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Myrina quay from the Kastro I left you last time when we had just moored on Myrina town quay. Myrina is definitely a town and not a village. There is a new town quay for visiting yachts and the lifeboat, and the much older, smaller fishing harbour, that is surrounded by tavernas and next to a sandy bathing beach. Old fishing harbour, Myrina We walked from the harbour into a narrow pedestrian street, covered above by a pergola with climbing plants providing shade. Absolutely d

or "Towards the Eastern Sporades " When anyone mentions the ‘Sporades’, most people, like me, think of the islands of Skiathos and Skopolos, in the north-west Aegean. I would certainly have failed a pub quiz if asked to which island chain Lesbos and Samos belonged. But, dear reader, they are also the Sporades, albeit the named “Eastern Sporades”. [ Ed, ‘sporades’ in Greek means “those scattered”. It basically referred to all the islands that were not in the Cyclades ] That me

Our original intention had to be to explore anchorages around the first and second fingers of Khalkidhiki. The third finger, Mount Athos, is a holy region with a large number of monasteries. Devout male worshippers can book to stay on retreat at the monasteries, but it needs to be booked six months in advance, and you are not allowed to anchor off the peninsula. Women are not allowed within 1NM of the entire land mass. Long weekend to Thessaloniki However, the more I research

It was my first time to Thessaloniki. But my father, Walter, reminded me that I was not the first in our family to have been there! My great uncle (my Grandma Crooks' brother), Walter Chambers, had served in the British Army there during WWI. He had been overseeing building of new roads in Greece, some of which, ironically, would be used by the Nazis a few years later. I suppose that my great uncle was in the British Salonika Force (BSF), that formed part of an Allied front

Those of a devout nature should probably stop reading now. My blog today draws on scenes from Father Ted and Monty Python. Again, if you are not very familiar with these comedies, then it’s probably not worth continuing. Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack, and the inimitable Mrs Doyle with her teapot, live together in a rambling house on Craggy Island. Who can forget Ted sitting at the window holding up small toy cows to Dougal saying, “ OK, one last time – these are small, but the