{"id":7010,"date":"2023-05-26T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=7010"},"modified":"2025-11-01T03:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T03:16:35","slug":"this-is-greece-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2023\/05\/26\/this-is-greece-at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Greece, At Last"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday 22nd<\/sup> May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We slept long and deep like bears in hibernation. Indecision confused us at the beginning of the day but finally we made a decision to stay a second night at Camping Kariotes.  Then the second decision of the day was to get the bikes off the back and go for a ride, at last.  It took ages untangling them, getting the handlebars straight, putting the batteries in, etc., but finally at 11:30am we cycled into Lygia. We watched the fishermen sorting their nets and then went for tea and cake at a little bakery on the way back to the campsite.  The rest of the day was spent washing the floor, reading our books, trying and failing to get the internet to work and then cooking up the rest of the defrosted food for dinner. Tomorrow will be another driving day, hopefully taking in some good scenery along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First bike ride to Lygia, Lefkada Island<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 23rd<\/sup> May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louise and her dog wished us well for the rest of our journey and offered us another spare fuse.\u00a0 We politely declined; worried that they might need it themselves.\u00a0 Sadly, Mel was still in bed, still not feeling great; we do hope he recovers soon.\u00a0 Around 10:00am we drove over the floating bridge again and left Lefkada island, heading firstly inland and then following the coast road south. It turned out to be a lovely scenic route, potholed and slow, but rather beautiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Down the coast near Arilas<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Up the coast near Arilas<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Astakos we pulled over on the sea front for a cheese and olives lunch. The sun was shining and the sea was calm.  The next leg of the ambling drive took us over the hills towards Messolongi.  At one point we drove over a bridge to an island completely covered in buildings!  We drove one kilometre around the north side of the island, onto another bridge, and then crossed over to the mainland.  It seemed a rather odd arrangement, but it worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking out to the Ionian islands<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now we wanted to pick up the motorway south but there were no signs, and our rather out of date GPS had no idea. So rather than head inland over more hills, or take the slow road south, we drove north searching for an entrance onto the motorway.\u00a0\u00a0 After a frustrating eight kilometres, we finally found one and headed south past Messolongi and onto the enormous and rather beautiful Rio Antirrio bridge. We zoomed past Patra, praising the smooth straight road until it turned into sixty kilometres of 50, 90, 70, 30, 50, 90 limits.\u00a0 Two lanes, one lane, two lanes, one lane. It was not an easy drive.\u00a0 It was a relief to finally arrive at the campsite and find that Sue and Mike had reserved a good pitch close to them. Pitch D9 was marked \u201cAustralians\u201d.\u00a0 Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Approaching the Rio Antirrio Bridge<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the Rio Antirrio Bridge, leaving the mainland<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We set up camp, really enjoyed lovely showers and then tarted ourselves up for the evening.\u00a0 It turned out to be Sue and Mike\u2019s wedding anniversary and our table at the restaurant was covered in rose buds and petals, and our four chairs had white bridal style covers over them.\u00a0 All the other diners stared at us getting such special treatment.\u00a0 The meal was delicious, the conversation brilliant and a lovely start to our stay at Camping Ionion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rodney on the headland at Aginara Beach<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday 24th May<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right let\u2019s get sorted. The Mediterranean spring seems to have arrived at last.  We washed all of our sheets, towels and winter clothes in the desperate hope of continued good weather. The fingers are crossed again.  Everything dried quickly under the clear blue sky and after the winter gear was stashed away at the very bottom of the wardrobe, we strolled north along the pebbly beach to the first headland, followed by a couple of hours relaxing on sunbeds beside the pool.  Ahhhh this is what we were looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laura, Sue & Mike beside the pool at Camping Ionion, Glifa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 22nd May. We slept long and deep like bears in hibernation. Indecision confused us at the beginning of the day but finally we made a decision to stay a second night at Camping Kariotes.  Then the second decision of the day was to get the bikes off the back and go for a ride, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":7005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-routes-around-europe-in-reggie-the-motorhome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8043,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010\/revisions\/8043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}