A Lovely Weekend

Dear Friends and Family, Well, I guess the cats are finally settling in!

Last year we were here for a month and had lured, seduced, and kidnapped them into our bungalow #4, a place we have occupied the last few visits. When we arrived here last week, the cats were still calling Bungalow #4 home. Well, now, with the help of some cat food, they are finding their new home in Bungalow #5 acceptable . . . including our luggage!

We did have a relaxing and very pleasant weekend. Friday night we enjoyed a meal at the little seaside harbor of a village called Vivari.

It is just a couple of miles south of Drepano and seems to be little more than a church and several tavernas, and a number of fishing boats

We had dinner at a place we have enjoyed on nearly every visit here, since 1994: The Mermaid. In fact our waiter was the son of the man who first started waiting on us 18 years ago. The old man is still there, but he spends more time in his chair, than serving tables.

The owner is the man on the right and the son is the fellow on the far left. It is a lovely setting, nearly right at the water. We ordered up some small fish and some fried courgettes. As always, things are very fresh as you might expect. And we enjoyed the lingering full moon over the bay

Saturday was an easy day. We returned to Karathona beach. We just stay out for about an hour, lounging in their chairs and taking the occasional dip in the very peaceful waters found in this protected bay. Nothing very special both day or night. Sunday we took a day trip to the village of Nemea. The little woman, Maria, at the grocery store in Drepano put us onto a wine celebration in Nemea. Her brother owns a winery, Palivou Wineries,

and she sent us there to take part. After about a 35 minute drive, we arrived just before noon. We may not be the “ugly Americans,” but we are almost always the “early Americans.” They were just beginning to open up the wine bar and the tastefully decorated yard

Inside the processing building, there was a bar for the wine tasting. A lovely girl, with very good English, took us under her wing and started us on the wines. There were to be 10 in all. I am a bit ashamed to confess that without any substantial food, we only made it through 7 (actually it was 8, as we had number 6 twice!) Besides the wine, there was a variety of vendors displaying various cheeses, used in some interesting dips,

olive oils (from Crete!) and vinegars

After reaching our limit on wine, we asked the young girl for a lunch recommendation. She told us of a place in Nemea (the winery was in Ancient Nemea), about 4 kilometers down the road. With the help of a couple of locals, we found it; it is called Sophos.

There was actually no identifiable sign, but the owner confirmed that we had found the place. However, any lunch was to be, at least, a 15 minute wait. We said if we could get some wine, we could wait! It was a very nice place. It would be hard to really call it a taverna. It was more restaurant-like with linen tablecloths and very nice glassware. When it was time to order, we were informed that for a Sunday afternoon, there were only two choices: Moussaka and Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers. Since there was Moussaka in our fridge, it was the stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers, which we were quite looking forward to. And they were delicious. It was a great recommendation and while it was in the downtown, it was just far enough removed from the main road, that it was very pleasant. Actually the street sort of dead-ended into a memorial to those killed in WWI, which you see in almost every village in Europe

Following lunch, we stopped back at the winery to buy some wine and to check on the progress of the celebration. At this stage they had a chef who was preparing a number of dishes featuring wine and pork. Unfortunately, it would be a while before they would be ready, so we got our wine, a couple of bottles of their Rosé (one for Ingrid and one for us), and headed home. It was a very nice afternoon. After a brief nap, we spent some time with Ingrid and Yorgos at the bar and started out for dinner. As we drive along, we discovered that neither of us was really very hungry. So it was back to Bungalow #5 and leftovers. A little Retsina and some ouzo and it was a complete weekend.