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Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Sailing Holiday 2014 - Saronic Islands

Last minute

A boat not unlike the one we sailed around the Saronic Islands
Just as I thought we probably wouldn't be having a summer holiday this year, My husband Arthur summons me into his study and says, "Fancy going on a sailing holiday on Monday?" It's Wednesday, and we're going to be in London on Friday and Saturday we do it, because we can.

London - Athens

The flight is at a civilized hour -12.15pm, but a departure from Bristol Airport isn't an option - although getting to Heathrow from Wraxall probably doesn't take any longer than it did from Stratford. 

Arriving at Athens there was a long wait because about a dozen bags had gone AWOL due to some sort of technical glitch with conveyor belts at Heathrow. The system for reporting lost luggage at Athens is apparently not that efficient and it took three hours to log twelve missing bags. While sitting on a bus for three hours is frustrating we felt for the poor people whose bags were missing - even more frustrating for them.

Navplion

Luckily Sailingholidays.com have a good enough relationship with the tavernas at their turnaround base of Navplion that they could persuade one of them to stay open until we finally got there at 11pm.

Here we were shown to our boat, Adriana, which, according to a laminated notice in the kitchenette is the female form of Adrian and means "wealth".

Adriana in port at Navplion
Sadly we didn't have time to explore Navplion, which was, at one time the capital of Greece, or to provision our boat until the next morning.

We meet our lead crew for the first time: Skipper Marc, Engineer Mark (usually referred to as "Junior" to prevent confusion) and Hostie Natasha, on Lead Boat Sirocco. This lead crew is a first for us, as not one of them is from Australia or New Zealand - they are all British!

The first full day of a sailing holiday is normally spent being bombarded with information that you hope you'll remember when it matters - how to stop and start the engines, how to put the sails up and take them down, how to use the radio, which buttons and levers have to be turned on or off when you are in harbour and when you're at sea, how to raise and drop the anchor, all the things you need to remember to do (and not do), as well as a briefing about our next destination.

Then it's off to the nearest supermarket to make sure we have enough bottled water, mixers for the duty free vodka, bread, butter, sandwich fillings, coffee, tinned food, pasta and bottles of wine (in case we find ourselves somewhere where we can't get ashore - relatively unlikely with Sailingholidays.com as they take such good care of you, but you never know - best to be prepared for any eventuality). 

Hilltop fort at Navplion
It was after lunch before we got going. The wind was quite brisk and the sea quite rough, so we decided it was not the time to practice putting the sails up after a six year break. It was the kind of weather where all I want to do is cling on for dear life, but I have to go and bring the fenders in (fenders, for any non-sailors reading this, are the big plastic balloon shaped things that dangle over the side of boats in harbours so they don't get damaged by the boats next to them) and steer occasionally.

Vivara

Our first port of call was Vivara, where we were to be "free swinging" in the bay (again, an explanation for non-sailors - that means anchored in the bay rather than moored to the quay and has nothing whatever to do with pulling boat keys out of a bag and going off with whoever they belong to). On the plus side, there's no pressure on arrival with trying to reverse park and make sure the anchor is in exactly the right place and no need to take my life in my hands to put the fenders back out.

What it does mean is that you need a dinghy to get ashore - and since the introductory punch party and briefing for the next day were being held on shore, we couldn't just say sod that and eat our pasta - we had to get our dinghies out. 

Free Swinging in Vivara
It seemed about 50% of the flotilla had dinghy issues. We were missing the pump to blow it up; other people had pumps that didn't work at all or dinghies that didn't stay inflated, so that caused a few headaches. We did get a pump delivered to us by Junior in the end so we weren't completely stuck. Even if you've got everything you need, finding the space on a small boat to pump it up once you've hauled it out of the locker, and then get it over the side is not particularly easy. Dinghies are surprisingly heavy.

Getting in and out of them is also a challenge if you're not very fit and phobic of falling in the water. Still, we managed and went to the punch party. It was the first chance we'd had really to socialise with anyone. We chatted to a few people but haven't remembered anyone's name or which boat they're on yet, even though Sailingholidays.com put a list of all the boats and the names of the people on them in each cabin.

Spetses

Leaving Vivara was relatively easy as all that had to be done was pulling up the anchor, although the chain did get stuck at one point. I'm not strong enough to sort it out if something does go wrong (anchors are bloody heavy) but at least Arthur could come and sort it out as we weren't having to steer out of a narrow spot.

We had some time pressure though as we'd been told we needed to get to Spetses by lunch time if we didn't want to have to moor in front of the fuel station which would annoy people.

We sailed out of Vivara and past the sly looking Venetian fort:


and a large landslide which seemed to have come perilously close to houses:


Because of the time pressure we didn't get the sails up today, either, as we needed to motor to get to Spetses before lunch. Even though we all got there early it was still necessary to raft up which means most of us have to clamber over at least one other boat in order to get off, but it does mean you start getting to know the people on those boats, and the people who have to clamber over you.

Sirocco arriving at Spetses
We learned that the crew of Larissa (Clive and Louisa) had once sailed Adriana on a delivery cruise. I'd never heard of that, but several people on this flotilla had done delivery cruises. Apparently it is where people can pay for an extra long holiday which actually does Sailingholidays.com a favour in delivering the boats from where they were made or where they've been out of the water over winter.

We also know that when we're spotting the other boats out at sea, we'll be able to recognise Elafos because they have hoisted a Welsh flag. They said they had been on six Sailingholidays flotillas, including the South Ionian which we did before. They looked a tad familiar so I started wondering if we might have met them before...

Spetses is known for its boat building and also because no private cars are allowed in the town, although motor scooters and quad bikes and trucks and taxis all were. There was even a huge car ferry which arrived and moored up for the night even though it can't have had many customers! Probably the crew live here.

When we first arrived there were loads of ducks and geese swimming about next to the boats:

 
... hoping to be fed, no doubt. On land there were lots of feral cats with kittens.

It's a 15 minute walk around the bay to the tavernas (or if you hand't put your dinghy away, as we had, it was possible to row across, which some people did). We found a nice one with wifi and as long as you sat with your back to the car ferry which was parked right next to it, there was a very pretty view. 

Spetses

Plakas

We're moored on the quay here, but getting on and off is still a little challenging because the quay is quite a bit higher than the boat and it's a steep slope. It could be made less steep by using the plank of wood instead of the passerelle attached to the boat, but it wouldn't make that much difference and there wouldn't be a rope to hang on to, so we didn't bother.

There are a small number of tavernas here and one is well known for the woman who is quite pushy in trying to get people to eat there, although we think it was her who gave one of the people on our flotilla a big bag of fresh oranges which she distributed to all of us.

We managed to resist the hard sell from this particular taverna but succumbed to the marketing of the next one, where we were warmly invited to come in and look at the kitchen. Instead of a menu, you are shown the food and talked through what is on offer. Every other thing was the "special best," which became a bit of a running joke with us for the rest of the holiday. We'll have a special best Nescafe. 

Plakas

Porto Cheli

As sod's law would have it, it was necessary to "free swing" again at our next stop, since we'd put the dinghy away. We didn't relish the thought of hauling it out again and pumping it up, but we assumed we'd have to go ashore for a briefing so it had to be done. Only when we'd done it did we find out that they were going to do tomorrow's briefing over the radio. But having gone to all that effort, now we had to go ashore and eat rather than use our emergency supplies.

Before we went, we tried our mooring light again (it hadn't seemed to be working in Vivara but we'd heard some of the boats had funny wiring so the switch labelled "mooring light" wasn't necessarily the one we had to use) and noted the pinpoint of light on top of the mast. I noted that there was a large catamaran and a rather old, shabby looking boat moored not far from us, and that we weren't far from Sirocco

Porto Cheli
It was quite a long row to shore - we rowed past Larissa and had a conversation with them as we passed about mooring lights, and a long walk to the tavernas. 

The trouble started when we wanted to go back. We couldn't find our boat in the dark. A large catamaran isn't as easy to spot as I'd hoped, it seemed, although we did row past Larissa and also Elafos - they were out on deck and offered to radio Sirocco and get them to come and help us (which at that point we didn't think would be necessary as we knew we must be pretty close as we could see Sirocco) and also that we could go aboard Elafos for a Metaxa. 

We were indeed within a few yards of our boat but two things prevented us from finding it. One was that, despite seeing a light on top of our mast when we left, the mooring light wasn't actually working (it was probably the sun reflecting off something) and as we were assuming we were looking for a boat with a mooring light we probably paddled right past it. Secondly the wind was picking up and I looked at where we were in relation to the hotel on shore and thought, we're going in circles. In fact, the wind was pushing us back faster than we could paddle.

Time to call the Cavalry. Lucky we had the Lead Crew's mobile number on Arthur's phone (although, as it turned out, Elafos had radioed Sirocco anyway to warn them we might need help) and that Arthur's phone has a torch app. We'd brought the boat torch but it proved pretty useless for signalling. So Marc came out and rescued us in their motorised dinghy, towing us back to our boat.

Marc to the rescue in the dinghy (although this photo was taken in
another harbour in full daylight and he probably had more clothes on
when he rescued us. But you get the idea.

It was quite a relief to be back on board, and we started our List Of Things to Bring On Sailing Holidays for future reference. 1. Solar powered fairy lights so our boat stands out from everyone else's.

The wind was pretty strong, so Arthur didn't dare go to bed until he was sure the anchor wasn't dragging, so we got our Night Sky app out and looked at the stars. The wind was whistling around all night but I still slept better than I had so far. I guess I hadn't been sleeping because Greece is 2 hours ahead of the UK and if we went to bed at 11pm my body clock thought it was 9pm and so I was probably lying awake until my normal bedtime, ie for 2-3 hours. So a combination of going to bed a bit later and my body clock adapting.

In the morning, we put our radio on and were hearing all sorts of things going on. Marc was calling Kerkyra because the Harbour Police wanted to see them quite urgently, and Junior was unable to get their dinghy started (good job that didn't happen last night), so eventually Marc told Kerkyra to go and he'd sort things out with the police. As we left harbour, we saw a police boat coming in with all its blue lights flashing and joked that they were after Kerkyra and Kerkyra were fugitives from the law. That wasn't the case, of course. Kerkyra had lost a wallet and thought it had been stolen and reported the theft to the police but the wallet had eventually turned up; and the police boat was after a motor launch that was going too fast.

Ermioni

We did make an effort to put the sails up today, although not immediately as we decided to wait until the big floating gin palace that was heading toward us on our starboard side had gone by. It was called Sunday, and we thought that the owners must have made a mistake using their Sunday boat on a Saturday. Sheldon Cooper would never approve.

A colourful boat - not one of ours
When we did finally get the sails up, the wind died. A fairly common occurrence this holiday. We'd strapped the dinghy to the deck as we were sure if we stowed it we were bound to need it in a couple of days, but it significantly blocked our view, so if it doesn't look like we need it tomorrow, it is going away.

Felt smug today, because as we approached Ermioni, we saw Sirocco disappear beyond a headland. Nevertheless, Arthur insisted that the harbour straight ahead of us was the one we wanted. I asked was he absolutely sure since Sirocco seemed to have gone elsewhere but he was insistent and sent me to radio in. We went into the harbour - no Sirocco. Even though I was pretty sure Sirocco was on the other side of the peninsula Arthur was still getting me to call asking them where they were. Of course, when he eventually decided to go around the corner and look in the next harbour, there they were. For once I was right.

We ate in the fish restaurant recommended by the lead crew and then were kept awake for some time by the music from the bar we were moored beside. There will be some complaints about that tomorrow, I think.


Poros

Usual problem - even though there were some good winds, as soon as we got our sails up, it would die away. We decided against using the sails through the quite narrow channels we had to negotiate on our way to Poros.

It is Yacht week in Poros, which means there are a lot of boats crewed by people even less experienced than us - quite inept, in some cases so we'd have to hang back while they attempted to park.

Poros's Sleeping Lady
There's a well known rock formation here called the sleeping lady which is shown in the photo above. the sharp peak is her leg and to the right of that there are hills that look like her stomach, breasts and face. Though most ladies don't have wind farms on their bellies.

Poros also has an ice cream shop that does 46 flavours.

There was a group meal and a chance to get to know some more people. Some of the luggage had turned up in Ermioni but some was still missing, so Arthur lent a shirt and some t-shirts to one of the guys on Olympia until his own things caught up with him. Luke looks rather better than Arthur does in the shirt as it was one that Arthur has grown out of slightly!

Poros is larger than most places we've been to, so a lot of choice of places to eat and shops. We'd put our dinghy away and then couldn't find the two funnels that we knew we'd taken out of the locker. We could only assume that, seeing as they didn't seem to be anywhere on the boat, they must have gone overboard and because we were struggling with the dinghy we didn't notice. So we have to go shopping and buy replacements, but we can do that here.

We thought of buying a flag, since Elafos have their Welsh flag and Larissa, for some reason, have a Norweigan flag even though they are English. We did look and see if there was an English flag or an Irish flag but couldn't find either. Still, #2 on our List Of Things To Bring On Sailing Holidays now is a flag. Perhaps we could get something more unusual like Game of Thrones flags or Star Trek flags online when we get back.

Hydra

We spend two nights in Poros so there is the opportunity to go to Hydra (pronounced "Eedra") on the ferry. The flotilla doesn't go there because mooring is a nightmare (as we witnessed while we were sipping our mango daiquiris on the harbourside in the afternoon) and we heard that the water taxis come in so fast that there can be incidents with rafted up boats causing broken crockery and thank goodness there were no children on deck or they would have been dead. So we went there on the ferry which takes half an hour - it would have taken all day in our boat.

It's a pretty place, and they really mean it when they say no motorised vehicles. If you want to go anywhere you have to take a mule. Felt sorry for the mules who seemed to be standing on the quay in the midday sun with no sign of any troughs of water for them that I could see.

The Hydra Ferry
Hyrda Port

Ferry leaving Hydra. Visitors weren't always welcome...




Views of Hydra
We visited the museum, although to get the most out of it it helps to be able to read Greek. It was air conditioned, though! 

At the bar overlooking the harbour we got chatting to some Americans who were most impressed that we had a yacht, even though we did point out that it wasn't like that one (a floating gin palace) but more like that one (masted yacht not unlike ours).

Coincidence of the Week

We were sitting in a cafe waiting for the briefing the next morning in Poros and saw someone who looked rather familiar sitting at the very next table. He reminded us very strongly of the skipper of the flotilla we were on in Croatia in 2008. At first he didn't show any signs of having recognised us, but after a while, he asked, "Where are you off to today?"
"I don't know yet," I said. "I'm waiting for that guy over there with the blond hair and luminous green shorts to tell us where we're going."
"Did you ever work for Seafarers running flotillas in Croatia?" Arthur asks him.
"Yes - so that's where I know you from. I knew I'd met you somewhere - I didn't know if I'd met you on a flotilla years ago or in the bar last Monday." It was the same guy, now teaching sailing in Greece!

Us in Croatia in 2008 with Skipper Jake who was sitting at the
next table to us in a cafe in Poros in 2014!
After the briefing we had to go and stock up. The supermarket was pretty chaotic and the queue barely seemed to move thanks to some guy playing the lottery and a shop assistant who didn't think to deal with someone else while she was waiting for people who hadn't realised they were supposed to get their fruit and veg weighed before getting to the till. She just stood there with her arms folded, looking annoyed until they got back.

Russian Bay Beach Party

Our destination today was Russian Bay, so called because the Russians built an armoury there and anchored their boats during some war or other. The armoury is little more than a ruin now.

Russian Bay
Tonight was to be the beach party, which seems to be a regular feature of Sailingholidays.com flotillas. We raft up in the bay (so we have to haul the dinghy out again) and the Lead Crew prepare food and drink. Often they run a cocktail contest, which they did this time. The idea is that each boat invents a cocktail and gives it a name, and they are scored on presentation, taste and flammability.

The party fare was laid out in front of the ruined building, where we noticed that one of the keystones above a window was looking as if it was working its way out and would fall out one day. Not today, we reassured ourselves - probably during some storm when nobody was around. Still, we mused that in the UK, the whole building would be fenced off with "Dangerous Structure, Keep Out" notices and nobody would be allowed within 100 metres of it without a hard hat. They don't do health and safety in Greece.


Entries in the cocktail contest
Beach Party
Russian Bay at night
It was at the beach party that we finally managed to confirm that we had met the people on Elafos on the South Ionian flotilla in 2006. We'd all remembered someone falling off a hired motor scooter on the Lead Crew's day off and that the Skipper and the Hostie were a couple. They had thought we looked familiar too, but hadn't wanted to say so in case they were wrong.

No trouble finding our boat here and no need even to paddle all the way there and back as we were offered a tow by the crew of Konitsa. #3 on our List Of Things To Take On Sailing Holidays - remember to order an outboard motor for the dinghy when we book.

Vathi

As there are two places on the South Ionian itinerary called Vathi (Big Vathi and Little Vathi) we reckon Vathi must be a popular name for places in Greece as there are at least three of them.

A tiny place, so a bit of a squeeze getting into the harbour, but it's very pleasant. There are just three tavernas, only two of which the Lead Crew had eaten in so far, and no supermarkets. However, the taverna owners are happy to order basics like bread and water, so we put our order in with Pavlos for more bottles of water.

Vathi

We decided we'd eat in Jimmy's Fish Taverna, whic was the one the Lead Crew hadn't tried, but had had good reports from previous guests who'd eaten there.

Jimmy's Fish Taverna - we ate at the table on the right



It was pleasant sitting on a table on the quay. There was quite a lot going on. Some German people had moored up at the very end of the quay where there was only room for one yacht. They had a dog, which they took for a walk, past a local cat. The cat was far from amused. It did that thing you see them doing on Rude Tube - arched its back and stood on two legs. I'd never seen a cat do that in real life!

Later, a different kind of cat caused a stir. At dusk, a huge catamaran sails in. Remembering the tight squeeze it had been getting in twelve yachts, we thought, There is no room here for that thing. Wrong. They must have been friends or relatives of Jimmy's, so he moved his fishing boat so it cold get in beside the German boat, and a whole extended family piled off it and went into the restaurant. Felt a little sorry for the Germans, who probably thought they had bagged a nice, quiet spot away from everyone else!

Nea Epidavros

We were supposed to be going in Aegina today. We were told to get there early because it gets busy, so we were motoring along (not much wind) when we got a call from Sirocco. They'd got to Aegina, taken one look and decided there was no chance we'd all get in there, so there was a change of plan and we were to head for Nea Epidavros instead. 

So we changed course and headed there, but given our position we would have got there before Sirocco, so we were taking our time. Just as we passed Larissa, who were chilling out while they waited as well, we spotted dolphins. As we weren't under any time pressure any more we did a quick U turn so we could get a bit closer and take some pictures. We were close enough to Larissa to be able to call across to them and tell them there were dolphins.

We spent a good half hour chasing dolphins with our cameras and here are some of the results:

Clive and Louisa on Larissa just before we spotted the dolphins
We think we got a mother and two babies here

A pod of Dolphins with Sirocco in the background
Nea Epidavros is another small place with little in the way of shops, but you can order stuff from tavernas. Except the only thing we'd run out of today was loo cleaner which we didn't think they'd get for us. Turned out they have a secret stash on board Sirocco so we got some from Natasha. Problem solved.

Quite a few of us ended up at the same taverna to eat, as did a whole bunch of friendly and hopeful cats. However, one of the cats hadn't quite worked out what to do if you want humans to feed you and was going round weeing on people!

Angistri

Another rough day. It must have been worse than that first Tuesday because I refused point blank to go and get the fenders in at all and made Arthur do it.
That meant I had to steer, which didn't feel very safe either, and I didn't feel I was in control at all with the boat being tossed around like a cork, but at least I could stand still and hang on to something. It felt so unsafe today that I put a lifejacket on.

The dolphins seemed to be loving it, though. They came even closer and I'm sure they were diving underneath the boat. We didn't get any pictures though as we didn't want our cameras ending up in the water.

At least it was permitted, indeed, advised, not to deploy the fenders until we were inside the harbour wall in much calmer water, so order was restored after this morning's mutiny.

One of the other boats, Kastri, had engine trouble - we heard them radio in for assistance. Junior was talking them through some of the easier checks they could do, but nothing seemed to work, so they were told to sail as close to the harbour as they could and Junior would go out to them in the rib.

We did put our sails up but it was good to know we had the option of taking them down and using the engine if we needed to!

Kastri motoring into Angistri with Junior after he fixed their motor.

Angistri is very pretty because the water around it is very shallow and turquoise. Means you have to watch the depth gauge carefully, though. Again it was quite a tight squeeze getting us all in, and we almost dislodged the small barbecue the Greek people next to us had attached to their boat.

Once moored up, we went for a wander around and found a nice bar overlooking a beach. I appreciate crashing waves much more when I'm watching them from a reasonably safe distance! We were also entertained by somebody kite surfing up and down the beach.

Angistri. The hotel with the blue design on it is where we had the group meal

Another feature of flotilla holidays is the group meal with Greek dancing, which was this evening. It was a buffet, which Arthur usually wrinkles his nose up at a little as he's not usually keen on them, but this one was very nice and even to his taste. Then we did the Greek equivalent of a conga all around the pool and drank a tad too much. I bought Arthur a metaxa and it was a quadruple, and I could probably have done without that last glass of wine - still, it meant the howling winds overnight didn't keep us awake.

Aegina

Today's itinerary was free sailing. Which basically meant do whatever you want. We were free to sail to another port on our own if we wanted and could get boat papers if we did, or we could go and sail around the coast of Angistri or we could not sail at all, or we could catch the hydrofoil and go to Aegina. Sirocco would be staying put.

The wind was still as strong as it had been yesterday and so a lot of people decided to give sailing a miss, as did we, although we heard that a handful of braver souls had gone out in Kastri. Yes, the one with the engine trouble - was that wise? Apparently they had persuaded Marc to go with them so they'd probably be fine. 

We went to Aegina. So even though we didn't go there with the flotilla, we still got to see it, with the added bonus of seeing Nea Epidavros as well.

Hydrofoil to Aegina
Aegina is probably the largest, busiest place we've seen so far; the down side of that is when we sat down to lunch we were harassed at least four times by beggars and buskers. 

As well as a lot of eating and drinking and looking at shops, we paid a visit to the local museum which had an outside area and an indoors bit as well. Outdoors you could see the ruins of the city from various periods in history and also the remains of a temple of Apollo. Just the one column.

Temple of Apollo in Aegina
We stumbled across the town's old armoury, completely by accident and saw some old churches. The other historical site, a more complete temple to another Greek god, was a bit too far away for us to get to in the time we had left so we just went and got a beer!

Angistri II

We returned to the place by the beach where we had a drink yesterday for our evening meal. The lady there was very keen for us to try the day's special of beef stew, which, she told us, is what Greek families eat for Sunday lunch in winter. We decided to risk it, and it was very tasty.

The family from Achilles were at the next table. Adam said that he'd seen us sailing the day before - I'd been at the wheel in my life jacket looking relaxed and in control, and the boat was steady. Clearly it looked very different from a distance than it did to me at the time!

Palaia Epidavros

The last day of sailing, and the only day we knew for sure before Marc told us where we would be going. 

Again there was a time constraint, and we were under orders to get there by lunch time. We assumed that was because we would have to clean our boats thoroughly ready for the next people, although when we got there, we discovered another possible reason.

We'd not been moored up overly long before a large wooden boat full of people on a sailing/cycling holiday turned up and clearly wanted to moor where some of our boats were. Essentially they would have had to move Rizo but Jon and Dawnie had gone off for lunch somewhere and locked their boat. They told us later that they had almost returned into the middle of the argument and Marc had caught their eye and gestured for them to stay back for a while. It seems he would have refused to move anyway but with the boat locked up and the crew gone he had a good excuse not to! Eventually the sailing/cycling boat went and moored in another spot and we wonder why they didn't just go there in the first place. We suspect there is an ongoing feud over that particular parking space, and Sailingholidays.com want to get there first and bag it!

The cycling/sailing boat that wanted our parking space

There was another competition today - the naff shirt competition. The idea was to wear the naffest shirt you had when mooring up and there would be an award for the naffest. Some people interpreted this as full fancy dress with one pirate and a man in a bikini!

An entrant in the naff shirt contest
We decided it was far too hot to clean the boat yet so went for a walk. There is an old amphitheatre to go and look at. It was equipped with modern lights so it looks as if it is used for performances today.

Amphitheatre

Orange orchards in Palaia Epidavros
The final night is always a group meal where they give out awards. They always seem to manage to find an award for each boat. Often it's an award for whatever you screwed up (our previous awards were the Parking Award for crashing into the quay and knocking the anchor off the front of the boat and the Prop Wrap of the Season Award) so we had a pretty good idea what we'd get this year. Yep. The Which Way? award for losing our boat in Porto Cheli.

There were awards for always getting in last (Olympia) and always getting in first (Larissa), best radio voice (Kerkyra) and the boat which always parked perfectly every time (Rizo). We think this is why you don't find out the winner of the cocktail contest until now, because they can give it to a boat that hasn't messed up enough to be given any other award. Elafos got that one.

Going home

Civilized pick up time of 9am. On the way back we stopped at the Corinth Canal, which we were told was worth getting out of the bus and taking a short walk to see. It's a deep ravine with water in it and bridges high enough for a high masted yacht to pass underneath.

A yacht in the Corinth Canal
So that's it for another holiday. But here are a few more of my favourite pictures that didn't fit in anywhere else:

Marc and Junior helping moor up
Lovely picture Arthur took but I can't remember where it was
Skipper Arthur

Sirocco with sails up - a rare occurrence, they say




Thursday, 23 January 2014

Our Epic Holiday 2013

Welcome to the blog about our amazing holiday, and thanks for dropping by to take a look. 

My husband, Arthur, and I took this holiday following his (early!) retirement in June 2013, and my redundancy in May. 

We'd always liked the idea of going to New Zealand, for various reasons. It was somewhere we'd never been. We'd seen the Lord of the Rings films and wanted to see that breathtaking scenery for ourselves. 

We couldn't go all that way, of course, without dropping in on family and friends who live in some of the places on the way, so although the main focus of the trip was New Zealand, we called at Singapore, Perth and Melbourne, as well.

Not knowing a great deal about New Zealand, or the things any visitor must see or do, we arranged that part of the trip through a New Zealand based company called Beyond the Blue, who were recommended by people I knew who'd done a similar trip. We simply told them the kind of things we were interested in seeing and the dates we wanted to go, and they came up with the essential sights and experiences of New Zealand, booked all our accommodation, car hire and excursions for us. All we had to do was follow the instructions.

It was a trip which, we like to say, encompassed a wide range of modes of transport. Not only planes, trains and automobiles but also ferries, helicopters and seaplanes.

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time and lots of new experiences and adventures. I kept a journal during the trip (in the posh notebook I got as a leaving present from work) and decided to write it all up and post it online so that anyone interested can read all about it, including people we don't see often. I guess there may even be people I don't know looking at this, such as friends of Facebook friends, Twitter followers or even people who've googled holidays in New Zealand. Whoever you are, I hope you enjoy reading about it, and/or looking at the pictures.






Singapore

9 November 2013: London - Singapore

Flying the Airbus 380

Our journey started with a taxi to Heathrow Airport before dawn. Having checked in online, Arthur already knew what sort of plane we'd be travelling in - an Airbus 380. 


An Airbus 380 (though not the actual one we travelled on)

Fantastic planes, he said, having been on one before on one of his numerous business trips. He's also travelled with Singapore Airlines often before, and likes their entertainment system. There was certainly enough to keep us occupied on the thirteen and a half hour flight - 780 movies on demand, TV shows, audio and games. 

Looking at one of these planes parked on the tarmac, it seems quite miraculous that it ever gets off the ground at all, as it's even bigger than a Jumbo. I wondered what the Wright Brothers would have made of one of those things.

As well as a meal that counted as lunch, they served breakfast towards the end of the flight, which to us was bedtime!


Arriving in Singapore

Feeling quite shattered, we climbed into another taxi to take us to the Swissotel Clarke Quay. 

Swissotel, Clarke Quay

We noticed that the driver's GPS, when not giving directions, was flashing up reminders to the driver about how to drive well, such as "a good driver is prepared to give way, even when he does not have the right of way".

We arrived at the hotel at 8.30am Singapore time, well after bedtime UK time, only to find our room wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for another two hours! So, absolutely shattered, wearing too many clothes (It is always around 25 degrees and very humid in Singapore, so the amount of clothing required for November in the UK is way too much!) and lugging our hand luggage, we wandered around like a couple of zombies. 

None of the restaurants or bars were open at that time of the morning, so we went back to the hotel and made use of the free drink voucher they'd given us, had a coffee (which seemed to take them forever to make) and then hung around until we could get into the room.

Then we just crashed out for several hours.

When we woke up, still feeling groggy although our unadjusted internal clocks should have been thinking about getting up, we went and found the hotel pool, with the intention of having a drink at the bar. We were persuaded by the bartender to have some rather expensive satay sticks as well. 

There was a wedding going on in the hotel so we were watching that and trying to work out which of the men in suits was the groom, and whether they were gathering for the main ceremony or the reception.


Clarke Quay


Clarke Quay from the Swissotel

Then we went for a wander round Clarke Quay, which is the area around the Singapore River which has been developed into a shopping mall with bars and restaurants. We had a drink in the Irish Pub (I have yet to visit a city that doesn't have an Irish Pub), watching children playing in the floodlit fountains.

After that, a South American meal in a a restaurant called CafĂ© Iguana, near the hotel. 

When we had finished eating we found a booth by the side of the river that sold drinks. We bought a couple of glasses of white wine and sipped them at a table beside the river, watching all the boats going by - until we were ousted by the bride and groom from the hotel wedding, who wanted that exact spot for their photographs. Luckily we'd finished our drinks and were about to leave anyway, so we congratulated the couple and went back to bed.



Day 2: 10 November: Singapore

Big Breakfast

Breakfast in the hotel - we opted for an American breakfast which was absolutely huge. It consisted of a large glass of fruit juice, a fruit platter (strawberry, orange, two types of melon and an exotic variety of fruit I didn't recognise), egg, bacon, hash browns, fried tomato, croissants, muffins and coffee (which didn't arrive until we'd almost finished eating - it seems the hotel had some sort of problem making coffee quickly). Absolutely stuffed and couldn't eat it all.

Exploring the banks of the Singapore River

After breakfast, we went for a long walk along the banks of the Singapore River as far as where the iconic Merlion is.


The Merlion


Along the way we saw some dragon boat racing - there was some kind of event going on with teams from all over the world, although the races we saw all seemed to be between teams from various Singapore civil service departments. That was fun to watch.

Dragon Boats racing




There were shelters, rather like bus shelters, fitted with fans which start going when they detect movement beneath them - a welcome respite from the heat and humidity.

We got fairly close to a rather odd building which was three towers with a structure across the top which looked like a large ship. There were palm trees growing on it. It's possible, I believe, to go up there to a park/viewing point and infinity pool, but sadly we didn't have time to do that.


Unusual buildings in Singapore

We saw a museum which was built to resemble a white flower and was surrounded by a large goldfish pond full of waterlilies, many of which were in flower.

A nearby shopping centre had a canal running through it, complete with a gondola.

Boat rides inside the shopping centre


We crossed the Double Helix Bridge and started wandering back through an area that has been re-claimed from the sea since the 1970s.

The breakfast we had was so large that we didn't need lunch, but we were ready for a cold drink by then, so we went into the very grand Fullerton Hotel, which is in the old Post Office building. Really? I thought. It looks rather grand for a post office - are you sure? However, it does pay tribute to its history as a post office by having a pillar box in the bar.


The pillar box in the bar


Asian Culture Museum

A couple of cold beers later we went across to the Asian Culture Museum which was close by. They had an exhibit of Asian religions and we took a tour with a very informative lady called Sandra. 

I learned during the tour that the bulges or flames on top of the heads of statues of Buddhas represent enlightenment; 

that only 2% of people who took the exams to join the Chinese Literati, a type of civil service actually passed; 

in Chinese art, bamboo represents bending but not breaking, and jade is symbolic because the more it is rubbed, the brighter it becomes, so it represents being made more precious and beautiful the more it is handled. Similar to a pearl, I thought, something of beauty coming from irritation and friction.

The Islamic art was fascinating. They are not allowed to draw images of people so their art consists of patterns and calligraphy. One picture looked like a galaxy, but on close inspection it was a mandala of verses from the Koran written in fine, tiny script. There were scrolls of prayers in which the letters were made up of tiny writing - so the whole of the Koran was reproduced. 

We were there longer than Raffles...

Arthur was adamant that Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded the modern city of Singapore (Lion City), was only there for a day, so we had already spent more time there than he did! Although when we looked this up it turned out he stayed for a week. Still, if you take my previous two visits to Singapore into account, I've still spent more time there than Raffles did.

Ate in an Italian restaurant and had another glass of wine at the same booth as last night, and were not evicted from our table this time. It was a lovely location, right by the riverside, where you could watch the boats pass by while sipping a chilled white wine.


Riverboats by night



Day 3 11 November: Singapore

Today we went out for breakfast, to a place we saw while looking for a place to eat last night, called Boomerang. The breakfasts were not as massive as the ones in the hotel but after a fruit filled French toast I was still pretty full so lunch wasn't really required today either.

Having explored most of the area around the hotel it was time to get to grips with the transport system. Although, if you can navigate the Tube in London, the MRT is not that complicated. We bought a six journey ticket which was all we needed for our visit.

Botanical Gardens

We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens, which were full of beautiful tropical plants, and even a few animals. Arthur said he saw a lizard, but I missed it. I did see pigeons and black swans, and tortoises. One of the lakes had dozens of them, swimming about in a leisurely fashion.

The swimming tortoises

For a small extra fee, you could visit their orchid garden where they had orchids named for various world leaders and famous people who had visited the gardens over the years. These included Margaret Thatcher, The Queen, Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela.

An orchid


The Margaret Thatcher orchid

It was a very hot and humid day, so after touring the gardens we stopped to buy a bottle of water before walking over to Orchard Road, Singapore's Oxford Street, which wasn't too far away, so Arthur could buy himself a new belt. We hoped to find somewhere to have a long cold drink and a sit down. We achieved the first objective, but couldn't find anywhere to get a drink and sit and drink it, so we went back to the hotel and had a beer there.

Meeting our Singapore friends

One of Arthur's erstwhile colleagues from the Singapore office, Julie Ng, had arranged a get together of people Arthur knew at a seafood restaurant not far from the hotel, and had suggested we meet her at Harry's Bar, which is a famous watering hole again not far from where we were staying. 

As we sat there watching out for Julie, who was coming along after work, who should walk around the corner but Richard Hill and Ann, who we'd not seen since Richard retired. We had no idea they were in town, so that was a pleasant surprise. They had lived in Singapore for a while but now live in Gibraltar. They had been to Melbourne for the horse racing and were on their way to the UK, so we literally met in the middle.

At the meal we also caught up with Akhter and Michele, Danny Ong and Mohd Shahid. Julie ordered a set menu for us, so there was no need to decide what to eat. 

I'd been a little concerned that I'd order something and then be expected to pick out which fish I wanted to eat from a tank, as there were a lot of restaurants we passed which had tanks of doomed fish, but that didn't happen with the set menu.

There was plenty of food, dishes to share, including drunken prawns, scallops, chicken satay, duck noodles, prawns in breadcrumbs, Chinese cabbage, beef, and rice; dessert was a mango favoured soup. The restaurant didn't seem to serve wine or alcohol of any kind, but kept us continually topped up with Chinese tea - a lot healthier!

My internal clock was still thinking that bedtime was really time to get up so I didn't sleep well at all. In fact, I was certain I'd tossed and turned all night until Arthur asked me next morning if I'd heard the thunder and lightning in the night - and I hadn't. 


Day 4: 12 November: Singapore

Today we went to another shopping mall because Arthur needed some part for his camera. In Singapore, there are whole malls, five or six stories high, that sell nothing but computer and camera stuff, and we went to one of those. Yet, in the middle of it was a shop selling children's beds, and I wondered how much passing trade they would actually get in that location.

Singapore Harbour and Sentosa Island

After that Arthur wanted to go look at the harbour, but walking out of Harbourfront MRT Station there is not much to see in terms of the harbour. There was a shopping mall and a cruise terminal and that was about it. 

We ended up waking across a walkway to Sentosa Island. I've been there a couple of times before and remembered it as quite a pleasant place, and probably it still is, but all you get to see when you've crossed the walkway and have a limited amount of time is a huge development which seems to be trying to mimic Disneyland with lots of expensive attractions and hotels. 

The beaches and the fountains I remembered may still be there, but we didn't see them. I would have liked to explore a bit further afield but it was pouring with rain.

We had been persuaded by the ticket office to visit the Aquarium, which sells itself as the biggest Aquarium in the world. Arthur couldn't believe there isn't a bigger one in Florida or somewhere. So we made our way there and had a fish and chip lunch before going in.

The Sentosa Aquarium experience begins with a film show about a shipwreck in which you are meant to experience what it was like to be caught in a storm, but since the seats didn't move all they could do was use strobe lights and spray a bit of water. 

It told the story of a merchant who set sail despite warnings from his astrologer that the journey wouldn't go well. The astrologer was right, and the ship sank. The film shows the ship sinking from the perspective of people on board, ending up at the bottom of the sea at which point you walk out into the Aquarium itself.

Whether it was the largest in the world or not, it was still quite large, though when you've seen one aquarium you've kind of seen them all - they all have sharks and tanks of colourful tropical fish and seahorses and so on, and this one didn't disappoint. 

Tropical fish, Sentosa Aquarium

It had the extra attraction of some wild dolphins which regularly drop by for a visit and can be seen closely through the glass.

There was also an interesting exhibit about the history of maritime Singapore, what they used to trade and who with, and about the pirates. One of their most famous pirates was a woman.

Incongruous Christmas

I wasn't sure, before I got here, whether Christmas would be widely celebrated in Singapore, but it is, and in quite a big way. Although it was only November, there were decorations up everywhere and Christmas music being played in all the shops. 

It didn't seem quite right, when it is thirty degrees, to be seeing all this Christmas related stuff. Shops playing White Christmas and selling cards with snowy winter scenes in a place that never, ever sees snow.

Giant snowman for Christmas - even though it NEVER snows here

In the evening we went out for a meal with Richard and Ann. They took us to Mario's, one of their favourites from when they lived in Singapore. The owner remembered them, and recommended a platter of Italian starters and that evening's special, which was sole, so we all went along with that. 

Richard chose a very nice red wine. After the meal, we went to a bar, another of Richard's old haunts where he knew the owner. I had a butterscotch schnapps which was extremely delicious. 

All in all, a very nice night out catching up with old friends.


Day 5: 13 November: Singapore

Visit to a Buddhist temple

Richard and Ann had recommended the Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple as a place to visit, so that is what we did today. 

It is a working temple with a museum attached; when we were there there was a Buddhist ceremony going on and it was possible to observe from the mezzanine floor of the museum. I found it quite compelling to watch. The hall was brightly lit and very colourful, unlike the dimness of most churches in the UK. There were monks in yellow or red or brown robes who seemed to be officiating; people coming up to the altar in pairs and dropping something into a box in the front, and bringing up offerings of fruit on trays. There was incense being swung and lots of chanting, which could be heard as we went around the museum.

The museum was about the life of Buddha, and we were struck by the similarities to Christianity. Buddha, like Jesus, was born under unusual and unnatural circumstances. Not a virgin birth, but Buddha's mother had been married for years and unable to have children, and was eventually impregnated with Buddha by an elephant's trunk, according to the exhibit.

It was prophesied at the time that the child would either be a great king or a religious leader. Buddha's father, who was a king, wanted him to be a king, and so kept him in luxury and away from the world. Nevertheless, Buddha renounced it all anyway, although not before marrying and fathering a son, and so the throne was safe, it merely skipped a generation.

Buddha followed a life of austerity not unlike the Catholic saints - hardly eating or sleeping - but after a few years decided that wasn't the path to enlightenment, and eventually achieved it by meditating under a tree. Then he preached and taught and had disciples.

According to the museum, there is to be another Buddha of equal significance to the original, his disciple Matreia, who is the fat jolly one who's statue you often see. Matreia is currently undergoing incarnations until he is ready to take on the role. There is a theory that he is alive at the moment and living in London. Arthur said he's probably living in Brick Lane. 

I suggested that he could be the next Buddha himself but just doesn't realise it yet! (If this changes, and they start saying the next Buddha lives in Somerset now, we'll know it's him!)

We moved on to the relic room. Arthur commented that there seemed to be such a lot of gold in there that in any other country there would be armed guards, but here the only guard was a grumpy old man who ordered people to take their shoes off and made a man delete a picture he'd taken on his phone.

There were a number of relics, which were supposedly Buddha's body parts. As well as the tooth that gave the temple its name, there were others labelled as his eyes, hair, tongue and even intestines. They just looked like small glass beads of various colours in elaborate jars. Again a parallel with Christianity, where some people worship supposed body parts of saints.

We went up onto the roof garden where a woman was turning a prayer wheel in the centre. Very tranquil up there.

Time then for a caramel frappacino before paying a quick visit to the Broadridge office to see those of Arthur's old colleagues who hadn't been able to get to the meal on Monday evening: Tim, Alan, Paul, Wen Qiang and Jeremy.

On the way back we stopped at Penny Black's Victorian Bar for a beer and chilled out watching the boats go up and down the river. We were also watching some young people with a camera who were trying but failing to film interviews with passers by. Then we had a friendly argument about whether the waitress's t-shirt was red or orange. Arthur insisted it was orange but I'm sure it was red. Whether things were orange or red became a running joke through the rest of the trip.

A Singapore river boat
In the evening we went to visit Tim and Faz. This is the couple whose wedding we attended in Morocco a few years back. Arthur knows Tim quite well, I met him for the first time at his wedding, so I felt I got to know him and his wife much better this evening, sitting and chatting and drinking and eating nibbles. 

Another pleasant evening catching up with friends.