Day Four of Hazel's Holiday...

Today's Photo of the Day (Courtesy of Hazel) is an absolute MUST SEE!!



So today started with a gentle bit of artistic-ness!  Hazel has fallen in love with the little geckos that I have dotted around the conservatory.  In fairness she actually fell in love with the lovely big green one that Vix made and gave me for my birthday but I couldn't help Haze to recreate that one!  So I dug out one of the little wooden blanks I got off of the internet and my beads and nail varnish and she let her inner creativity loose!!  The end result was a stunning little gecko which she will be able to take home with her and which will remind her of her week spent with us in the sunshine.  We now have a bit of a standing joke that when she comes back she can only come for 10 days - it is not quite what John meant to say - he meant that next time she should come for longer than just a week!!

Those of you who have stayed with us before will probably be worrying that there has been no mention of one of the 'must visit' places in this neck of the woods but worry ye not as we had booked in for an early lunch at Viklari (The Last Castle) and I had made sure that there would be fasoulia available for Hazel. 

We took a very scenic route across country - all routes over to Lara are scenic but some more hairy than others.  We hadn't appreciated that Hazel does not like heights and was terrified by some of the winding tracks where the car was very close to the edge.  John was brilliant assuring Hazel that we had been that way before and that we had never lost a visitor yet but I think even he was a bit concerned as the road was most definitely unfamiliar and when we looked like we were going to end up in a goat farm and have to reverse back I thought Hazel was going to pass out!  Actually, fortunately, we were able to drive through the goat farm and the old lady dressed in black feeding her herd nodded and pointed that we could get to Lara going that way.  Eventually we got onto a more familiar road but were concerned that Viklari might be a step too far - it being located so high up - so we kept our fingers crossed that the view would win Hazel over.

The view did it thank goodness and we had arrived early enough to have one of the prime tables and they had remembered the order for fasoulia - so all was good - food up to its usual standard, view as stunning as ever - what more could you want?



After a leisurely lunch we made our way back to Lara (using the normal road to ensure that Hazel kept hold of her lunch) and carted all our kit down the steps onto the beach.  Over the winter months the steps have been re-done making it much easier to get down - but it is still a trek!!  Huge areas of the beach are currently being given over to the turtle nests and we were thrilled that there were some live babies in the information hut when we got down there.



In fact we were lucky enough to see them being fed (with calamari) and John (who has always wanted to get involved in their conservation) helped the guy who was carting buckets of sea water up to the tanks to change it.

It was quite choppy in the sea although nothing like when we went with Mark and Laura and the waves were way above Mark and John's head!  We also had a right old laugh watching a group of macho greek guys completely underestimate the heat of the sand.  They started strutting their stuff en route to the sea and half way down break out into a mad dash as the soles of the feet began to burn!

Mindful of the strength of the sun we did not overdo it and meandered back home for a cool down in the pool.  Going to the beach is lovely but you end up bringing most of the sand back with you so an outside shower was the order of the day and Hazel was keen to embrace outdoor living!

We were staying in this evening and only wanted dips and salad for tea before settling down to watch a film together.  We had agreed on the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I must admit I hadn't visualised Mikael Blomkvist in the book as looking anything like Daniel Craig and having loved the book so much (thank you Joanni for persuading me to read it and thank you Kate Stubbins for lending the trilogy to me) I didn't want it to be too Hollywood-ised.  I was well impressed though as it stuck most firmly to the book (although I do think you needed to have read it to understand some of the plot) and we all agreed that it had been a very good movie before retiring to bed (Hazel and I having both checked our eyelids for pinholes already!!).