Month: September 2012

23rd September, 2012

We’ve made a last minute decision to leave early. The conditions – rapidly and vastly reducing ferry connections including the termination of Speed Runner next week plus an Autumn of Discontent in Athens with a General Strike on Wednesday affecting transport. It seems opportune to be taking a break. Contacted Superfast and they have a Luxury Cabin for Tuesday from Patras to Ancona.

• F/b Adamas Korais leaves Sifnos this afternoon and we will be on it.
• Two nights in a 5* Hotel just outside the new port in Patras.
• 23 hours on Superfast up the Adriatic to Ancona.
• Drive 3 hours to Parma in Italy for one night.
• Drive 5 hours to Mulhouse in Alsace for one night.
• Drive 4 hours to Reims in Champagne Country for one night.
• Drive 3 hours to Calais, through the Tunnel and up to Surrey.

I will try to maintain my Blog. I’ve booked hotels with wi-fi but it doesn’t always materialise.

It seems a pity to be leaving because the weather is settling down for a hot week of swimming and socialising but WE WILL BE BACK.

24th September, 2012

Wonderful trip on a quiet F/b Adamas Korais arriving in Piraeus by 8.25 pm.

Jockeyed for position with Marios from the supermarket as we drove off. He wished us a good journey and we drove off in to the night. The traffic from Patras was immense and continuous. The traffic our way was quite light and we did it in a record two hours. The car was so relieved to leave those cramped, island roads and thanked me continually for allowing it to stretch its legs as we cruised at 120 mph along the newer stretches of motorway.

The new port is further on than the old which is why we have switched our hotel from old favourite, Patras Palace to the Poseidon Palace which offers so much more. Our room is lovely. We arrived in time to have dinner which was very nice. There is free wi-fi throughout the hotel so I downloaded my copy of The Times to my iPad over breakfast and then we drove down to the new port offices to check on sailings and the strike.

What we learned quite surprised us a left us feeling extremely lucky. We leave on Superfast at 5.00 pm on Tuesday. The strike begins at midnight. Our boat goes but the Wednesday boat doesn’t and, possibly the Thursday boat won’t either. That surprised us because, usually, these strikes haven’t affected Greece-Italy ferries. We raised the possibility of the ferry tying up at Igoumenitsa but they had clearly been asked to consider that possibility already because they laughed and said that the boat would reach Igoumenitsa in time to leave by 11.30 pm and, therefore, there wouldn’t be a problem.

The temperature is climbing to 30C/88F and we have driven back to the hotel to swim in the wonderful pool. You can walk down their jetty and swim in the sea but the pool is delightful and incorporates a huge and powerful jacuzzi. We have had it completely to ourselves for a couple of hours and feel very relaxed.

25th September, 2012

After a wonderful meal in the Hotel restaurant last night, we only needed a light breakfast. Unfortunately, we couldn’t resist the bacon & eggs on offer so we are feeling podged again. It is a lovely, still and warm morning – forecast to reach 29C/85F – which we are spending walking in the gardens and catching up on correspondence. A lot of my readers have wished us a safe journey and a good winter. It could be nothing other without the Poison Dwarf.

We board at 3.30 pm and sail at 5.00 pm. After dinner, we will try to stay awake to see the stop at Igoumenitsa at 11.30 pm and then sleep. The boat docks in Ancona at 4.00 pm tomorrow. The poor people booked for Wednesday’s 5.00 pm sailing are having to wait an extra seven hours in order to beat the strike.

26th September, 2012

We dined on grilled salmon last night with a bottle of chilled, red wine followed by half an hour out on deck getting plenty of sea spray in our faces. We went to bed at 10.30 pm and were out like a light so soon that we completely missed the stop at Igoumenitsa around 11.30 pm. This morning dawned bright and sunny and our luxury cabin at the front (bow?) on top deck with huge, panoramic windows gave us wonderful views of …..the sea and sky.

Breakfast in the A La Carte Restaurant comes in the price of our ticket so we couldn’t turn it down – could we. Fresh orange juice, a pot of wonderful coffee, toast, bacon & eggs followed by croissants.

We staggered to the Purser’s Desk to buy a wireless internet card and download The Times to my iPad. We both find ships frustrating slow. We would never consider a cruise for that reason. Superfast XI docked at 4.30 pm and we were off shortly after 5.00 pm. Under our own steam, driving was a nice feeling. More importantly, the weather was warm and dry in total contradiction of the BBC’s weather forecast which suggested that the whole of our journey would be wet. The drive from Ancona port to the centre of Parma was really enjoyable and we arrived at our hotel by 8.30 pm. The Hotel Villa Ducale was ok but only ok.

It demonstrates the difficulty in upgrading and maintaining an older building. The room was rather dark and a bit dingy although the bathroom was lovely. The dining room was like a huge, souless hall and the Maitre d’ like Basil Fawlty although the food was rather good.

It wasn’t cheap. It cost us €180.00 for the night with dinner. We won’t go back there.

27th September, 2012

This morning we set off on the hardest leg of our journey – a five hour drive from Parma in Italy to Mulhouse in Alsace, France. Gone are the days when we got off the boat and drove non-stop to Zeebrugge to catch the ferry back to Hull. Retirement brings so many benefits, not least, low season prices and an indulgent drive through Europe. Once again, the weather was beautiful even in Switzerland. We were expecting thunderstorms there but the sun shone and the clouds remained high and white. Admittedly, the temperature fell to figures we hardly recognised – 11C/52F – and the peaks had plenty of new snow on them but huge waterfalls were spectacularly crashing down the mountainsides everywhere.

Our route today has been: Parma – Milan – Lake Como – Lake Lugano – Lake Maggiore – Belinzona – San Gotthard Tunnel – Altdorf – Seelisberg Tunnel – Lucerne – Basel – Mulhouse.

With a break for coffee, it has taken five and a half hours. We are staying at a hotel that we’ve used a couple of times before and enjoyed – The Holiday Inn. It is reasonably priced and very comfortable, has a fantastic restaurant and a wonderful, basement pool with sauna and gym.

  

Tomorrow we drive to and stay in the champagne city of Reims. We are looking forward to that.

28th September, 2012

Wonderful drive this morning from Alsace to Reims in the heart of the Champagne Region. Late summer sun bathed the almost empty motorways – abandoned by the everyday French because of the level of tolls. French motorways are beautifully planted with the most glorious trees which increasingly display orange and golden burnished leaves as the depth of Autumn intensifies as we get closer to Calais and the coast.

We were in no hurry although we mooched around in our hotel room until 10.00 am, drinking coffee and listening the Today programme on Radio 4 and doing our correspondence. I downloaded the paper and read a chunk of it. No breakfast this morning. We are still full from last night. After a couple of hours driving:

Mulhouse – Colmar – Strasbourg – Metz – Verdun – Epernay – Reims (There are shorter routes but this is the quickest.)

We stopped for petrol and to have coffee and a sandwich. We wouldn’t dream of doing this in UK but French Service Stations are clean, attractively laid out and sell the most amazing fresh coffee and top quality food. I just had a baguette with ham and salad. It was gorgeous with every element from ham to oak-leaved lettuce to cornichons to mayonaise being chosen and combined for its quality. The coffee was as good as I could make myself. For that – €11.00 / £8.80. Not too bad for heaven.

We arrived at our hotel in the centre of Reims – about 100 mtrs. from the famous, ornately neo-Gothic cathederal – The Mercure Reims Centre Cathedrale.

  

With great good fortune, we found the hotel has a secure, underground carpark and the hotel itself has just completed a full refit. It is delightfully comfortable from the brand new carpets to the huge new bed. We have every channel imaginable on the new, flat-screen television and a fantastically ‘cool’ bathroom. Wi-fi is strong and free in our room and everywhere else. I’ll let you know later about the restaurant.

29th September, 2012

Well, today we drive to Calais, spend two or three hours stocking up on wine and doing a month’s grocery shopping in Auchan and Carrefour. We will find somewhere nice for lunch. We have booked a spot to drive through the tunnel at 5.00 pm (France)/4.00 pm (UK) but it may be that we choose to go through a couple of hours earlier. It will take us another hour to drive to our home in Surrey and mark the end of one 6 month period and the start of another.

After three delightful hours on an almost deserted motorway in beautiful sunshine, we arrived in Calais at our favourite wine outlet – The Calais Wine Superstore – and then drive on to Auchan in Coquelles where we do our grocery shop. We have a bite to eat and then drive on to the Tunnel, arriving about 2.00 pm (French time), hoping to get on an early train. Unfortunately, one of the ferry companies is on strike so the trains are full but we still get into Kent for 4.30 pm and to Surrey before 6.00 pm.

The grounds around our apartment looked wonderful. The lawns closely mown and green, the trees in luscious leaf with squirrels darting everywhere. The temperature was a bit keen for a man in short sleeves – 14C/57F – but it was nice to feel a different climate. We had bought bread, butter, cheese  & ham in France and that made a quick tea along with a bottle of something. I just managed to stay awake long enough for the evening news and Match of the Day before a shower and falling into bed.

16th September, 2012

A lovely day of sun and cloud with temperatures reaching 28C/83F. While Skiathan Man was dancing in the rain, and rain forecast here receded into the future. We have had a true Sunday. Newspapers in the morning, light lunch and football match – Reading v Spurs. Defoe won it with two goals. I’ve always wondered why Defoe was only used as super-sub by Spurs and by England.

Later, Dimitris, his wife and beautiful little girl came round for a drink and a chat. We sat for a couple of hours as the sun went down, looking out to sea and infinity. It was delightful. Later, we went to Panos and Rania’s to eat. We weren’t terribly hungry so we only had a main course of Beef Orlof and chips but it was nice to see them again. Rania’s Mum is staying with them. She is a really lovely lady.

17th September, 2012

Today, according to BBC Weather, was supposed to start with rain. As I walk out on to the patio and look over the port at 7.00 am, nothing could be further from possibility. Cloudless blue sky, barely a rustle of breeze, sun gently rising. Rain? What rain? Just as I am a newsaholic so are we avidly interested in weather. It is the British disease. We watch Ant1 weather, Mega Weather and, especially, ET3 weather for the usually excellent Sakis Arnaoutoglou in a fifteen minute presentation.

Of course, I also have a weather app. on my laptop and on my iPad which taps into the continuously updated, global weather monitoring stations. You just can’t have too much weather! The problem is, the weather hasn’t behaved itself for some days now. When you want rain, you just can’t get it.

18th September, 2012

Since we retired, teachers’ pay has been frozen. Our pension, however, is updated each year according to the rate of inflation. It is inflation-proof. This government changed the inflation index from RPI to CPI (Retail Price Index to Consumer Price Index) with the intention of controlling the increases. The biggest difference between the two indexes (indices?) is that the first includes Mortgage costs. As we don’t and will never again need a mortgage, we really don’t feel too bad although the difference at the is 0.3%. What it means is that our pensions will have risen over 2 years by 7.7% which is not too bad in these recessionary times. The increase each year is based on the September figure but not uprated until the following April by which time it can be well out of date. Whatever the increase, we are grateful to be paid to indulge ourselves.

Watched Man. City deservedly lose to The Special One.

19th September, 2012

Busy day. Blood Test. Consistent over five weeks now at 2.3 – I must be behaving myself. Coffee and Sweet Pie at Prago. Visit to the Accountants. Visit to Kostas & Maria. Visit to Olga.

Watched Man. United play and beat Galatasaray although I couldn’t stay up right to the end.

20th September, 2012

The plumber is coming to do some work in the garage tomorrow so I have been set the task of cleaning and tidying the entire place today. We currently don’t have any doors on our garage and all the flotsam and jetsum of the island blows into it and settles along with stray cats, lizards, spiders, etc.. We dump everything we don’t want in the garage. Now is the day of reckoning.

After two hours, I am exhausted and have made a New Year’s Resolution. The year 2013 must be the year of the Garage Door. It must be automatic operated and remotely controlled. None of this getting out of the car!

21st September, 2012

Up early for a beautiful day. Still – all the weather forecasts apart from the BBC said it would be windy – calm, warm and beautifully scented. We went to the tip with all the rubbish from our garage and then cleaned the car. I have decided that I am going to keep it until the end of next year. The new model is launched in November but I’ve made the mistake before of buying the first one off the production line of a new model only to find teething problems still to be ironed out.

The plumber arrived exactly at 10.00 am as agreed but could only do part of the job and will have to come back next week some time to finish it. We had our own agenda to complete – cleaning the inside of the car which is beginning to look a bit grubby. Today, the leather will get the full treatment as will the carpets and internal glass.

Unlike those more Northern and softer islands, Sifnos has not yet had its first rain of the Autumn. We were hoping for it this week and had unscrewed the cap on our flat roof drainage system that captures rainwater in our huge water tank. Like all Cycladic properties, ours is built on the cubist style with flat roofs. The red dust of the Summer has drifted up there and settled and would have been washed down by the first rains. However, Pauline is so keen to capture all the soft, rainwater that we have spent an hour up on the roof, hosing it down and leaving it clean for the first rains to drain straight into our tank.

22nd September, 2012

Another lovely Saturday. Warm and still. Nice to see Giannis, our neighbour, back at work after a health scare. He says he is alright although he looks like he’s lost a bit of weight already. Apostolis, our neighbour in front called to ask if everything was alright. He was aware that we had a brief power problem yesterday but it was soon sorted out when the Power Company came down. Went up to speak to the Woodman in the middle of the morning. He is going to give me gardening lessons when he plants his vegetables at the beginning of May. I am going to help him and learn how he grows such fantastic produce almost entirely without water. There are such lovely people on this island and they are desperate to help poor foreigners like us. It is quite humbling.

9th September, 2012

The tourists/holidaymakers are virtually gone and the island seems to be relaxing again. If you don’t rely on tourist money which we don’t, it is a nice position to be. My judgement is that the season was not half as bad as feared but still rather lighter than in a good year and the season certainly started late and finished early. No doubt NTOG or GNTO as they call themselves now will claim a bumper harvest but they are so discredited in their figures it is hard to take seriously. Still, the local economy won’t have done too badly.

The weather is also bringing the season to a close. At the moment, days are pleasant but breezy but, unlike the hardy Skiathan Man, I will reach for a sheet tonight. Inspite of this evening’s cool wind, we had a lovely family party with friends outside on the terrace, drinking beer (the children had cherry cola – can you imagine it?) – and chatting.

10th September, 2012

The Ferry Timetable is collapsing fast as evidenced by the new posting:

We remember the untimely death from a brain tumour of Pauline’s brother John (Jack) Barnes six years ago today. (picture to follow)

Each Autumn we get from the woodman who supplied our windows and doors a special maintenance kit which we apply religiously. We do this so as not to invalidate our 10 year warranty which is already 6 years old. The solution is manufactured in Ancona and consists of a cleanser and a shellac-type substance that creates a transparent, protective skin over the wood and paint finish that protects them from sea air and UV rays. It certainly works. Today, is treating the windows and doors day.

A trussed up goat lay in the back of a speeding pickup bleating loudly all the way down the hill past our house to the valley below where it will almost certainly draw its last breaths trussed up on a hoist with its throat slit. This is real life in the raw! I quite like roast goat but then I’ve always been good at disassociation.

11th September, 2012

When we first came to Sifnos in 1984/85, the post office was a dingy, dark, dirty place that was little cared for. Having said that, the post was delivered by a chap on a motor bike with a leather satchell slung across his chest. There is no well established street naming system or house numbering system but he knew everybody by name and those he didn’t would be known by someone else. I suppose because of the economic problems, the post delivery system was shelved. We had to go up to the post office to ask if there was any post for us. Collections of neighbours would create informal groupings to help each other in this but ‘getting your post’ was a time consuming business. First travel to Apollonia. Second, stand at the counter in a long queue. Third, wait until I go round the back and check if there is something for you. If not, you can personally thumb through huge piles of uncollected letters that are stacked up in a box at the side of the office. It was a system that provoked annoyance, even fury as people waited in long queues.

Along came a new post master who immediately shook things up. He couldn’t conjure up cash to revive deliveries but he could bring a system to the problem. The Greeks aren’t too keen on systems that involve a change in their lives. There was no way round it. Now we have batches of numbered post boxes and keys to those boxes. Post is delivered to these boxes if the recipient has bothered to tell people they expect correspondence from to add the box number to their address. This is the chink of weakness because it seems that so many refuse to do that simple thing. The post master comes down with huge piles of wrongly addressed mail twice a week and a committed few try to help him distribute them. We go down on Tuesday and Thursday for mail. At least now we know that we will definitely get our mail.

The Post Office is in line for early sell off.

I read Tom Winnifrith’s interesting views on Greek privitisation:

Arriving at the Post Office which serves a small suburb of not a very large town I stumbled in a sweaty wreck. The place is open from 8.30 AM until 2.30 PM five days a week meaning that its staff (in this State owned enterprise) have to put in a back breaking 30 hour week. They are probably paid for 14 months a year and get to retire at 55 but that is not the point. Did I mention how many staff were crammed into this small office? Five. That is one member of staff for every 1.25 customers that I observed during my 20 minute visit.

But, as he observes, cutting the staff and extending the working hours of the others creates many more problems. Whoever buys  ELTA will have a difficult job as the new Sifnos Post Master has found out.

By the way, you really must read The Skiathan where Skiathos Man is illustrating his penchant for swimming in the 1930s. What a man he must be and sleeping without a sheet – the stuff of legend!

12th September, 2012

A delightfully lazy day. While my Pauline was indulging herself by painting the back of the house, I was indulging my enjoyment of writing. Lots of correspondence. Lovely email from my sister, Ruth. A long email from our ex-neighbours in Huddersfield about their drive to Spain and back and then an excellent email from our current next door neighbour who reached the point of selling her property and then changed her mind and took it off the market. We’re very pleased.

The sheet was definitely not needed tonight.

13th September, 2012

The return of summer. Stepping out of our bedroom on to the patio at 7.00 am, the world felt like a lovely place. It was still, quiet, warm and beautifully scented. As the day has gone on, the temperature has risen to 28C/83F and it feels wonderful. For some reason, the island is a different place today. Maybe it is because people have left. We drove down to Platys Gialos this morning. It was almost deserted.

As we walked down the street, it was so hot we fancied an ice cream. It was impossible to buy one. Either places are now closed for winter or they have not replenished summer stocks. Well, it’s good for the waistline and, goodness knows, it needs it.

After a lovely lunch on the patio – tomato, mozzarella & basil salad with garlic sausage and thin toast. A cold beer went down well with this but even then, the muggy heat drove us inside soon after the meal.

14th September, 2012

Finished the painting of the house today. We just have the garden perimeter walls to complete. It is a quite delightful, still, warm day. The air is clear and the island magical – for most of the day. On Fridays, people return from Athens.

The brushcutter has been out of action for a while. Today, instead of taking it to be repaired, I took it apart and repaired it myself. I had a nice, feeling of achievement after that.  We were supposed to be going out to dinner but just didn’t feel like it and stayed at home to eat an all-in-one-pot dish I cooked of pork, potatoes and onions with sage and oregano. Even though I say it myself, it was delicious accompanied by a slightly chilled bottle of Rosso Piceno. It’s made from the sangiovese and montepulciano grapes and is delicious. What will I do when it runs out?

15th September, 2012

Can you believe we are half way through September already. I seriously subscribed to the view that time was rushing ahead when we were teaching because we were working so hard. We didn’t have time to stop and take stock. Let’s live on a Greek island, I told Pauline. We will be able to slow time down. How wrong I was. It seems to have speeded up.

Talk about return to Summer. It is happening with knobs on. We’ve reached 32C/90F today almost without a breeze. No sign yet of the promised rain. The BBC says we will get it Monday/Tuesday. We’ll see.

Went out shopping today in Exambla and, within half an hour, we had a request to go and visit friends next week at their house. Another family asked if they could visit us and they will come for a drink tomorrow evening. We had an offer of olive oil if we go round for coffee to another family. We still have to return a social visit to the Notary’s family. I can’t cope with all this social whirl.

Typical separation of labour this afternoon. Pauline is painting the garden walls while I am watching football. The first match, Norwich v West Ham, really wasn’t that good. I’ve got Man. Utd. v Wigan and Sunderland v Liverpool next and, if I can stay up, there is a recording of Stoke v Man. City. I’ll be shattered after all that.

2nd September, 2012

Up very early this morning. Our intention was to get through a list of small jobs. Downloaded The Sunday Times which is the important thing and then just fell in to that Sunday feeling. Fresh coffee, toast and homemade marmalade, the Sunday paper, warm sunshine with a light breeze under the pergola, Radio 4 through the window. What more could one want?

Swimming was rather chilly yesterday and we decided to give it a miss today. Anyway, I wanted to watch Jensen Button win the F1 race from Belgium. Lucky we stayed in because Olga from Exambla called quite unexpectedly. It was lovely to see her. She brought with her a gift that her husband had made for us – Sifnos pears poached in red wine with accompanying pistachio cream. We had been up a couple of times but missed her and we had left her a jar of marmalade to remind her of London.

Watched a cliff hanger of a match between Southampton and Man. U.. Even though I support United, I felt desperately sorry for Southampton who deserved to win. They lost in injury time to a lack lustre United. Robin van Persie missed a penalty but scored a hat-trick.

3rd September, 2012

New timetable shows ferry connections reducing at an alarming rate:

We were told a scary tale last night that our friendly neighbour, Giannis, had been taken seriously ill with a stroke and rushed off to hospital in Athens. This morning, after painting and cleaning, we went down to Hotel Boulis to enquire about his welfare. We were delighted to hear that it wasn’t as bad as we had been told and that he might be home on the island tonight. Giannis is the Sifniot who we see most as he drives up and down from the farm 8 – 10 times per day. We even remember  him as a ‘cool’ youth with chewing gum, slicked back ‘biker’ hair and bottle opener in his gun belt, leaning on the open door of his father’s restaurant to which he had roared up on his shiny motorbike. Times have changed and Giannis has aged.

Had a lovely meal at Captain Andreas. I’m glad we’ve started going back there this year. The food is quality.

4th September, 2012

Lovely day today. Pleasant  27C with light breeze. We got up to find Mother cat with her mini-me look-alike sleeping on the patio. After breakfast for all of us, the cats went back to sleep and we went back to gardening – pruning bushes and trees.

 

We were meant to be meeting the Notary but that had to be rearranged so we carried on with jobs. The weather forecasts had suggested strong winds but it turned out to be delightfully calm. At the risk of sounding weather-obsessed, I was reading The Huddersfield Examiner this evening – as you do – to find that our old haunts had received their wettest June, July & August since records began and that rainfall was three times average. Poor people.

Spoke to Superfast about our return tickets today. Currently, we are looking at end of October or beginning of November. The only problem is the island connections become so sparse. Still, we will consider that later.

5th September, 2012

Finally got to speak to the Notary. Spent a really enjoyable and productive hour there. It has helped us with a number of issues.

Spent the afternoon tree pruning and clearing away. Nothing spectacular but it felt good to have done some physical work. Our house is surrounded by pomegranate trees which grow vigorously and are a little unruly. I try to keep them in check by pruning each year.

6th September, 2012

Blood Test – excellent result of 2.3. The lovely blood testing man had been away for a couple of days. Apparently he went to a pop concert of a group I know nothing about but he says has been his favourite for years – The Red Hot Chillie Peppers. We spent some time discussing why he liked them because the clinic was miraculously empty today. I must admit I’ve barely even heard of them but he didn’t seem to know of Puccini either. I don’t need another test for two weeks. I shall miss our chats. Cafe Prago for coffee, shopping and then back to the house.

Mooched around catching up with correspondence. Retirement is so pleasant! By the time we started to think of our evening meal, we couldn’t be bothered cooking. We got pizzas from Panos & Rania – Vegetarian and one which was Prosciutto with and Parmesan dressed with rocket leaves. They were both lovely but the vegetarian one is still their best offering.

7th September, 2012

Visitors arriving on Saturday so I’ve been detailed to tidy up around the outside of the house and clean the patio tiles which go all the way round. First we have to download The Times, go shopping, fill up with petrol (€80.00) and visit the woodman. Kostas and Maria are the most lovely people. We almost lived with them last year as we urged them to do our pergola. Today went to buy our annual window treatment and have a chat. We were given sugared marzipan sweets by Maria and a huge bag of vegetables from his garden by Kostas – three different sorts of aubergines, pointed peppers, beans, tomatoes, etc. They have two, delightful children – keen, energetic, intelligent, enquiring but thoughtful, polite and pleasant. Children don’t develop like that accidently. It has happened because of two excellent parents.

8th September, 2012

There is a Food Festival in Artemonas. It has various stalls for each of the Kykladik islands which is represented. The idea is that they can illustrate/publicise the representative produce/foods of their island – their local wine, olive oil, bread, etc. The festival is named after the famous Sifniot chef,  Nikolaos Tselementes (Νικόλαος Τσελεμεντές) (1878–1958). He is considered one of the most influential cookery writers of modern Greece.

 

It is usually good fun with music and a chance to taste the islands’ various offerings. We are thinking of going this evening.

The Food Festival was interesting and fun but just as homely as we remember it. The music was blaring, the island stalls laying out their wares although I thought a little more sparcely than usual. Folegandros had either not bothered to turn up or left early.

We didn’t stay for the full event but we did walk up the back streets where small stalls extended for a long way and had even taken over the school classrooms. In this case, it wasn’t just food for sale but craft items like pottery, fabric and jewellery.