the food it excellent. We had a couple of our favorites, the “small fish,” also called White bait and their delicious fried potatoes which are cut as very thin rounds and fried in olive oil. Amazing! While we there, down on the beach just below, we saw the strangest sight: a bride and groom who had come with their photographer for some wedding pictures.

It was clearly after the wedding, because eventually both bride and groom kicked off their shoes and got into the sea

Later, the bride was literally lying in the water with the waves lapping over her dress. It was great fun, but you had to assumed that she had no future plans for her dress! Then it was home for a last drink with Ingrid and we turned in for a relatively early night. This place it so comfortable that I feel there will be little to report for a couple of days. However, I will stay in touch.