[13th-17th October 2024] And suddenly, here it is…. that elusive old Greek magic. As the ferry from Piraeus approaches Hydra, Fiona asks me if I’m excited to finally be arriving here, 44 years after we elected not to get off the ferry at Hydra and to carry on to our first Greek island of Spetses. I confess that my predominant feeling is one of apprehension – might Hydra turn out to be a bit of Read more…
[19th October-6th November 2024] So, getting towards the end of our six-week trip, we return to our other home, La Gardenia in Sol del Este, on the beautiful island of Menorca. Some locations we have visited through the years provoke the thought that perhaps we won’t return to them in the future, but that’s never the case with Menorca. The island is always developing and improving, in our eyes, and is living testament to the Read more…
[12th & 18th October 2024] In order to swap between ferry lines that serve different Greek island groups, we have booked to stay two separate nights in Piraeus, the very large port of Athens. The night we arrive in Piraeus from Paros, en route to Hydra, should be one of the highlights of the trip, for me at least. Before we left Edinburgh, I invested Euros 175 in a ticket to watch the famous Olympiacos Read more…
[4th-11th October 2024] Sitting here in our small but entirely adequate hotel room in Piraeus, the port for Athens, the Cycladic Islands of Santorini, Folegandros, and Paros already seem like a distant dream. Outside on the Port Square, there’s lots of people coming and going, some of them looking quite dodgy, and all the activity you’d expect in a busy marine terminal. It’s been quite difficult to drag ourselves away from the tranquility of the Read more…
[29th September – 3rd October 2024] I can only assume that my comments on Santorini have managed to offend the Greek Gods. Apollo has decided to wreak his terrible revenge, in the form of some manner of food poisoning, which has struck me during the night before we leave by Seajet for Folegandros. Only four days into our trip, the first inter-island travel day is a blur of discomfort, and at points I doubt my Read more…
[26th-29th September 2024] They say you should never go back. For some places, like our dear Menorca, this obviously isn’t true. Perhaps for Santorini it is. Fiona and I first visited the island way back in 1983, when it was a wonderland still being discovered by travellers and tourists. We are staying now in the hotel we stayed in 41 years ago, which overlooks the volcano and its caldera – the bay of Thera. Time Read more…
The build up to Retirement Trip Number Five featured lots of hard work on Fiona’s part, in various aspects of the family business, and lots of arranging by me to have suitable pharmaceuticals to take away with us! Plus me managing to obtain a very expensive ticket for the Olimpiacos basketball match whilst we are in Piraeus. Having both caught Covid on each of our last two trips, we were keen to get vaccinated before Read more…
Blog Zeroes for the previous three trips have specialised in recounting a series of travails, medical, dental, and other, in the lead-up to our leaving Edinburgh for our first port of call. The 2023 Retirement Trip Number Four version, however, really takes the biscuit. Four hospital admissions for me over the summer have meant that the build-up to our trip has been less than ideal. Indeed, the scheduled first two and a half weeks – Read more…
[13th-30th October 2023] We board our two-leg flight to Mahón via Barcelona, with Vueling – our luggage is scheduled to go all the way through, though Vueling is quite famous for losing people’s cases, apparently. We are in Row 2, and Row 1 in front of us has only a single occupant – a fairly rough-looking middle-aged man. As soon as we are seated, he starts looking at some nonsense videos on his phone, with Read more…