Zakynthos (Part 2).........

 
Saturday 

All the others wanted to go into Zante and ordered a taxi. It's another hot day so Hubby suggested we stay behind and go for a walk locally. We were only heading into Alykanas (less than two miles I think) but we had only got to this beech (15 minutes walking) and I suggested a cold drink stop. We were served by one of last night's Greek dancers. 

Sadly for Hubby we didn't get much further after that as Hubby didn't want the heat to kill me off. It's about 28°C - 29°C so not awful by other's tolerances but my ankles are painful balloons. So a quick stop at a supermarket and back. Discovered tasty oregano flavoured crisps

Back at The Clio to cool off and have some lunch. While Hubby was watching sport on the restaurant tv I got curious and went back through my blog and realised that it's actually our fourth holiday here. 

We had our evening meal at The Clio so they could all be set up in front of the football, England v Ukraine which ended in a 1:1 draw. 

Gradually they all drifted off to bed and Hubby and I stayed up to keep K company as he was watching the rugby England v Argentina which was an England win 27:10.

There was some good oldies playing on the background sound system so I messaged the girls to say "you've all left me singing alone", but nobody got out of bed to join me. 

Sunday

Usual lazy morning, some were sunbathing round the pool (not me) then all walked down to the beach bar (avoiding all the tiny lizards)

for lunch and served by our lovely dancer again. When we came years ago we got friendly with a young beach waiter we nicknamed Muscles, he used us to improve his English, and we'd heard he still lives here and which bar he now works in, so we walked that way to say hello but he wasn't around.

A lovely meal that evening out then all back to the Clio for quiz night, daft, funny, entertaining and our team actually came second (well we were the biggest team). The prize was a meal discount voucher which we gave to L&K as they have already rebooked for May '24 coming with their Daughter, partner and grandson. 

We all headed up to bed at midnight. You know those hotel room activation switches where you put your room key in to switch the lights and sockets on? 

Well the lights went on then a minute later the lights went off, Hubby jiggled the key they came on then went off again and this continued for some time. Hubby went back down and found barmaid Lisa who came up and looked, jiggled the key and it did the same for her, then she removed the air con fuse from the fuse box in case it was that then jiggled the key some more but that made no difference either. She then went to consult Fotis the boss who said it would have to wait till morning and Lisa offered to find us a lamp or torch to get us through the night. While she was looking for torches Hubby had another jiggle or two and discovered a one cent coin lodged in the slot (the key fobs are magnetic and collect what's in your pocket) so he found Lisa and obtained a screw driver and fixed it. We got into bed just after 1am.

Monday

And today Hubby thought it apt to wear this t-shirt 

FriendsL&K had bought him this quite some time ago because of what he does for them, mostly IT, and it amused him. It also really amused barmaid Lisa when she saw it. 

Tuesday

Sadly our last day, however we didn't need to leave the Clio till 5.30pm and Fotis kindly said we could keep two of our four rooms so we shared for more comfortable last minute refreshing. 

I took some last pics of the view from our balcony

We all had a last lunch at the Clio and Fotis gave us all hugs (after we'd paid our bills) to say goodbye as he needed to go out. Later it was Leo that drove us to the airport. 

Hubby and I only had cabin bags so while the others had to queue for luggage checking in we whizzed through to the departure gates area and managed to save enough seats for us all. 

The usual delays of course, our plane was an hour late arriving then we were late boarding and taking off. We were still the expected three hours in the air and while we were up there we watched an electric storm going on a little to the side of us, it was amazing. Landing caused a problem as we couldn't pull up to a walk tunnel so had to stop on tarmac and walk quite a way in the rain then up some random spiral staircase before the long treck to passport control. We said our goodbyes to our friends at the baggage claim carousel and got the bus to the long stay car park. It managed to get a bit tougher still when a chunk of the M25 was closed and we had to take a very long diversion which unfortunately put us out into the ULEZ territory so £12.50 to pay.  We finally got home at 1.45am Wednesday. 

And it was lovely to sleep in our own bed! Home again!

Up normal ish time, unpacked, washing done (four loads) everything put away. Daughter popped in, out with friends Wednesday night as usual and quiz Thursday night and big Tesco shop on Friday so our holiday is now all in photos and stories. 

And a final little historic note for me. 25 years ago I bought my first mobile phone and decided on Pay-as-you-go tariff with Vodafone which, obviously with updated handsets as needed, I've stayed with ever since. This week I've now changed to a SIM only monthly tariff and found Lebara the best for me, which in fact still belongs to Vodafone. Shame there's not a loyalty bonus scheme eh? 

Hope you have a good week, I'll be here next Saturday, take care.

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