The kitchen saga continues

The kitchen saga continued…The kitchen epic got into full swing with many e-mails to Ikea Greece and much looking at their website. We planned the kitchen based on a visit to Ikea in Leeds back home. A lot easier when you can see what you want. When we got here we looked at the website and noticed that Ikea had just opened another store nearer to Corfu than either Athens or Thessaloniki. Joy, we said only a 400 mile round trip instead of 600 or 800.

The problem was the website info was limited and the e-mail was not getting anywhere and when we finally got through to someone they asked us for product codes which we didn’t have. The dilemma was this, should we drive to Larissa Ikea and see what they have or should we go on the bike, see what they have, order it and go back in the car.

Having tossed these ideas around for days and driving the guests nuts with Ikea discussions we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it in the car!! My dad and I set off from here at 0530hrs fro the 0615 ferry to Igoumenitsa. We arrived in Igoumenitsa at 0815hrs and were straight off onto the Greek northern motorway the A2.

The A2 is a marvel of engineering and design I wont bore you with the details but it is a series of tunnels and bridges all the way through the mountains. If you want to be a real anorak follow the link and have a look, very interesting.
http://www.greek-motorway.net/html/body_a2.html

The problem we had was that we weren’t sure all the junctions were completed so we came off a junction before we should – because we didn’t think it was there – and went on the old road for about 45 minutes. Well it was a joke, the road was falling in bits, there were huge holes in, it was falling down the hillside and there were goats, sheep dogs and no other cars on it. It soon became clear we should not be on this road and that the junction was there and we should have stayed on the motorway. After many strange looks from locals as we passed them we arrived at the junction we thought was missing and it was fully operational, what a bummer!! Well it was the shorter way back for us.

Where the junction was you then drove down a super winding road all the way down a beautiful valley to Meteora, a place as such I have never seen before. Huge rock towers up out of the earth with a monastery on top of each one. Again worth a look, just type Meteora into google images and see for yourself a real wow moment!

We eventually got to Ikea in Larissa just before noon and hurried straight to the kitchen dept. The store was brand new, only been open two months max. No-one there but us we were sorted in no time. Luck would have it they had all our kitchen so it was sent for picking at the warehouse whilst we went for some splendid Ikea meatballs and chips!!

Our three trolleys of stuff appeared, 9 units, 11 doors, 5 drawers, 2 worktops, sink, 2 plinths, waste unit, handles and hinges. The next feat was getting it all in the car. It went in easy with room to spare and we were heading back at 1430hrs. We were heading for the 1915hrs ferry back to Corfu so we weren’t too bad for time. Heading back the right way this time we got into Igoumenitsa at just after 1800hrs. Just time for some souvlaki and a beer before the boat. Crossing went well and we were back in Kopsocheilades by 2200hrs. Just enough time left to share the days tales with Mrs D and Betty with a beer before a well deserved rest. The following day we unloaded the car and the units were left in the room until after D&B had gone as I felt he had done enough for one trip!! More later…….