Jean and Allen arrive...

St. Andrews Church, Patras.

 Just a short blog this week and late again I know. We have spent much of the week converting our compact little boat into somewhere big enough to accommodate our guests for the next fortnight and as anyone who knows Sandra will have guessed cleaning Lesanda to within an inch of her life.  It wouldn't do to let someone find a fingerprint somewhere vital!

Chilling

On Wednesday we went to Patras to stay overnight ready for picking up Allen and Jean from their flight from Pathos Cyprus to Araxos airport which is about twenty miles the other side of Patras.

The Airports location is certainly not somewhere you would stumble across unless you knew where to look, it is in the most agricultural region of Greece I have yet come across with miles of flat fertile land.  We saw hundreds of migrant workers harvesting water melons, potatoes and pumpkins by the articulated wagon load.  Most of the workers seem to be of Asian decent which doesn't surprise me at all it looked very hard work in forty degrees of heat and high humidity, not for the feint hearted and certainly not for the average Greek male!!

Main square Patras.

On route to Patras we called in at Messalonghi to have a look at the marina facilities there just in case we happen to want to stay whilst we are passing on our travels next year.  We got prices etc. for our boat and had a good look around, I think it would be somewhere we would consider as it's not too far out of the local town as we had been led to believe.

I can recommend the hotel we stayed at, Airotel Patras Smart.  Very modern comfortable and right on the sea front, with breakfast the room cost was €55, we were more than happy with it.

We thought while we were in Patras that we ought to have a look at Patras Marina which is located in the heart of the city so we set off walking down the quay side.  Two and a half miles later we got there, bearing in mind this is in forty degrees of heat, nevertheless we walked all the way back again although Sanny was looking all in by the time we got back.  Another walk out into the city centre for a meal in evening of around two miles round trip really made her day...NOT.  Especially when the Chinese restaurant we had been recommended was on half day closing as was the rest of the shopping centre which for once we actually needed as Sandra had broken her shoe.  So if you are thinking of visiting Patras don't do it on a Wednesday.

Anyway we picked up the other Yorkshire reprobates at the airport on Thursday afternoon and returned to sunny Lefkada where it was a positivity chilly thirty six degrees cool.

Hopefully more about our guests next week when we will be out and about on the high seas.