Limonas Discovered

Tuesday 19th October 2010

Limonas Discovered

All the photos from today can be seen on my Flickr site.

After admiring the scenery from the hotel room balcony we wondered down the road in search of some breakfast. There is quite a large cafe that serves a selection of cakes and pastries so, using the established technique of all Brits abroad, pointing my finger and talking slowly, I ordered two baklavas and two coffees. I had to order espresso as that was the only one I could understand. Talking to a Canadian woman sat behind us, she said I should ask for Americano or French Press coffee. However, even then the waitress didn’t seem to understand me. After breakfast we went back to the hotel and checked out, then sat in the foyer waiting for Ilse to take us to the cottage. There were a few cumulus clouds out to see, but on the whole the sky was clear and blue.

Ilse arrived on her moped and led us out to the cottage. We parked the car at the side of the road and walked up the stream bed to the cottage, hidden behind a wall of bamboo and in front of an olive grove.

Denise walking up to the cottage

 The cottage is very pretty, but incredibly basic. We were soon to discover how basic. The electricity is provided from a set of batteries that are charged from solar panels.

Our first view of the cottage

 In theory the water is also heated by solar power but given that these panels are on the ground at the back of the house and shaded by olive trees they do not receive much light and certainly during our stay did not heat the water at all. It may be different during the height of summer but during our stay we had to have cold showers or wash in water heated on the cooker. Both the cooker and the fridge are powered by gas, stored in cylinders. More about the fridge later. The batteries also power a converter which has a UK 3 pin socket and USB port for cameras and phones, so there was no need for me to have purchased a separate in car charger for my camera. It would have been really useful to know about this before we got here.

Having unpacked and made the bed (we had to take our own sheets, pillow cases and towels) we headed up the road to a little shop (Mini Mapket) for some bread and cheese then headed south, down the coast until we reached Agios Fokas and could go no further. The road ended at a small chapel on a little island connected to the mainland by a causeway.

The small chapel of Agios Fokas on an island

From Agios Fokas we returned north and headed inland toward Neopoli. The road was very steep and narrow with lots of very sharp hairpin bends (a theme that was to be repeated regularly during our stay in Greece).

One of the many hairpin bends

 However, the views across the valley and out to sea were stunning.

The view from Ellinikio - the cottage is down there somewhere

We made it to the top and followed the road along the ridge, giving us views of the sea on both sides of the promontory. Finally we headed back down towards the coast, stopping at the mini mapket for more supplies before heading back to the cottage for coffee and biscuits.

The following was written on Tuesday evening:

“The notes for guests at Limonas say that the electric pump should be turned on when having a shower. I had no idea on how to do that and Ilse had not mentioned it when she gave us a very very brief tour of the cottage. Can’t get the gas powered fridge to work either, it just won’t fire. Ilse gave us the number for Gillian and Brian, an English couple who live about 20mins away. I rang Gillian and she will get hold of Alex (who has done the renovations on the cottage but doesn’t speak English) and they will come over tomorrow morning and hopefully fix the fridge and explain the shower to us.

Just had a phone call from Gillian. Alex is working tomorrow so they are coming over this evening. I don’t mind basic facilities but I do expect those facilities to work and have them explained / shown to me properly, like what do we do with the rubbish?

Gillian and Alex arrived, even managing to drive all the way up to the house. Alex changed the gas canister for the fridge and showed me how to start it, in case I needed to do it again. He also showed me where the switch for the electric pump is – behind the door in the outside toilet – disguised as a connecting block. I know they do things differently here but if I was rewiring a house then I would mount the switch in the inside bathroom on a wall, not leave it hanging outside! Knowing me I would probably label it as well, especially if other people were going to be using it.

Gillian also told us how we can leave our rubbish in the roadside rubbish skips.

After they left we tried the hot water and although water flowed, which was an improvement, it did not get warm, let alone hot. Hope tomorrow is better.”

As it was getting dark we headed out for dinner, taking a hurricane lamp with us, as none of the torches in the cottage worked. There was a slight delay as D searched for her wallet, only to surmise that she must have left it in the car, which it turned out she had.

Stopped at the the restaurant by the mini mapket. The lights were on but the tables were not laid and they were not serving dinner. We headed towards Monemvasia with thoughts of going into the old town, as it started to rain. However, as we turned onto the “main” road we saw lights on (and people inside) a pizzeria so we stopped there. I had a 4×4 pizza (4 cheeses and 4 meats – although I struggled to find anything other than ham in it. As we ate we watched the lightning flash and the rain fall, and a cat curl up on a chess set under a shelter outside – oh to be able to wrap your furry tail over your own nose.

We each only managed 5/8 of the pizza so we got a box and bought them back to the cottage.

Later, in bed, snuggling under the covers we listened to the thunder roll across the skies, the waves crash against the beach and the rats running around in the ceiling. We both decided that the rain drops sounded like a gentle ripple of applause as if in appreciation of the orchestra of thunder.