We are in that "end of holiday" mode when you feel tense about all kinds of things like getting up in time to catch our plane, making our flight connections, and things that we have to do when we get home. We leave Kastraki early as we have a 5 hour drive to Athens. As it is close to lunch we decide to take a detour off the main road. We arrive at what we think should be a nice seaside town, instead it is a port with a huge, dirty refinery of some kind with smoking chimneys; not the kind of place for lunch so we head back to the main road and consider eating at a service center but as this is our last day we want something nicer so we turn off at the next town Thiva. We have to drive through the whole city to the downtown before we find restaurants that look ok. This must be a university town as the restaurants all seem to be bars. We finally find a nice spot and have a our last lunch. You can tell this is not a tourist area. The Peloponnese is not touristy either but it is a much nicer part of Greece.
I have booked Peri's Hotel from Trip Advisor comments that this is a nicer choice than the more expensive airport hotels. I know it is a small family hotel and that it is located in a residential part of a village. We wonder what we are in for when the GPS says turn right on unpaved road and we drive down a dusty lane then turn onto another but we see a nice looking building at the end of this country lane. Yes it's Peri's and the owner shakes our hands enthusiastically. The place is very small but spotless and our room has a queen bed which makes us happy even if it is super firm. Thrifty comes to get our rental car so we walk towards the town center where there are sea front restaurants. It's a long walk and when we spot a grocery store we buy some snacks and fruit and head back to our room. We're both tired of restaurants and dine on our balcony overlooking a field, some houses in various states of repair, and a distant view of the sea. We chat with our neighbours who are going back to New Zealand tomorrow. They were on the island of Crete on a walking tour. The wife is 69 and did 2 all-day hikes through gorges in the heat! She is good stuff! Interesting to hear how other travellers experience a country.
I go down to the desk to use the hotel computer to print my boarding passes and the clerk says "gotta run to the airport; you use my computer" so there I am at the front desk taking inquires from other guests who think I work there. You gotta love Greece!
We spend our last evening on our balcony with the planes flying over us knowing we'll be on one of them tomorrow winging our back to Canada! While it's great to be away it's even better to come home!!
Our Greek Adventure is coming to a close!
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