Lisbon Bom dia

13 hours layover in Lisbon en route to San Francisco. 

We have visited Lisboa previously and with such a short layover time we hunkered down close to the airport - 17 mins walk today/tomorrow for our early morning flight :)

With not much time we explored the little suburb Alvalade where we are staying and there's a terrific church, Igreja de São João de Brito, in the center of the wee plaza.The modern design dates from 1951 and is by the architect Vasco de Morais Palmeiro - large and dominant concrete structure, interesting.

Our hotel recommended a traditional Portuguese family restaurant just 10 mins walk, Tico Tico, and it was perfect. Nothing fancy, just traditional local recipes and flavour. We had grilled sardines, a baccalu and shrimp type of fish stew and marinated salad - all delicious. 

Long flight in small seats tomorrow to San Francisco but it will be worth it to see my brother and dear friends again.

So long Europe, it has been such an adventure with wonderful experiences, cultural exchanges, hard yakka trekking in blistering heat,  breathtaking architecture and history, sea so blue and crystal clear it's almost unbelievable, cuisine to fire up the taste buds and the warmest of welcomes, help and directions from total  strangers being wonderful ambassadors for their village, home, country - good people 💓.

Hola Amigos

 It's great being back in Spain!

We are just here for a few short days before we head to San Francisco. 

We are staying in Tres Cantos which is a small satellite city of Madrid, population of approx 48,000, and interestingly it's a purpose built new city started in the 1970's with ongoing urban development.

We walked through Tres Cantos as part of Camino de Madrid a few weeks back and this visit as we see little yellow Camino arrows we recalled how hot it was as we walked to Colmenar Viejo during the heatwave....this time we are not melting thank goodness.

It's so easy to access Madrid via the train, 30 mins to the centre and easy bus link to the airport - we like it! It has  a lovely, quiet neighborhood atmosphere and you can nip into the city for action if you like - perfecto!

It's great to see the cycle lanes and green parks integrated into the design and it's so clean and the parks and gardens are well cared for and respected by the community.

The town looks to have  a number of large  businesses located here. I spotted Siemens HQ, a large Spanish telco and what looks like tech companies. 

We wandered into the culture centre and enjoyed exploring the town.

We were in a little cafe/bar looking at the menu del dia and a lovely local man asked us if we needed help understanding the menu.  Meet Jean and Christina Triquet😊. Jean and Christina's daughter had travelled around New Zealand in a minivan so we got chatting and we had the loveliest lunch together. It was so interesting to hear  from Jean and Christina about Spanish traditions, festivals, places to visit - all shared with laughter and understanding, a perfect lunch.

Greek farewell

We are on the move. 

On  Tuesday we took the 4.46pm ferry sailing  from Sifnos to Paros. It was a great sailing. We chatted to a lovely family from Pennsylvania, with the daughter planning to walk a camino so we could provide a few tips 😁. As we came into Paros port the sun was setting, perfect!

Paros was a bit of a shock after being on Sifnos. We chatted with some Brits that have been living on Paros for 20years and they were describing how much it had changed and now the locals are struggling to find homes to rent due to landlords being able to charge a higher rate for Air B&B or vacation rentals. They described Paros as turning into the new Mykonos - ouch. We were staying at a very basic studio as we were literally kipping and getting on the ship again mid morning on Wednesday to Santorini. I must say Paros turned on a stunning sunset for our last night there. 

Wednesday morning  11.45 Paros to Santorini sailing. It was blinking hot waiting to board the ship and there were a lot of people heading to Santorini.

However it was another beautiful day on the water, we sat outside the entire journey and just watched as we passed yachts, islands - stunning views. 

Everywhere you look you can see a ferry en route between  islands in the distance. It's incredible how quickly they turn them around at each port, it's go, go, go with trucks and people and port staff on their whistles.

Coming into Santorini harbour this time was a bit of a change from our previous time  there at 4.30am when  it was all quiet and still.

 Wednesday afternoon there were four big cruise ships in the harbour, private charter yachts and the port area was chaos with taxis, buses, touts and cargo being offloaded.

 Despite all the hustle at the port Santorini is such a stunning sight with the little white houses perched on  the clifftops.

We got  a bus up to Fira village and then another bus to Kamares -  a small beach village very close to Santorini airport. We had to be at at the airport at 3.25am Thursday so we found a place close by to get a few hours sleep. 

It was 32 degrees on Santorini at 4.30pm. We were melting but we had to get a bite to eat and some snacks for our early breakfast. So a quick trip to Kamares beach front, the local mini market and an early dinner for us.

Kamares beach on Santorini looked like a poor cousin to the magnificent beaches on Sifnos - there were rows of sun umbrellas and beach clubs on a pebble beach. Heart pangs for dear wee Sifnos.

After lovely, quiet little Sifnos both Paros and  Santorini  felt like Picadilly Circus with crazy traffic, crazy tourists and not the most relaxing vibe. 

 The little villa were staying at was our oasis of calm, 5mins from all the action but quiet and it had a terrific pool which unfortunately we didn't get to use.

 

We had a wonderful time being back in the Greek Islands. Talking with the locals about the last two seasons and Covid impacts, it's great that tourisim is back in full swing for their economy. 

We leave the Greek Islands with some great memories of warm and welcoming hospitality, delicious fresh fish, a few challenging hikes up almost vertical hillsides and swimming in  beautiful clear blue water on beaches with almost no one there - wonderful!

Sifnos farewell

 We leave Sifnos tomorrow so this morning we hiked out to the south west harbour entrance as it was a beautiful day.

We can honestly say we have seen a lot more of the island than most tourists me thinks. On our hike up to Agios Symeon a few days back, we passed the huge landfill dump high up in the hills miles from anywhere and this morning we passed the sewerage treatment plant, we've seen it all :)

We were so hot after our hike we had a swim and then hopped on the bus back up to the hilltop village Apollonia. We planned to walk the old village paths from Apollonia to Artemonas on the hill opposite and then bus back down to Kamares Port.

We wandered around the trendy lanes of Apollonia. It was very quiet but it's the place to go in the evening.

Good to see a rebel in house paint choice, no blue paint :)

Apollonia has a lot of bespoke   jewellers and nifty gifty  shops.

I was wondering who would buy this stuff and then tonight in Kamares Port a huge, sleek,  super yacht docked with crew and security so I guess the rich and famous bob about the Greek Islands.

Lots of groovy cafe's with cute courtyards that would look so pretty at night all lit up with fairy lights.

 

We hit the the back lanes and began the walk to Artemonas on paths used by villagers' for centuries.

We passed numerous little chapels

So many houses with the most abundant grape vines and stunning bougainvillea.

When we made it to Artemonas it was as busy as our last visit a few days back when we swapped buses.

So tonight is our last night in our little hotel  just on the edge of Kamares Port village.

Having a view of the harbour has been great.

 

Sifnos is such a lovely little island. It is great  they haven't introduced ATV hire bikes or jet skis...yet, I imagine it's only a matter of time.   The beaches are unspoiled, stunning, the water is crystal clear, it's safe swimming  and it's a quiet island - families and lots more of, shall we say, mature aged visitors :) 

It's been great!

Sifnos, bye for now - αντίο για τώρα

Sifnos ceramics

 Along with beaches and bays, Sifnos has an amazing history in ceramics.

The clay based soil is perfect for pottery and there are numerous potteries and artist collectives across the island.  Early Sifnos pottery is found across the Greek islands and in Athens museums.

Here you can visit any number of studios and the work is gorgeous.

They have a unique style of these unusual shaped chimney pieces. They are all over the island on little houses. 

Not sure how well they travel as gifts in your luggage but they are lovely.

The father of Greek cuisine was born on Sifnos in 1878 - Nikos Tselementes. He was a master of the art of cooking and said to be the most influential of all Greek chefs. They have a huge cuisine festival here in September. There are many great little restaurants specialising in  local dishes.

As much as we love Greek cuisine we found a fantastic Italian restaurant that does the most delicious thin based pizza - yum! The family that run it are from Napoli.