Myrina on Limnos fond farewells and a start toward the wintering

We'd been here before. I had flown to Sydney for four days from here while Sal and crew stayed. It is the check out point from Greece when we made our way up the Dardanelles so you'd think we'd be a bit over it.... Not so. Probably our favourite island, certainly in the top four.

A very attractive large safe harbour. Wide clean promenade along the wall, power, water and the town's shopping precinct snakes its way up a narrow, blue stone paved walkway covered in vines we coined 'Shady Lane' so the kids knew where we were talking about.

The waterfront is all cafe's and taverna's

We had to get here by the 26th September so Stina could catch her flight to London, so the first order of business was the first fond farewell...

She really has become a member of our family, is now an addicted traveler and cannot wait for the next opportunity. It won't be long before our paths re-cross.

Al made his departure date the day after Sally's birthday. He offered a guest free finale' to this trip but wasn't about to miss the party. Also now a member of the Wilkinson clan, Sal and I would need to re-think about how it was all done without him on our own again.

There is a natural Spa called Therma, a short drive from Myrina.This was used to lift morale of the soldiers in 1915. It didn't take long for Sal to find it and a three hour session later was her present to herself.... This is how they make you beautiful...
















By all accounts they succeeded.

On her return is was time to pop the top off our 'brought for epic occasions' bottle of Henchke's 2008 Hill of Grace with the traditional home cooked steak.

School lesson that day was making Mum a birthday cake, the tutor, Al, the parents, the day off.

The kids discovered star poppers... Blew them all over the inside of the boat! We will be finding evidence of this incident for years to come.

We also celebrated Al's time with us. The kids got him a new journal for use next year. Another very early morning drive to the airport saw him on his way. What is very strange about Greece is that the flights out of Lymnos and I believe many other islands to Athens happen at 6ish in the morning. Then there are no connecting flights out of Athens for 6 hours??

The Meltimi was still busting a gut and our next voyage was to take us way west across the most exposed part of the Aegean and it apparently has the propensity to surprise. At least it would be in the right direction if it did.

It was Saturday, she would blow hard by all predictions until Tuesday afternoon so we planned to leave Myrina on Wednesday the 2nd.

What to do in the mean time?


Explore all the parts of this interesting island. That's what.....

Sal had noticed fancy signs to Varos Village Hotel so on our way to or from somewhere we checked it out. Really odd entrance to the place. Huge dusty car park, dead or dying creepers covering an unattractive facade, confusing directions once you're in. We very nearly gave up but parked and walked and eventually discovered this...

When it's windy, beaches are not on but you have to find ways to entertain the kids off the boat. This was perfect. We had a drink, inquired as to accommodation prices and booked to stay on Sunday night. We kept it all from the kids.

The following day we discovered Thanos beach, fairly well protected with a great little Taverna run by Costa and his stunning Russian partner, Anna. She spoke about 8 languages just to add to her stunningness.. Then on the beach we hear South African and Aussie accents and before long we were blabbering on while our kids reveled  in the fact that their kids spoke English, could swim and in Will's case, had electronic entertainment. Another great day saw us well into a wind abated, balmy evening.




Time to go to the kid's loud and persistent protestations... "No. We cannot come back tomorrow, we have a surprise for you..." "Ahh please, please, please can't they come back" (said in a South African accent) "Ahhh please, please please, can't we come back Muuuum!"

We resolved to return on Monday evening after our booked and paid for stay at Varos and off we went... Fairly good thing there are no booze buses in Greece!

The kids perked up only once they saw the pool at Varos the following day, otherwise we were the worst parents ever! The accommodation was not at the hotel but in the nearby village of Varos. Very nice hacienda style, modern, spacious comfortable rooms but so difficult to find in this narrow street-ed, hilly little town. We went around in circles and through the main square multiple times before we found it.

We figured the locals would be used to it and would have been their entertainment

It is against our religion to eat where we are staying so we drove to the nearby and highly recommended seaside town of Kostinosos and pigged out on fresh seafood. Yummm.

In the morning we just made it to breakfast, packed up the room and spent the day by the pool enjoying the very best of Greek service given we were the only people there. They do need to do something about that entrance, it was only through perseverance that we discovered the paradise within.

As we had promised, we returned to Costa's on Thanos Beach. Everybody was pleased to see us, particularly the kids. We talked about places to eat and coincidentally, Greek Australians George and Theodora mentioned Tsamandria, the town we had visited because it was where our good mate Chris Karikios was born.

So, Maria and Peter Koutromanos, Greek South Africans, George and Theadora Spathis and their mate Craig from Hunters Hill who had just swam the Hellespont (A famous race across the Dardanelles from Eceabat to Canakkale) and all the kids piled into two very small cars and off we went.

It pays to eat at a Greek restaurant with people who speak Greek, who are well known at the restaurant and who order the food...

Well I simply could not move. Costa had warned me to take it slowly and not to eat to much... He clearly had no idea who he was talking to!

A great night with people we hope to catch up with in Sydney and eventually, South Africa.

Thanks a lot guys, we had a ball.

In the morning Peter dropped their kids, Alex and Mia off at the boat which became a place to finish off Sally's birthday cake, the diving board, fishing platform and start point for the beach across the harbour.

Another unusual thing about Myrina is that the harbour is clean enough to swim in, the water, crystal clear.They climbed the castle and were gone for hours simply having a ball. For us there is no better sight.

We drove them home at sunset, enjoyed one last Mojito with Peter and Maria and headed back to the boat. The kids were out cold by the time we got there...

This place was going to be hard to leave and confirmation that traveling is full of goodbyes.