Back Where We Belong

Much to our own surprise, we are back in Greece for a little while. It's a long story but, put briefly, we rapidly gave up on Italy after a Christmas in Switzerland. Italy was very cold, wet, busy (literally nowhere to park even in small towns), hotels very few and far between and all incredibly expensive: 70 euros per night (we got them down to 50) for a self-catering hut on a campground, or 75 euros for B&B in a simple hotel/bar, that we declined. These prices might be OK for some capitalists but not for humble retired public servants, having devoted their lives to the public good and now reduced to eking out a mere existence on a meagre pension!

Rather than spend more time in Italy on our way to Sicily and Malta, waiting for the weather to improve, after 2 Italian nights we headed for what has long been our favourite part of Italy - the Port of Ancona with its several ferry lines to Greece. On 30 December we booked a passage to sail on 31 December, celebrating 3 New Year's in succession at sea (Greek, Italian and British time), and landed in Patras in the north of the Greek Peloponnese on 1 January 2010.

There must be a way to fill the gap between the Italy that so many people clearly love and which is presented so well in many books and films, and the contemporary and expensive Italy of crowded roads and decaying infrastructure - but we've yet to find it.

Here at Ionion Beach we have taken an en-suite, self-catering 3-room apartment at a price that puts the Italians in the shade. In fact here, in the sun, the temperature is in the 60's and it is dryzabone, as an Australian would say. On Wednesday, 6 January, it was the Greek Orthodox wave blessing service, complete with marching band, and we watched several young men dive for the cross that the Priest threw into the waves of Killinis harbour, only 10 miles (16 km) from Ionion.

So here we are with a good base, the Mercedes Benz Sprinter Van, two bicycles and the whole of the Peloponnese is ours! In due course we intend to return to Italy for a rapid transit from Igoumenitsa, across the heel and toe and across the Strait of Messina to Sicily and a ferry to Tunis from Trapani after a side visit to Malta with our bicycles. By then, the weather will be warm enough to cycle and camp, as we near the edge of the Sahara.

Another light at the end of a tunnel - the tunnel of Italy in winter!

We are all now at the end of the first decade of the third millennium - where have all these years gone? We can only wish you 'Xponia Polla' (Many Years) as the Greeks say to each other on most family and religious occasions (except funerals). For some of them, it actually works and certainly we hope it does for you.