Beach/Pool Bumming + Off-Roading to Pay Homage to Demeter
We didn’t realize we’d signed up for breakfast to be included in our villa (….did we…?) but there it was this morning. A “breakfast basket,” which in my mind means a few pieces of bread, jam, fruit and coffee, but turned out to be three ladies whipping up our own personal breakfast buffet in the kitchen while we dozed. By the time we came downstairs, our outdoor table was covered in 15 different options – hardboiled eggs, yogurt, bread, croissants, donuts, melon, nectarine, cheeses, tomatoes, ham, cereal, coffee, juice, etc.
Wow.
Not only that, the same crew came back an hour later to not only clear it all away but make out beds, mop up, etc. Add to that the two pool guys who come every morning and the landscaper…and you start to realize how much our tourism dollars mean to local workers.
It was our first full day in the house and we spent 10 am – 4 pm rotating between pool and beach. Not much to report from those hours beyond that.
Oh there was one cute thing. For lunch James and I peeled the leftover eggs from breakfast to make egg salad (sidenote: The Hellmans in Europe is dreeeeeaaamy — not mousse-like but more the consistency of yogurt. So delicious).
Me: My technique is to smack the egg on the counter and then roll it, to peel easily.
James: I like to puncture the shell with my fork.
Me: “Puncture.” That’s a good word!
James: Yeah. (Pause) Unless it’s talking about balloons or rafts.
But all the lounging started to make me antsy. So I rallied everyone for an outing: A 20-minute drive to the marble temple of Demeter, restored over the last 30 years by some German archeologists. Since we’ve declared James a descendant and/or worshipper of Demeter, goddess of grain aka CEREAL GOD, I felt we had to pay a visit. I also called and ordered dinner from a recommended restaurant nearby for pickup and we made an excursion out of the whole thing, much to the kids’ chagrin.
It turned out to be an excursion indeed — much more so than we realized, as Google maps doesn’t seem to take into consideration things like whether the roads it’s recommending are “paved” or “passable.” There were moments along one-car-only-but-also-both-ways mountain paths — especially when it felt like we were trespassing on someone’s farm, high above the sea, in serious danger of knocking our axle loose, going 1 mph — when we questioned our navigation. No cell signal, no water. Yikes.
This was the smoothest road we encountered that afternoon.
But we made it. Of course, the Demeter temple is closed on Tuesdays. So we got our pic from afar.
We picked up dinner from Taberna Axiotissa in Sangi — grilled shrimp, stuffed tomatoes, sausage for the kids and some cheesecake — before heading back home along similar paths with our fingers crossed….
Glad we motivated to do something (and lived to tell the tale). Tomorrow….more!
