Back in Blighty again.

We flew back to the UK on a pleasant Saturday lunchtime flight to Manchester followed by a train back to Guiseley to pick up Lynns brothers car. We have just 2 weeks to catch up on folks and get ready for our big adventure for the summer, 2 months on the north west Pacific coast of the USA. The usual 2 weeks of dashing here and there tied up with last minute shopping and packing for the USA. It was a busy time and seemed to fly by. I think by the end of it we felt we were ready for the off with everything we needed for the the trip. The only problem was baggage weight. As we were camping in most places we had a case full of camping gear so we didn’t get many clothes in!


Our trip was taking us to Seattle from Amsterdam where we had a night in a motel before picking up a hire car the following day and heading south down highway 101 the Paific coast highway. We have a few stops planned along the way and the turn around point was San Francisco. After afew days here we were heading inland to Yosemite and then heading back north to Seattle via some State Parks along the way. A night in Seattle, then the train up to Vancouver in Canada where we pick up another car for a couple of weeks before getting the train back to Seattle, to see Seattle this time before the flight back to the UK. Well that’s the plan, I’ll try to keep up with the trip and report back along the way.

Job team arrives.

It was Easter Monday – well UK Easter Monday as Greek Easter Monday was the following week. No idea why. The job team arrived on the evening flight from Manchester so we drove down to pick them up via the supermarket in order to stock up on supplies. The next day was a super day with plenty of sun and not too hot so we managed to get well on with the start of the new roof. By Friday the roof apart from a couple of roof panels was complete and my dad had started knocking down the apotheki doorway. So far so good, not quite. Easter in Greece is far bigger than Christmas and as a result Greece shuts down for 3 days to mark the occaision. This is fine if you haven’t run out of sand and cement!! So we were out of work for 3 days which didn’t go down well with the team.


On Greek Easter Saturday we went down to Corfu town to see the famous pot smashing in the Liston square. We got down there for 10ish and wandered steadily up to the Liston. At bang on 11 o’clock all hell breaks loose and terracota pots of all shapes and sizes are hurled from all the balcony windows as high as 6 storeys. Quite a spectacle with no cops, no barriers, no warning signs and nobody gets hurt!! Well worth the visit. Sadly since the first day of sunshine on the Tuesday the weather has not been so good, a mixed bag of cloud and showers.

We all managed a stroll over the weekend by San Stefanos on the east and it stayed dry so it wasn’t too bad. At the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning I was down at the builders yard filling the car with sand and cement so we could proceed with the apotheki door. All was well again and we managed to get the building work finished and the new door put together before the team departed on the Friday eve. All that was left was to paint the new door and hang it, which we did and it looks so much better.

With the team now gone and it’s Saturday morning and the sun was shining again and continued to do so right up ‘til we left to fly to the UK 2 weeks later.

Jobs to be done

The main reason for the trip out in March was in fact my dads idea. He said he didn’t mind helping build the roof over the decking as long as he didn’t have to do it the blazing summer sun. So at the end of last summer we bought all the wood and painted it so it would harden over the winter. Was a good idea at the time but we said if we finished the roof in good time we would then put a roof over the car port as the plastic sheet I used didn’t stand up to much wind. Before my dad and Reg arrived we did the roof over the car port and found another job for the task team. This meant we had used a lot of the wood we painted last summer and had to get some more which Mrs D had to paint with a bit of grumbling. The wood was painted before they arrived and the holes were dug for the support posts to go in. The new job we found was widening the apotheki door so I can put my motorbike in there during the summer out of the sun. We had had 2 weeks of superb early spring weather and all this changed the day the job team arrived!!

Off again



Ferry down Adriatic

 We are back on line again and in touch with the world!! Yes yes I know I said I would do more to keep up to date with our ramblings and there has been nothing since March. I humbly apologise but there was good reason, it was all to do with wireless broadband contracts and the short time we were in Corfu but I’m sure you’re not interested in all that anyway.


It’s 16th May, we’ve been back in the UK just over a week and we are gearing up for the off again very soon. Never mind that what’s been going on I hear you ask?

We left the UK on 16th March after our stay with Marian on the south coast and had a super drive across Europe with a couple of stops. One at Leige in Belgium at an F1 hotel and the other at a hotel we usein Altenstadt, Germany. The weather was great, the Alps were superb and all was going well. We arrived in Venice intent on going to a campsite we kow to get a cabin for the night. We checked on their website before we left home and it said ‘open all year.’ In my understanding that means open all the time. No, it was closed so we had to go to plan B which we didn’t have. In short we drove around looking for an open campsite to no avail. We ended up shelling out mega Euros for a hotel near Marco Polo airport. Oh well, these things happen as they say.

Next day, checked in for the ferry and got a good spot in the reclining eat room again. Steady cruise down the Adriatic to Igoumenitsa on the mainland as the Venice ferries have stopped docking in Corfu through the winter months. We arrived at Igoumenitsa to an unusually quiet port. Super, the Greek ferry operators were on strike over the austerity issues. So we were stuck on mainland Greece. After a call to a Greek friend in Corfu we found out the strike could be over that day or go on for another 48 hours. The outcome was due at 6pm that day. The upshot of which was the strike was over and services were set to resume.

Services did resume, the following day! We spent the night sleeping upright in the car, lovely…………At 0600hrs I had to wrestle my way through a mass of angry Greeks to to get a ticket for this first ferry. As you can imagine after a two day strike there would be a few folks knocking about, not a pleasant situation. We did manage to get on the first ferry which was bursting at the sides and finally docked at Corfu at 0815hrs.

It was a quick shop at LIDL on the way and we were back home for 0930 and asleep by 10 o’clock.

All was well with the house, the weather was nice and it was god to be back. We now have two weeks to get sorted and ready for the arrival of the workforce – my dad and Lynns brother – on Easter Monday.

2012 another year, another adventure...............



Sandsend nr Whitby.

Whitby Harbour

Hello to all you who have been following us. I know there are at least three followers as they've been complaining I wasn't keeping up last year!! Will try harder to keep folks happy this year.

Whats going on then and get on with it I hear you say. It's the day before we set off back to Corfu, the car's semi packed and Mrs D has adjusted her return luggage for the last time. The packing has been made a little more complicated due to the fact we are flying back to the UK in May for a mini adventure overseas which I will scribble more on later. With this in mind though, we are trying to keep stuff here for our trip, trying to make sure we don't forget essentials for Corfu and checking the right paperwork for the right trip goes or stays in the right place.

We are heading back a little earlier this year so that we can get the roof built over the decking before it gets too hot. Well that was some of the deal from my dad who along with Lynns brother Reg are coming out Easter Monday to help us erect the aforementioned sun shade. We will also be spending our first Easter out in Corfu as it is a week later than here in the UK.

With all thats been going on with the Greek economy and such we are not sure what to expect. Probably a lot of shut up shops and businesses, we will see and report back accordingly.

The construction team are coming out on Easter Monday as I said and will be with us for just short of two  weeks. Hopefully enough time to get the roof up and maybe a cover over the car port (if we ply them with enough food and drink!!) 

We are flying back to the UK first Saturday in May for a couple of weeks before we head out to the Pacific north west of the USA. We are taking in Washington State, Oregon and northern California including San Francisco and Yosemite national park. Our route will take us down state highway 1 - the Pacific coast road and the after a break in San Fran heading back north inland via various state parks. We will be camping for the most part and in motels in the cities. After about six weeks in the USA we are then heading over into Canada by train from Seattle for a couple of weeks, where we are looking at Vancouver, Whistler and Vancouver Island. If all this goes to plan we should be back in the UK late July for ten days before flying back out to Corfu first week in August.

It will then be full on hot (hopefully) and time to get ready for a stream of visitors from August through to October. It is quite nice that folks want to come out an see us again and it is always a pleasure to have them stay with us.

So back to tomorrow. We are heading south to Marians hotel in Winchelsea until Friday when we we leave for Dunkirk Friday afternoon. Then a short drive to Leige in Belgium for our first night in digs. Saturday we have a long drive across and down into southern Germany and our second night in digs. We will of course be taking in the sights along the way and of course a visit to C & A somewhere in Germany. Sunday sees us crossing the Alps into Italy and down to Venice where we hope to find a cabin on a campsite (fingers crossed please.) Monday at 2pm is the ferry to Greece and we hope to be in Kopsocheilades late afternoon on Tuesday. This will give us a couple of weeks to get ready for the building squad and organise some materials.

Thats pretty much it for now so I will head off and get scrubbed up for the last night in Middleton for a while. This may well involve some food and a small drink. Well in anticipation of our drink, "cheers to you all and have a warm and healthy summer!!" Keep in touch and I promise I will scribble more frequently on here.

Hello again, where have we been?????

Hello there, remember us we used to scribble down our antics whilst out here in Corfu or where ever we are……………

Well what can I say, believe it or not we have been very busy. Since we arrived back here after a super stay in Slovenia we had three days to ourselves then from the end of August to the middle of October we had one set of visitors after the other. It started with Reg, then Wendy, then my mum and her sister, then my dad, finally topped off with another visit from Reg. Then last week in October we had a flying visit to the UK.

We are now in the process of planning the driving trip back to the UK which starts with the ferry to Venice on the 24th November. If all goes to plan we will be back in Middleton by the end of November armed with thermals and firelighters.

Yet again we have had another super summer. The job list as usual got longer but we did manage to get through some of the things we wanted to do this year. The sitting room is finished, the extra units for the kitchen are in, the apotheki is in better shape than when we arrived (which is more than can be said for the Greek economy) and we have managed a couple of trips along the way.

In July we went to Meteora on the mainland for a couple of days. In August we had 10 days in Slovenia near Lake Bled in a lovely house in a village called Krnica pronounced ‘Krinitsa,’ (that’s the end of the Slovenian for beginners.) We went with our good friends Mick and Sue. They flew out to Venice from the UK, we ferried to Venice from Corfu and all the connections worked out perfectly. We had a wonderful time in a truly beautiful country. We walked through gorges, down river valleys, alpine mountains, used cable cars, chair lifts, hired bicycles and even used local buses. We also swam in Lake Bled in a purpose made fancy swimming come sun bathing area roped off from the rest of the lake with fancy bouys. It is a fantastic place with so much to offer, well worth a visit. We went down the village shop 7.30ish most mornings and some of the locals were already sat outside the nearby bar with a beer!! A bit early for me…….We had a drive through the Karavanke tunnel and 8km long tunnel through the mountains into Austria, quite an experience. We also had an afternoon in the capital Ljubljana, an excellent time was had by the four of us.

On the way back we called in at Ikea in Padova near Venice and filled the car with kitchen table, chairs and another kitchen unit along with a few other things. We then headed for the ferry back to Corfu which wasn’t too bad for the middle of August.

We then had a string of visitors which went very well and they all seemed to have a good time to the tune that they all want to come again!! We must be doing something right or they just like Corfu, not sure which……….

We then had a week back in the UK before the direct flights finished to see the folks back home, sort out a few things, a couple of socials and I got to see my two grandchildren who arrived within two weeks of each other at the end of September and the middle of October. Max, Aurora and their parents are all doing well with their respective fathers smitten, giddy and very proud of what they helped to make!!!

That brings us up to November where we are on last minute jobs ensuring all will be OK for the winter out here. The weather is lovely with warm sunny days and cool evenings, a far cry from the 30dgs nights of the summer but very nice all the same. We are hoping for a day out this week down south of the island with a few jobs to sort in Corfu town on the way. Other than that we are managing a bit of cycling, walking through the olive groves, the odd social through the week and an occasional coffee in Acharavi.

Slim the cat is still knocking about and was here to greet us when we got back from Slovenia and the UK. It will not be the same back in the UK without his noisy scrounging tones at the back of the door! He is obviously being fed elsewhere, still catching birds and geckos so he is not entirely dependant on us. He will be fine, it’s Mrs D I worry about.

Mrs D has had a good summer I think, there a few things she misses but the weather does help. It’s not been the same for her this year without her friend Vonny. Feet have been the theme of the late summer but I wouldn’t mention them unless you have plenty of time. Her tomato patch was still ripening well into September and has been a success apart from a watering mix up with the neighbours when were away in Slovenia. Some fool left the hosepipe running for a couple of days!! We have limes, lemons and oranges all coming on the trees in the garden, the oranges which we will sadly miss but we should have some limes and lemons to take to Middleton.

The car has gone extremely well and we are very pleased with it. We hope it does the same going back to the UK as it did coming and all will be well. We have been using the motorbike quite a bit, indeed we used it for our trip to the mainland. It has also been a winner with the guests who have been out for a spin with me.

Not much else to say now apart from my apologies for not scribbling sooner and we hope we’ve not lost the small following we had.

I’ll do a return journey scribble when we get back to the UK and look forward to catching up with you all at some point over the coming months ‘Yamas’ Mr D

pictures from top are - Agia Triada Monastery in Meteora, Lake Bled and the church, Mrs D with Mick & Sue in the Vintnar Gorge near Bled, L&D looking down on lake Bohinj near Bled, Reg, Wendy, my mum and her sister Dot, my dad, Reg in October, Tom & Max, Sam & Aurora, Slim, sunset at Acharavi, beach near Acharavi and bonfire time in October.

Off again, times flying........

We're long back from our trip to Meteora, the sitting rooms finished and looks great, the toms are doing well and Slims' still hanging about. All these things, apart from Slim need a bit of a write up which I promoise I will do whem we get back from our next trip.

At 0545 tomorrow we head down to Corfu town and the 0700hrs ferry over the high seas to Venice. As you can imagine, Mrs D the seasoned sailor is beside herself with excitement......We will board the ship like a couple of refugees armed with food, drink, mats and sleeping bags for our trip up the Adriatic.

We are meeting our friends Mick and Sue, who are flying out from Leeds Bradford, in Venice at 1100hrs on Friday. Hopefully if it all comes together we are then heading east to the Julian Alps of Slovenia. We will be staying in a place called Bled near the Triglav national park. It looks wonderful so we will have to wait and see. This I guess will be another little scribble I will have to do on our return. I must get off now as we still have much to do before tomorrow so will hopefully be back in a couple of weeks to tempt you with some more travellers drivel before our autumnal string of guests start to arrive. Y'all keep in touch now....Yamas!!

The picture is in Meteora with St Nicholas Monastery in the background.