Thursday September 7th 2017

Our alarm clock rang at 5am and we caught the 6am bus from the Chora to the port of Linaria.

It was still dark as we approached the port; the large ferry owned by the Skyrian Shipping Line was lit up as were the other smaller boats in the harbour.  The moon which was high in the sky added to the illuminated seascape.

The FB Achilles ferry departed from Linaria at 7am as the sun rose above the cliff.  We sat on deck with our breakfast of Greek pies and hot drinks and watched the port become smaller and smaller until it disappeared from our view.

We arrived in Evvoia, Greece’s second largest island before 9am.  In guidebooks, Evvoia is always linked with Skyros, Alonnnisos, Skopelos and Skiathos, usually under the title ‘Evvoia and the Sporades’. So, it would seem sensible to visit them all at the same time especially considering their close proximity to each.  However, we have decided to omit this island. We have only twelve nights away and Evvoia is a large island, we could probably easily spend the whole holiday here and not scratch the surface.

We had a saunter around the harbour before reboarding the ferry again a short while later. It was scheduled to depart again at 10am and to arrive in Alonnisos at around midday.  The ferry tickets cost just 20Euro each.

Apparently the island is very small and we haven’t managed to find much information about it.  We have therefore decided to stay just two nights; this will enable us to have four nights on the island of Skiathos which will be our final island before travelling home.  This decision was easily made, when checking the ferry timetable, we realised that the ferry goes onward to Skopelos (which will be our next port of call), on a Saturday and then not again until the Tuesday.  We are not currently aware of any other ferries that do this route.

We relaxed and enjoyed the journey.  We were on deck as we approached our ‘second island’.  The port town of Patitiri –Πατητήρι was larger than we had envisaged.  Houses and presumably rooms to let, and pensions all clung onto the hillside behind the port.

We disembarked and started to look around, to get our bearings. We weren’t expecting to see anyone offering rooms but Dave noticed a man with a sign offering rooms to let.  He showed us a couple of worn photos that needed replacing and waved a hand upwards in the direction of the hillside.  He informed us that the rooms were spotlessly clean and had a sea view.  We enquired about the price, ‘25Euro per night’ was his reply, ‘this is half the usual price due to it being end of season’ he added.  We agreed to have a look.  The room was a little higher on the hill than we thought he had been pointing but the room was spacious and indeed, as he had said, spotless. Apart from a fridge which is the norm, there was also a kettle and a toaster, everything that we would need.

Later, we learnt that there was even a homemade foam wedge to fill in that annoying gap between two single beds that have been pushed together to be used as a double.  We are impressed! What an ingenious idea, they should patent it!  And…and… what always makes Dave happy – a wall bracket for the shower hose!  We told the proprietor that we would stay two nights. What a bargain!

We did a quick unpack and then headed back down to the harbour.

We gathered information regarding quad bike hire as we went.

Then we swiftly collected leaflets relating to boat hire and boat trips as we circled the small harbour.

 

We checked out the bus timetable to the old village (Chora), spoke to a guy about daily buses to different beaches and checked on ferry departures to Skopelos (there were loads!). Finally, we chatted to a guy who was offering snorkelling trips.

All information in hand, we went into a seafront taverna and ordered a light lunch and two large beers.

We digested all the information and discussed all our options.  It quickly became apparent that two nights would not be enough!

So, we have decided on an additional night’s stay and we have hired a quad bike for tomorrow to explore the island.  We have booked a boat trip for Saturday and booked our ferry tickets for our onward journey to Skopelos on Sunday.

The proprietor of our rooms has recommended that we visit the old village (Chora), and Στενή Βάλα – Steni Vala; these two places can both be reached by bus.

We decided to visit the Chora. But, it was a little after 3pm; therefore there were no buses for two hours, due of course to the island’s siesta time.  We also decided a siesta was a good idea (we had been up since 5am) and we headed back to our nice room with the lovely view, to relax, and read and snooze for a while.

We chose a taverna on the harbour front for our evening meal, we ordered a traditional dish of fava (yellow split peas), followed by pork fillet with a plum and cognac sauce and chicken fillet with a mustard and honey sauce.  All were yummy!

We ended our first day in Alonnisos with an ouzo and lemonade sitting on our balcony watching the lights of the small bay below.

 

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