A Day Around Limonas

Friday 22^nd October 2010

We woke to grey skies, the sound of strong winds and then a sudden, but fairly short, downpour of rain. We got up around 9am and decided to have a day around the cottage. After breakfast of Greek yoghurt, baklava and coffee we sat a read for a while (even though we had bought books with us, Limonas has a fairly wide selection of books, both fiction and non fiction – including a number of travel guides for Greece – of various ages). After an hour or so we too a stroll down to the beach.

Everything was dramatic, clouds rolling in, big waves, strong winds blowing off the sea and the mountains behind us capped with clouds. After a while turned inland and followed the riverbed past the cottage to where the valley opened out. Cows and sheep were visible beyond the olive trees. We meandered back to the cottage, with examining the huge variety of rocks along the way (during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods Greece was a shallow oxygen rich sea, which explains all the sedimentary rocks. There then following a period of intense volcanic activity (e.g at Santorini in 1650BC), which explains the various metamorphic rocks.

I had thought that it would brighten up later, but instead it got cloudier and the wind increased as well. We had lunch – bread, goat’s cheese and olives. I also had a peach that we had bought from a super market in Monemvasia the day before (get me eating fresh fruit!). Sitting outside, because we are English and on holiday, in my soft shell jacket, done up to the neck, D with her Mountain Equipment fleece top on, reading the Lonely Planet guide to Greece and Patrick Leigh Fermor’s guide to the Mani (don’t know how useful it would be today – it was written in 1958). Talking about books, I have to admit that I did not find the Lonely Planet guide that useful, when it came to finding out about some of the small villages and ruins in the south east Peloponese. Of more use may have been something like this.

Anyway, back to Limonas. Standing on the porch I can just catch a glimpse of the sea – white horses cresting the waves, through the waving fronds of the bamboo at the bottom of the garden. With the wind blowing in my face I can smell the distinct scent of Eucalyptus.

Mid afternoon we took another stroll down to the beach – and how things had changed! The wind was stronger, the waves bigger, and where this morning the there had been a low shingle wall across the mouth the river bed that had held back against the waves, now there was nothing but an ever deepening channel as wave after wave raced in and up to the road. Im glad the car was parked on slightly higher ground and on the other side of the road.

Exploring the main room I found a folding deckchair so got that out on the patio, thinking ti will be better for my back. Sitting there wrapped up in my jacket I look like the typical Brit abroad.

About 5pm we got our things together and headed out to Monemvasia. Stopped at the Mini Market for more supplies, stopped briefly at Xifias beach so D could drop the rubbish into the roadside bin and then into Gefyra to post the postcards – not bad going, it only took us two days to get round to posting them after we had written them.

Monemvasia looked stunning in the sunlight so we took several photos of the usual suspects: the rock, the mountains, the sea and the clouds. Drove across the causeway and up to the lower town efore turning round and finding a parking space next to the rock face. Walking down the main street of the old town all the bars and the three restaurants were open. We looked at the menus for each of the restaurants – the first one being the place we had lunch on Wednesday. Again we were greeted by the owner who tried to entice us in with offer of good food and views. However, he was quite happy when I said we were still looking. No one bothered at the second restaurant but at the third one the woman owner thrust a menu into our hands and explained that she only solf Greek food, asking ud we knew what Dolmades were. Again we explained we were still looking and wandered back to Elkomenos Square to find that the Archaeological Museum and the church (Christ Elkomenos) were both open, so we had look around them.

The museum is only small and contains mainly pottery shar4ds and pieces of marble. The shards include a vase with holes in the bottom (?) and a frying pan with a short stubby handle like the ones used in re-enactment, but which is supposed to have held a wooden handle. The marble showed some intricate carvings from door and window mantels.

After a quick look round the church it was into the first restaurant for dinner (To Kanoni). Upstairs for a view, the owner rearranging a table for us. Dolmades and Kalamari for me, baked Feta cheese and Moussaka for D, followed by Cappuccino and Nescafe medium respectively. Three cats begged at the table, but my will was strong and we did not feed them. After paying the bill (€40.10) we walked down the road back to the car. It was very dark walking down that narrow road with a vertical drop down to the sea on one side but we made it to the car and drove back to the cottage. I wish the Greeks would discover cat’s eys, or indeed any type of raod furniture, the roads are a nightmare in the dark. Spent the evening drinking Amstel and listening to the sea, hoping for brighter weather tomorrow.

//Some additional thoughts about the cottage at Limonas.

There is still a rat problem. They may not be running around the inside of the cottage but they are still running around in the roof. I don’t know how the roof is constructed and what is above the layer of bamboo that makes up the ceiling in the cottage, but I can easily imagine murine faecal matter falling through the ceiling and landing around the cottage.

It would have been very useful to have been shown around the place properly. I realise that Thea was off ill in Denmark and that it is no longer Ilse’s job to look after the cottage but I think she could have done a better job of it. It would have been nice for the fridge to have been started prior to our arrival and for the cottage to be aired.

I don’t mind basic facilities, but it would be good if what facilities there should be actually work they way they are supposed to – hot water for example. Goodness knows how 7 people would manage in that cottage.

It would have been really useful to know that there was a three pin socket and USB socket that we could use to charge batteries before we arrived.

The pump needs to be running to get a decent flow from the cold tap. But we were told not to run the pump with the tap closed, so to use any water you have to:

1. Turn on the cold tap
2. Go outside, round the back and turn on the pump (which increases the flow coming out of the already running cold tap)
3. Get as much water as you want
4. Go back outside and turn off the pump (there is probably more water than you need know and it will have overflowed)
5. Go back inside and turn the tap off properly

Other than that Limonas is a very quaint little cottage and in the height of summer I am sure it is lovely.//