Wednesday, 3rd July, 2019
After a good night’s rest, we woke up in a sunny cool room – from our balcony I could see that the lady of the manor, Chrisoulia, had laid a number of tables ready for breakfast, below in the shady patio.
Of course Gerry had to have his first smoke of the day on our terrace while I got ready. It’s such a good feeling that we are remaining in Galaxidi for another night…….
Yesterday evening, both Maria and Gordon gave us some good information about Galaxidi’s history and what we should do this morning before we met them in the afternoon at the beach club – a visit to the Nautical museum was on top of our list.
Anyway, we first went downstairs for our breakfast – the charming Chrisoulia served us first fresh fruit and fresh orange juice and got our coffee ready. She then brought us an array of home made jams and chutneys to accompany her home made cheese and vegetable pie and her sweet lemon curd pie and various bread slices and rolls. As this was not enough, Chrisoulia asked us if we would like Greek yoghurt with honey and any types of eggs. We did want the yoghurt but we declined the eggs – there was so much food on our table.
Well after breakfast we remained a while downstairs on the patio having a conversation with Chrisoulia – she runs Mira Mare practically on her own – she prepares breakfast and gets the rooms cleaned and ready for her new guests.
Once upstairs again, we got ourselves ready to go walking around but only after I had finished updating my blog with yesterday’s activities. I’m glad we really do have a very good Wi-Fi in place – uploading pictures and publishing yesterday’s blog was as easy as pie…….
Our walk about took us along the port where beautiful sailing boats were moored and getting ready to go out sailing, while the fishing boats were back again after their early morning fishing trips. We followed the signs leading to the Nautical Museum and again we had to walk uphill away from the port.
The temperature was slowly increasing and as we got away from the port, we just got hotter and hotter…….. we tried walking in the shade but there not many trees to provide this so we were really glad to get to the air conditioned museum. This was a very interesting museum as Galaxidi has a nautical background for many centuries. Of course the theme of the museum is close to Gerry’s heart – everything that has to do with ships, tools and sails interest him tremendously, so it took us quite a while to go through the museum.
When we were outdoors again, we made our way to the second harbour – without knowing it, we walked past Maria’s house as we went past the church and then slowly down the steep hill to the second bay. It was interesting to see how most houses have been renovated and all of them having a wooden balcony on the first floor to catch the breeze.
When we reached the bay, we took a break and sat for a while in the shade admiring the tranquil view.
Before we walked along the shore line, we took a break on the wall and then were ready to find out more about this peaceful nautical village of Galaxidi. It was interesting to note that some of the houses were actually built on the the old stone fortifications which date back to many centuries ago when Galaxidi was a seafaring town and had to defend itself from the many invaders starting with the Bulgarians, followed by the Norman invasions in the early 11th Century; the Crusaders and then came under the Ottoman Rule where the town flourished due to maritime trade. Building sailing ships was key to Galaxidi and it seems nowadays most people living in this town had something to do with the nautical life even though Galaxidi never moved from sailing ships to motorized vessels.
However what has remained in Galaxidi to remind us of its nautical history, is that every house has a name and number on a tile depicted with a sailing ship ………
Once we were back in the port, we found loads of cafes and restaurants and by this time it was getting quite busy. We decided to stop for a drink and Gerry suggested we have ouzo accompanied by typical Greek snacks. That was just right as although we had a great breakfast, we were feeling a bit pecking but not enough to have a proper lunch.
Anyway sitting at this cafe, drinking ouzo, and watching the tranquility in front of us, I was transported to the time (like nearly a half century ago!!) when I was living in Crete – Agios Nicolaos – I now have fallen in love with Galaxidi!!! This town brought back many happy memories of my adventure in Crete together with my good friends Jude and Iain……..
After a short siesta, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the local beach club just down the road from Mira Mare and where we met up with Maria and Gordon as well as her friend Magda. We had a lovely time swimming and chatting and made plans that we visit Maria and Gordon that evening at their home followed by dinner.
In the evening we strolled up the hill where Gordon met us at the church and showed us the way to Villa Baby – Maria’s parental home which she has renovated over the years – such a lovely place!
Of course we had to take some pictures and fix this lovely catch up after nearly 7 years when we were working together ABNAMRO
And another picture of Gerry and me!
After enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony together with some snacks prepared by Maria’s daughter (was it Eva or Faye?), we left for the restaurant where we met up once again with Magda. The girls also dropped by to say hello -and good bye – we had our last delicious Greek meal in Galaxidi ! Besides having different dishes, the turbot that Gerry ordered was just fantastic – Magda did the honours of serving it – pity I had had sardines as I just couldn’t eat so much……
It was a lovely evening with friends who have become dear to us! Hopefully we will meet again soon!
Tomorrow we will be driving down to Saronida x our final destination and the end of our road trip…….
