Cioa Sardinia

 (Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via  a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭, click on the pics to zoom in).

Woke up to a gorgeous sunny day in Alghero, Sardinia. Have to swap our kalimera's for buongiorno's now we're in Italy.

We had a long day of travelling yesterday. We flew out of Corfu around 2pm (after getting to the airport at 10am). Great views down to an array of little Greek islands out the plane windows. We had a nice few days in Corfu and loved our little house across from the nonna's. 

However it felt just a little crowded for us with between two to four cruise ships docking per day and up to 20 flights per day offloading package tours from Manchester, London etc. At a guess about 5000 visitors flowed into the old daily and across the island.

We landed at Milan Bergamo in the late afternoon and were due to fly on to Sardinia at 8.50pm. As I was looking out the airport windows pre-boarding, there was a mighty flash of lightening and then a huge boom of thunder. Uh oh! 😬Worried for a minute that the storm would shut down flights....luckily it just delayed us for an hour, Ryanair always gets you there. As we flew to Sardinia we saw the most amazing lightening display  high above the clouds. Landed 11pm, taxi to the old town as far as cars were permitted and then 50m walk to our apartment along the old cobblestones - I think our luggage bumping along would have woken the sleeping 🤭. Then up three flights of stairs with luggage, shower and bed 😴 knackered.

Wow what a place! Alghero is encircled by ancient  fortress walls and I love, love, love that no private  vehicles are allowed in the old city.

It's our kind of vibe, quiet, relaxed, calm, just the gentle hubub of local folks going about their daily tasks. You can wander aimlessly and not worry about getting run down by instagrammer's on electric scooters 😄

Our apartment is slap bang in the old town and so far I have to say Alghero is the bees knees.

Felt a bit strange hanging the washing out on the line but no one's going to look up and see our delicates four floors up.

There's something about those terracotta roof tiles en masse, quintessential Europe.

So many wonderful walking paths to explore so we started with one part of the city walls and the marina.

There's the usual big floating gin palaces and mega yachts but I always love to see the little traditional boats holding their spot in the marina. 

Plenty of places to sit and rest a while with a coffee or vino. 

You can see the old cannon that were used to ward off potential invaders and replica catapults for hurling fireballs or rocks. 

The water in Corfu was a deep velvety blue but here it's a clear glassy green, gorgeous!

Lit a candle for our loved ones who are no longer with us and to give thanks for this wonderful adventure.

Man cannot live by bread alone so we had to revive our spirits before siesta time and we were not disappointed. Fresh squid, squid ink pasta with prawns and some very tasty pulpo. Price made the eyes water a bit but when in Sardinia....

A great first day in Alghero, Sardinia. Love the old town, love the seaside paths and looking forward to more exploration tomorrow. 

Come in Corfu

 (Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via  a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭, click on the pics to zoom in).

Yesterday had a day of travelling 🚕🚌🚌✈️🚕 and finally arrived in Corfu last night. 

We are staying in a little traditional cottage up a quiet footpath only lane. It's super cute but the only drawback is coming downstairs  -  you have to remember to duck or you could do yourself an injury 🤕.  Our neighbors are not tall 😉 little old ladies that wear black and it's lovely and quiet as there is no car traffic, yet it's only 10 minutes walk from all the action.

Woke up this morning ready to explore the old town and we started off to the coastal path where we saw three cruise ships had docked over night, uh oh! 

The old town was slammed with cruise folks.

There's a sense of dilapidated old world charm. Some magnificent old buildings that are crying out for a makeover. The building in the above pic would have been fabulous looking over the port back in the day. Edward Lear, the famous artist and writer,  lived here for many years. He was deeply captivated and called Corfu 'Paradise' and ' the loveliest place on earth'. I can only imagine how magical and unspoiled it must have been back then.

Corfu is known for its cobbled streets in the old town, the beautiful pastel coloured buildings and of course the beautiful  beach spots and blue, blue water. I gather latterly it's known for Mumma Mia and Alan and Amanda's Corfu experience 😁. It's certainly popular. 100,000 resident population and annually over four million tourists, yikes!

We just followed our noses and meandered through the old town dodging the big groups off the cruise ships.

There are beautiful parks and historic buildings throughout the old town, so plenty of opportunities to rest awhile and just soak it all in. Wonderful!

We waited while a wedding party did numerous retakes of their 'spontaneous' wedding walk through the archway below. I guess it has to look perfect even though it's about the fifth take. Weddings of course are special, but there appeared to be little awareness of the public space wanting to be visited by so many others. After a waiting for several takes/retakes  we decided to get closer and enjoy the beautiful historic archway, we got a few shouts of 'tourist move' and few not so nice  sweary words from the blushing bride who, from the language expressed, may have been a sailor in a previous life🤭.

The public sculpture and monuments are stunning.

The old and new fortress were both slammed by cruise boat passengers so we may visit on a quieter day.

This is one gorgeous old town. You can certainly see why it's been visited, fought over and loved by so many over hundreds of years. 

A slow coastal stroll back to our cottage via the old marina - boat on the right has seen better days 😁. 

Ended the day with a glass of vino on our little terrace and had a great conversation about flowers with the little old lady across the lane - she spoke Greek, I spoke English and we understood each other perfectly 😁 ...the language of gardeners 💗.

From Tripoli to Kalamata

 (Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭, click on the pics to zoom in).

After finishing the terrific Menalon Trail we had May 4th,5th,6th in Tripoli - time to get the laundry done, a few holiday admin tasks and some R&R to give our calf muscles a well deserved break.  

We had a fantastic apartment with an equally fantastic shower - if you dropped the soap you had no problem picking it up😁. Some of the Greek bathrooms have the tiniest showers -  so tiny you're lucky if you can raise your elbows to wash your hair🙄.

Just outside our apartment was a church with a bell tower and it was actually quite pleasant to hear church bells ringing. On the last morning the bells had a special ring which we think meant the local market was on. 

The produce was beautiful and fresh - grapevine leaves to make dolmades, fresh fish, fresh herbs, artichokes, local honey and vinegars, old fashioned potatoes straight from the garden....not a pre-packaged plastic bag of potatoes in sight. 

Thursday 7th May we got the trusty KTLM bus to Kalamata. Fantastic comfy bus and great roads. We left the high altitude for the coast. As we came down into the valley you could see  the Kalamata olive orchards....as far as the eye could see. Surprisingly lush and green 👌

Kalamata has a population of 58,000 and felt like the big smoke after all the little mountain villages. It has H&M and Zara stores....so we certainly had left the quiet villages behind. There's an old town, new town and a port/marina. The old town has some fantastic street murals. 

The monuments and statuary to the history of the area is visible throughout the town.

Our first day proper in Kalamata was overcast so perfect for walking and exploring, not too hot.

 The old town has some wonderful old neo- classical architecture but much of it is in bad shape. You can tell it will be stunning once all restored.

It's a very walkable town and we walked back to the port/marina area where we decided to stay. We passed through the train park which was the original Kalamata stream train station and now serves as a green space for all the apartments close by. 

So glad we decided to stay at the Marina.

 It's only 20 mins walk from the old town but so restful and there's just something about being by the ocean.

The water is a gorgeous deep blue. 

The Port Authority is in a gracious old building on the quey with two Australian bottle brush trees out front 👌. 

There's still a working fishing fleet alongside the yachtie crowd and day cruisers.

When you're at the seaside it would be rude not to try the fresh seafood. We're working our way through the options. Shrimp, radichio Kalamata bruschetta 👌

Octopus on fava bean mash with lemon infused Kalamata olive oil.

Nothing fancy, just grilled anchovies and grilled octopus - sublime!

The marina and port cats are a bit of a sorry looking lot. They appear to work as a pack and for the first time ever I saw a bunch of cats working the marina tables as a team. I did spy some water bowls and cat kibble bowls further along the quey so some good person looks out for them. They have a high survival instinct - watched one hunt a skink sunning itself before it's demise.

I figured out why there were so many jet fighters buzzing about the mountains here. Kalamata has a Military international flight training center for advanced pilot training on M- 346 silver hawk  jets.  We saw them most days when we were high up in the mountain passes. Boy are they fast, loud and impressive. Germany and Croatia do their advanced pilot training here at allegedly €2.4m per pilot😯 as part of a NATO agreement (according to Google). Great income earner for Kalamata region. 

Three more days here in sunny Kalamata by the sea, can't complain 😁 😎.

Tripoli -Margarite Apartments

Kalamata - Ethereal Luxury Apartments