Wednesday, September 6, 2023

This turned out to be one of the most interesting days of our trip. 😊 ☹

We packed our bags and stored them in the hotel because checkout was at 11am and we would be at lunch.                                                                         

Just before noon we took an Uber to Zen Beach (Athina 166 71) for a celebration lunch. About 20 of the wedding guests made it to this beautiful restaurant on the beach. 

At one point a man came by with a gaggle of geese which was an interesting diversion.

We walked around the beach area a bit. 

Of course there were cats. I guess cats are to Greece as dogs are to Colombia.

Around 3pm we said our goodbyes and returned to the hotel.

We picked up our bags and had a taxi take us to Lavrio about 45 minutes southeast for our next rest stop to what was advertised as a Relaxing, Beautiful Holiday Home. (The main goal was to be closer to our next main destination the port of Lavrio for our cruise.)

While their usual check-in is noon, I explained we would arrive later in the afternoon.

We had some light rain on the way.

When I thought we were close I showed the driver the address I had: Agios Georgios Thorikou, Lavrio, 19001. He got us to a side street with houses nearby. He noticed Adonios’ phone number on my paper and called him. Adonios gave him more detailed instructions and the driver stopped at a gate where he was waiting for us. His English was minimal but he welcomed us inside and we carried our bags up a few steps to his patio. He explained he wasn’t expecting us for another half hour and he was finishing the cleaning/preparation. We waited on the patio for a while until it started raining and he invited us inside. This Relaxing, Beautiful Holiday Home was a single small bedroom with a double bed, a small living room with a couch (for Laura to sleep on) and a small kitchen. ☹ He had obviously been a military pilot as his living room was adorned with air force photos and other memorabilia. He said something about maybe we wouldn’t be able to get out because of the rain. When he left we started getting ourselves a little organized. From our cellphones we couldn’t see any cafes or restaurants in the area nor ride sharing services. After a while I texted and asked him if he could give us a ride into the town of Lavrio. He said he would but then he had to go to Athens. Only about a 15 minute-drive, and no rain, he dropped us off in town.

He wrote down these directions on how to get back to his place by taxi.

Yeah, it's Greek to me too!

We walked around the downtown area a bit and settled on a small gyro restaurant with an outdoor patio. My gyro sandwich:

It soon started raining lightly. We had just finished eating when this wave of water washed into the restaurant.

Days or weeks later I discovered this was most likely a result of Mediterranean hurricane Daniel. But at the time we had no idea this might be a nightly occurrence there. We wandered over to a taxi stand where we inquired about a ride back to the “Relaxing, Beautiful Holiday Home”. The guy said we needed to come back in a couple hours to see if the water had receded enough.

Nearby we found a café where we could hunker down for a while. Try pronouncing this one:

Scared of the thunder, 4 dogs came in and refused to leave.

Even when workers did their best to coax them.

A couple hours later we returned to the taxi stand and were informed we wouldn’t be able to get out of town until morning. ☹

We found a 2-star Niolakaki Rooms Hotel where we checked in for the night for €120.50 ($130). We went to bed at 10pm but I didn’t fall asleep for about 2 hours planning for the next day.

 

Twitter ‘Hall of Fame’ Posts