Down Another Rabbit Hole – All in the name of Greece!
I’ve thrown myself into a frenzy of projects since reaching retirement age. The latest? Building an Android app for independent travellers to Greece. Plan Your Greece is now on Google Play.
Nafplio by Bus, on Foot and on a Railway That No Longer Runs
There is something reassuring about a KTEL Argolida timetable. Clear, very specific, and somehow always full of confidence. The bus from Kranidi would connect at Epidaurus, deliver me to Nafplio by 13.26, and say nothing whatsoever about the forty-two gold steps waiting at the other end. This is Nafplio approached slowly, by bus, on foot, and along a railway line that no longer runs.
Exploring Lesvos: Plomari, Agiasos and a Last Night at Fat Jimmy’s
A gentle two-day travelogue on Lesvos, taking in Plomari’s ouzo heritage, the mountain village of Agiasos and a memorable last night of music and dancing in Mytilini.
Preveza to Tzoumerka: Mountain Villages, Wax Figures, Cliff Monasteries and the Largest Stone Bridge in the Balkans
Some days of travel arrange themselves neatly around a guidebook itinerary. Others are shaped entirely by someone who knows the place better than any guidebook could. Our friend Ioannis from Epirus Traveller took us from Preveza into the mountains of Tzoumerka for a day that covered a Roman aqueduct, a wax museum unlike anything I have seen before, a monastery built into a cliff face, a village of silversmiths, and a stone bridge over a turquoise river. I am not good with bridges. I crossed it anyway.
Beyond Preveza Town: A Walk That Spans Three Thousand Years
Most people walking Preveza’s waterfront turn back before the town runs out. The walk around the tip of the headland takes a couple of hours, allowing for refreshment stops and general mooching. It passes an abandoned military camp, two fortresses built by Ali Pasha in the same year, and a stretch of coastline where the Battle of Actium was fought in 31 BC. The Pantokratoras Fortress at the far end had its doors open. We went in.
Ioannis Was Right: Why Preveza Deserves More Than Four Nights
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The MS Christina and the Forgotten Islands: Why Nidri Was Worth it After All
Nidri promised boat trips. Most of them went to beaches. The MS Christina went somewhere more interesting: Kastos and Kalamos, two small islands between Lefkada and Ithaca that most visitors to the Ionians never reach. A wartime submarine cave, a surprisingly ornate church on an island of forty people, a poet’s island you can only look at from the water, and a close pass of Skorpios. Not bad for a day that almost did not happen.
Lefkada Town: A Floating Bridge, a Medieval Fort and Church Bell Towers that Move
Nidri in bad weather is not somewhere to linger. So we caught the bus into Lefkada Town, crossed a bridge that swings open for passing yachts, spent the best part of two hours inside a medieval fort that most people drive straight past, and then got happily lost in a town built to survive earthquakes. Not a bad day for a rainy Tuesday.
From Meganisi to Nidri: Waterfalls, Goats and Hunting for Boat Trips
Nidri was never an intentional destination. It was the means to one. Four nights on Lefkada’s busiest harbour front, in a town that knows exactly what it is for — and a walk inland to a waterfall that most people arriving off the ferry never find.
