Oxford to Monemvasia

Monday 18th October 2010

Oxford to Monemvasia

The alarm went off at 02:15 this morning, to allow an hour to get ready. We were up and dressed quickly. A slice of toast for D and a cup of coffee for me and we were ready to leave the house by 03:00. The walk up to the bus stop at Headington Shops took about half an hour, meaning we were only forty minutes early for the bus, which was due to arrive at 04:10. Fortunately it was not raining, but it was pretty chilly, so we spent the time huddled together (much to the amusement of a few passers by) and playing i-spy.

The bus arrived on time and a comfortable journey had us arriving at Terminal 5 for around 5am. We used the electronic check  in to print the boarding passes then had to wait before we could drop the bags off. We went through security and made our way to the gate.

The inside of the departure gate

Rather than walking straight on to the aircraft we had to catch a bus from the gate to the aircraft. After a while a bus pulled up with the flight number and “Athens” on the front -cue several comments about a long bus journey coming up. I don’t where the aircraft was parked in relation to the terminal but it did seem like quite a drive from the terminal, going through several tunnels under the taxi ways before we finally made it to the aircraft.

We took off into the morning sky and turned south heading over the channel and then over Germany, before turning left at the Alps and heading down the Italian coast before turning left again towards Athens. There were some fantasic cloudscapes during the flight, especially over the Alps, where the snow covered peaks of many of the mountains could be seen poking above the clouds.

We landed in a very wet Athens. Passed quickly through security and picked up our bags before heading outside to pick up the car. After a slight detour through some of the car parks we made it to the car rental area and collected our hire car, a Skoda Fabia. Now for the fun part, the drive to Monemvasia.

There was torrential rain on the drive from Athens to Tripoli and the driving was not helped by the large amount of surface water on the roads. Fortunately, as we turned off the motorway onto the road from Tripoli to Sparta the rain stopped and the sun even came out briefly, creating one of the most fantastic rainbows that I have ever seen.

Rainbow on the road outside Tripoli

Thanks to D’s map reading and the Co-Pilot sat nav software we only made a couple of mistakes. The scenery was stunning, when we could see anything of it. Heavy rain, with lightning, loads of water on roads, cloud, fog and the occasional sunny spot. There was a tremendous lightning storm as we descended into Monemvasia, lighting up the rock and the surrounding sea.

Clouds rolling over the mountains

Ilse, our contact in Monemvasia, said we couldn’t get to the cottage that night as the drive was a raging torrent, also being a river bed, so she had found us a hotel that would put us up for the night for only €30.

After checking in we went out to find something to eat. After a false start at a restaurant that only sold fish we found somewhere that had a limited menu, but at least it included meatballs for D. I went for Kalamari and a Tsatziki salad. Headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. There was more rain during the night, but we woke to clear blue skies and glorious sunshine, with spectacular views of the rock.

Monemvasia from the hotel balcony

 

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