The night was not great, though it was peaceful. I’m sure we have docked much earlier in Igoumenitsa than the 09.30 time, we docked today. I remember being there in the dark in the past.
From there it is 5 hours to Patra.
The bag of nibbles and fruit worked a treat… saved us a shed load of money. But as for the 5 cans of 0beer I hunted for, worried about, carted onto the boat … only one got drunk! So we carried 4 off the boat and back to the car.
H was a little angel- I managed to get her to wee at about 05.00 when we sneaked out and she gave the pool deck a good soaking. And laid what appeared to be one of those prunes!
During the cruise we wandered a little bit, I did battle with the internet which did not cooperate in any of the usual places. We may have slept, we played a silly word game or two. And T repacked and rerepacked our few possessions, and some belonging to the boat too.
Toilet rolls and a towel. I had already removed one towel, I was quite shocked to find a late addition when I was sorting the car out a bit.
Lady Luck was kind to us after we were evicted from our cabin, one hour short of Patra. We sat on deck 10, the pool deck, because that’s the only place you can go with a dog. Did I mention our car was on deck 2? That is quite a long way down from deck 10. And we contemplated the 8 flights of stairs. The lift is normally stuffed full of the lazier or incapacitated hordes.
We struck very lucky. The lifts down to the lower floors are normally not available ( or the lower floors are not available) until such time as some member of the crew presses the G2 button and opens up the system. And then the lifts are full of people like us who can’t be bothered to walk down the 8 flights of stairs. Or who go so slowly (me) they hold up half the ship.
But today we entered the lift on deck 10 and I pressed 2, and that is where we ended up. Just as the announcer was telling everyone they could go to their cars. Bingo!
Up the ramp and off we went straight out of Patra. Every traffic light brought some child begging, and the third light brought a mother and child. It is dangerous to do this, and although I may feel sorry for their situation, which is probably not great, we keep our windows shut. We know of someone who was robbed at one of these lights.
The Olympic Highway which runs to Athens is a well engineered motorway with plenty of tolls. The views across the Gulf of Corinth to the North, and across cliffs and mountains of the Péloponnèse to the south, are amazing.
At some of these toll booths are real people who take actual money and then give you a paper receipt. Quaint! T had fun with the money. His sight is not good enough to see it or count it out. It’s always silly amounts like €2.30. So I was trying to drive and sort the euros.
We stopped for about an hour to allow H time to sort out her gunged up waste systems which she dutifully did. And then she found a cool spot amongst a flowerbed of roses to relax. We also fuelled up and had a drink, or two in T’s case.
The rest of the journey to Piraeus was almost entirely smooth. Well, almost entirely. I am used to approaching the embarkation gates from a different direction – from Tina’s house to the north east. So I was unfamiliar with the roads. And I could not remember the number of the gate.
However being superwoman, I recognised it without difficulty from the opposite direction and swung into it. I could see the boat and all. But it was not all, because the gates (there were actually two of them) were shut tight.
T was blathering in my ear not understanding the situation ( that made a change) and I was wondering how to join the traffic that I could see was heading for the boat.
We drove further along the port road, taking our lives in our hands, until we came to a gate for the Cycladic Islands which do not include Crete. I ignored that minor fact and entered. The signs were unhelpful but a kind man was the opposite. He told us how to get to the boat – we were in the correct place.
We later discovered that as a result of Covid, logically, (ha ha) the embarkation gates had changed. It’s E2 or E3 now. Not that I could remember how the original gate was labelled anyway. But I jolly well knew where it was.
A girl in the ticket van, whose face was so heavily made up that it cracked, issued our tickets. They were wrong as the old car registration was on them. She said it didn’t matter, and she was right, it did not seem to matter. Queuing to embark was minimal (unusual) . I sorted minimal items to carry aboard, to match the queuing.
Unlike the boat from Italy, this one was very clean, adhering to mask wearing in public places. Not easy to do that if you are eating a meal! Our cabin is spacious with a fridge and TV. We shook ourselves down and offered H toilet opportunities. Not that she accepted them. She’s saving herself for Crete.
Some travellers we were talking to as we approached Patra, earlier, told us that the Italy -Greece boat was swamped with passengers all summer.
And we sailed … and arrived at Chania on schedule.
Thought for the Day
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