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Sunday Day 8

Where did that week go ?

Having spoken to Mike and Sue earlier in the week, they did tell me it was possible to walk to Marble Beach on the lower road, I mentioned that the mountain was wider at the bottom and would probably take longer, they said it would take around 1 hr 45 mins both ways to do it. They had such fantastic pictures of it, I had to do it lol

So with a litre of water, money, phone and camera I was all set, Mrs Db made here way to the beach as it was another lovely day.

anyway, I took the same route passed the castle looking place, as before


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so same views to begin with
But at this point, instead of going up on the right I was going to continue on this lower road


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Buses don't come this way but the odd car can, also those quad bikes etc, to me it would be like travelling x miles down the worst driveway lol


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so here we are approaching Blue Bay, a cove beyond Golden beach which you could get to
but I continued along the road


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always having a peek over the edge at the scenery


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Last year I scambled around that bungalow at the bottom of the picture below lol


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Golden Beach now in the distance


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The road onwards was curving around to the next bay


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still quite high up


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and not a great road, now can I get around that with getting a bootie lol


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I was going to have to walk right around that peninsular with what I thought was a goat farm on it


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below the sea is nice blue colour


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ah, here's the goat farm


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and going down the side I get my first glimpse of that secluded bay


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but I kid you not a long long way down


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but at last I was getting there, I had to come off the main pathway to get down here, so would not be seen easily


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there is a small car park


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but here comes the bay


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just seems to be local people on the beach


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It has taken me 80 minutes to walk to it

there are absolutely no facilities here, only what you carry with you


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a nice little bay


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at the back seemed to be an unfinished hotel or house. A later conversation with a local told me it was the dream of the lady multimillionaire and co owner of Swissair who at the age of 60, married a 23 year old Greek. The lady has since died and the Greek husband who is a millionaire has since remarried and has a family, the house remains unfinished for four years now


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but it's now time for me to move on


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a lot further down the road, I was approaching the quarry that stopped me getting down to Marble Beach


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The place was strange, as Micheal Barriemore would have said, "It's all white"


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This is apparently one of the most desired snow white marble

and there were blocks of it lol


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At this time I wasn't sure if it was shipped out from here but found out later

it was so bright, I couldn't even see what I was taking in the view box of the camera


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I walked on and came to a beach which had sand and a covering of marble dust, it had a few people on it, it couldn't be the marble beach could it?


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I spoke to a person on the beach, who turned out to be a Russian but we couldn't understand one another, but I assumed it wasn't the well known Marble Beach that had been talked about, so I walked on


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but it was now appearing in view


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the sea looked nice a blue and the beach looked white

It was packed with people


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It's apparently very popular amongst the Eastern Europeans

above it looked very attractive but the car park was packed with cars too


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so lets have a closer look, the back part is quite marbley and stoney


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The end of it is like mini rounded bits of marble obviously shaped by the sea

but the middle bit turns to white sand


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I can't say that it over excites me, there are no facilities here and I was hoping to change the rest of my warm water for a bottle of cold, no chance lol


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so it was now time to head back to Mrs Db with the best view of it above from a distance, it had taken me 1 hr 55 minutes to walk to it and I had the same journey to walk back


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Higher above, I recognised the blocks cut in the cliff face that I had photographed before, I had been that close to Marble Beach lol


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The Russians were having fun, cutting a ridge to let the puddle out but it was getting wider quick lol


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This guy had covered himself in white marble dust for a photo shoot lol


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Then it was the long walk back to Mrs Db and rationing my warm water to last lol


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It had taken me 3 hours 31 minutes to do the walk with the small stops, so Mike and Sue were spot on, I drunk the last bit of water and bought an ice cold bottle at the firat kiosk in Golden beach.

Lunchtime, we when to Playa D' Doro and had another of their cheese pies with honey and sesame seeds and a salad, yummy and of course cold large beers


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The afternoon was on the beach, "massage sir?, you look like death" lol


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This evening we were going to The Captains


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We had eggplant stuffed with cheese, more like drowned, good choice Gromit lol


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I had chicken with bacon and cheese, good choice Gromit


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Mrs Db had Port fillet with bacon and cheese, it looks like mine lol


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They do do fish dishes as well lol


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oh there is no cheese cake for pudding lol, is Mrs Db looking a bit cheesed off ?


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Another nice day finishes and time for a coffee on the balcony


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Monday Day 9

As Golden Beach doesn't have a sunset, I thought I would get up early and get a sunrise which was 6am Greek time (4am in the UK)


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George from the Anastasia was already there raking his piece of beach lol


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everything is quiet and not a towel on the beach


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even the mountains glow orange


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oh another one of those butterflies on the dunes


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then after breakfast, a simple day on the the beach really


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followed by a pint in Finikas


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followed by a omelette for Mrs Db


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and as I have been starved of my cheese this holiday, had a jacket potato with a little cheese on top lol


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with free melon to finish, got this before Mrs Db dived in


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tomorrow we are going into Thasso Town, which is a bus ride and costs 2€'s each way, you have to buy your tickets at the supermarkets and both the big two sold them in Golden Beach, you buy two more tickets which act as returns as well ( now the buses have ticket machines and you can buy on board)


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I also booked the Enavlion resto for this evening as it was very popular then it was back to the beach


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Now evening at the Enavlion

after the dips, we picked a shared starter of stuffed advocato


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Then hoping for a small meal, I went for the mountainous rib steak


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The marmalade and chutney sauce was delicious along with the steak


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Mrs Db had the chicken Souvlaki


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and you get given a free pudding each to finish with, which seems to change nightly


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another lovely evening at our favorite resto


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another day gone

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Tuesday Day 10

Today we are going to get the bus into Thassos Town, mainly to go to the Roman Amphitheatre. As said before you need to buy your tickets in the supermarket although some of the drivers may be kind and take your money. Tickets are 2€'s each and you buy a second ticket as a return, so 4 tickets for two of us

We were going to the designated bus stop opposite the supermarket next to the Enavlion Resto but were reassured by friends that the bus also stopped at the supermarket opposite the campsite, so that is where we got on, but wave the bus down, as there doesn't appear to be a marked bus stop there but it worked lol


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There are also various bus stops along the way to Skala Potamia including one at the Korina, once it reaches the end of Skala Potamia the bus heads for the village of Potamia itself in the mountainside in this photo


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The village is small with narrow streets not built for traffic and it takes a skilled driver to avoid scrapping the rooves but all in a days work for him but vans in the way have to move lol


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at the top of Potamia, there is a tourist sign for the mountain walk to ysapi, now I need to be fitter for that, so perhaps next year lol Then the bus goes on to Panagia before dropping down into Thassos town


Most people get off the bus at the taxi rank, which is local to the town centre and old habour, where we alighted, the bus then goes on to the bus station which is at the other end of town where the ferry boats come in


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near the end of the harbour we had choices but our choice was to bear right to the theatre


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Then up the steeper road lol


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and finally the stairs leading to the theatre


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It was hot and stairs cunning went it waves and disappearing around a corner


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making you think that you are nearing the top but you weren't lol


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I think I have every stair photograghed but I think you can get the drift lol


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I could imagine Anthony saying to Cleopatra we are putting on the production of the Lion King tonight dear and her saying I'll wait till it comes to town lol

finally at the top is a steep gravel path to climb


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at the top they are clearly rebuilding it and fitting new pieces of marble in


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It is said to be complete in December 2014

it's a strange feeling as surely the theatre wouldn't be completely Roman


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I can see the tourist attraction though, of concerts

if they run an escalator up to the top lol


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It's a bit like our National Heritage, saying Stone Henge needs rebuilding


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anyway I have the shots as it was and will be intrigued as to how it will look finished for the next Olympics lol

so lets have a look at the town from here


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we were jolly lucky at this point as the project manager said, will you please take your final photos please as we are going to start laser cutting

so we had more luck than those just arriving climbing those stairs.

How many steps are there, well Delboy started the count going down
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11

It's awfully hot Delboy, "what did you say dear?" it's awfully hot, "yes it is Dear", now was that eleven steps I was up to, or nine lol

and avoiding dementia moments like that I counted 134 lol


so there is the date of finish


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So it was now around passed the harbour to the headland and Thassos beach


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more of a grit sand with lots of restos providing sunbeds but quite compact


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so for us it was pick any resto for a cool beer and a menu, we picked a pizza and tomato salad to shared


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and ate them in these cool surroundings


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Then we had a walk to the end of the peninsular


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until we could walk no further


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and it was a walk back passed the town beach, the other side of the peninsular may have a beach, as we saw a village resort with one on the drop off coach but can't comment on it


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so it was around the harbour and back to the Town

passed a nice looking resto


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we must have picked the hottest day, as we walked though these bazaar shops


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we weren't actually buying anything but just getting a feel of the place


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and we eventually got back to the taxi rank and where the bus dropped us off


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Thassos Town is being redeveloped to bring the area up to date


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with walkways and roads being improved right down at the ferry port end, at this point Mrs Db had a cool drink and a rest whilst i had a look at the back of the town


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two Atm's together here, one where i'm standing and the other across the road


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Then it was a swift half for me lol


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must be autumn already here lol


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we then decided to walk to the ferry port, where we were far too early for the 4.30pm bus, so Mrs Db watched the ferries come in


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and that is how some of the marble gets taken across


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meanwhile delboy spots some more beaches at the far end


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all narrow beaches but grass banks behind


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one had a yachting club resto

and I think had some accommodation behind it


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well that's a very brief visit to Thasso Town to really sum up the place

now those hills are hiding something behind them and will need to go back to investigate that


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but for us this year it's the 4.30pm bus back to Golden Beach, you actually wait in a bus station or the resto next to it and the bus comes across from a garage area by the docks


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tonight we eat in Vigli's


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we had cheese pies shared as starter


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I had rib steak


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and Mrs Db had stifado


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their wine list


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another day over

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Wednesday Day 11

Mrs Db went on to the usual beach, whilst I set out to see what was behind Skala Potamia and was there a firebreak walk over that side also if I could get near the island with the church for a better photo shot,

so here I am at Potamia harbour


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nice tree in bloom walking up the hill


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so I followed the main road up


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but couldn't find anything off of the main road


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nice views over the bay from these villas


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even I can start to get views from this low down

and the village of Potamia itself in the mountains at the back


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and as I start to climb Skala Potamia beach below


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there's the target island in the distance


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a bay down below, around Thassos it is said they have some of the clearest waters

beyond this bay the peninsular was thick with trees and i couldn't see anymore of the island


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but I like being off the main road and found a track which I thought might be worth investigating


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I had no knowledge of where it would take me but it you look in the top middle of the photo, I was that close to the target but at that time, I was concentrating on where the pathway would go and didn't notice it lol


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the pathway lead down for a very long way and I became quite hopeful here spotting the sea


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I had walked down 100's of feet to find this nothing area


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apart from what appeared to be a goat's trail which had a wall to get down over, hoping I was not going to meet knasher the dog again, I got down it, well it's a long way to go down for nothing isn't it lol


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then over a second wall

through a deep undergrowth of trees, where i marked each path with crossed stick to find my way back, well I didnt have any white pebbles on an island full of marble lol


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and finally some light lol I had come out in this bay

and it was still along way down and the church wasn't view, so this was probably the view that only I, the goats and the Greek equivalent of the SAS had ever seen, so back to the main road lol


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so miles up the road I find a resto, well it would be rude not to lol


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and they had a view of the island but no church in view


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anyway, after looking a bit further up the road to see if I was missing anything else, it was time to go back down

and find the nearest vantage point


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and like all the other tourist's, zoom in on it lol


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not a great day for photo's, the heat seems to affect the camera focus


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on the way back to Mrs Db, I pass the only Atm in the whole of Skala Potamia, which I understand did run out at the latter end of our holiday


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and a walk into the Korina Hotel to have a look


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The Thomson's rep did say we could use the Marina Hotel's pool, as Thomson guests but nobody about to ask on the Korina pool


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so their pool area


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obviously can't tell you what the rooms are like but the look from the outside


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They seem to have a tennis/ netball courts


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I followed their road to the coast which looks like this and taking photo's on the way


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and it took me 5 minutes

one then comes out to a pebbly beach


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but only 50 metres to the left the sand starts


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back at the beach Mrs Db and I fancied a gyros, chicken, onions and chips and sauce wrapped up in pitta bread, so we tried

The Preluded resto transformed from a cafe to a resto this year, "do you do Gyros", I asked the waiter. "Only pork one's", he replied. "OK two of those with two large Beers please".


Right lol, these weren't the gyros's we were looking for and we had to eat tonight


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and free melon for afters


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the afternoon was spent on the beach


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evening came and tonight we were eating at Finikas

I had the Hawaii chicken


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loved it


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Mrs Db had pork and mushroom sauce


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followed by the free pudding to share


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and two free drinks for me lol


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and a litre of house red all for 24 €'s

and another day gone , holiday time is running away now


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Thursday Day 12

rather a funny day really, as Mike and Sue told me there was a quicker way to the top of the ridge, so I thought I would try and find it.

but ended up, below a bungalow in the hills with nowhere to go


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I then when back down and followed another path


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which lead up to an olive tree farm with a drop of a hundred feet below


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there I met two farmer's, the older guy didn't speak any English but the younger one understood the word 'Panagria' and said I needed to go up, and pointed me to another path


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This is where I discovered the waterpumping station for the whole of Golden Beach lol


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which lead me down a path that the Roman's last used


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which eventually turned into an impassable jungle and I hadn't brought a machete, however, a new butterfly to photograph which had landed and kept opening it's wings and closing, like now you see me now you don't grrr


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and each time I photographed it, it was now you don't


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I had six goes at it before it flew away lol

Lunchtime it was in Playa D' Oro where we had become addicted to their cheese pies and a Greek salad to share


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The afternoon and it was back on the beach


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Last year, Mrs Db was denied her Shirley Valentine chair at the Sotiris, when a huge storm ended it

so back to this year, we actually managed to get the same table


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menu


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I had the chicken with Roquefort sauce


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Mrs Db had the Lamb Kleftico


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wait a minute it's raining lol, grab the plates, I'll grab the wine

and it's all inside


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'DEJA VU', said the waiter when I mentioned it, but it stopped raining for us to walk back to the apartment


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Friday Day 13

Delboy was up early again to get the beach towels out lol

The island in the distance (the name eludes me at the mo) has now appeared at it's best all holiday


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The sun just coming up


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Love this time of morning, pity it's always early lol


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after breakfast I'm going up on the ridge to walk to Panagria by the route I know lol and that's up passed that castle looking place, by the way, they do have a dog but it can't get down to you lol


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the beach down below is getting into full flow for the day


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remember after the castle type place, it's the first left hand track going up into the mountain


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it goes on for a long way and continues to rise but any walker should manage it with no problems

The views just get better and better


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I can honestly say I have not been on a better walk


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if you do attempt it, take that bottle of water

I can even pick the harbour building up at the far end, unfortunately with a little heat haze


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The building above is at the far end of the bay on this picture


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so now on the ridge you can see the terrain it's still going up at this point


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zoomed in on some of the houses and apartments


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but how it looks for real


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looking back on the little harbour or Fisherman's Bay as it's called


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and down below


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the path continues towards Panagia


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beginning to leave Golden Beach and the valley can now been seen


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a bit more of the beach as we leave it


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Looking back, the path turns away behind and now points towards Panagia


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and we see Panagia for the first time nesting in the side of the mountain


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It's downhill all the way now


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I couldn't ever see me taking a quad bike up here lol


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a goat farm down below and I can hear a dog lol


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a new bird to me ?


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pathway still winding down, I think I approached it from the right direction its a long haul up that way


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There's the bright yellow bungalow


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and the pathway to the Dragon's cave, I could do it all again lol


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I saw that fence which bother me but you just untie and tie it up again, knasher was on the same side a me lol


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and it's down on the main road again, wait a minute whats this, please Mr goat herder can i take a picture


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he was sort of whistling and more came

and then more


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Then he indicated he was going to open the gate, do these things stampede ? well they have horns and I'm a Rowdie Yates here without a horse, so moved to the corner of the road out of the way lol

you just couldn't make this up could you lol


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no wonder the whole of the mountainside was clanging bells last week

I chuckled to myself all the way down the road to Mrs Db


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Lunchtime was spent at Finikas


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I had the club sandwich


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Mrs Db had another omelette


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the afternoon was on the beach

It wasn't Amity but Jaws had appeared on the beach lol


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It was evening and tonight Matthew we are are going to the Magic Coast


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We had the cheese balls as a shared starter


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Then I went for the lamb chops


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Mrs Db the Pork and apple sauce


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and a free shared pudding to finish


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OMG only one day left

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Saturday Day 14

It would be my last day here, not wanting to use the bus or anything and had enjoyed the walk so much yesterday, I decided to do it again lol, but this time before the sun came up, as I wondered if the light would make a different to the camera shots.

So up at 5.30am the sun hasn't risen yet and the dog is still asleep as I pass the castle place


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The 100 metres up the road taking the left turn up the mountain for the last time


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had I timed it right could I get a good way up before the sun strikes the mountainside


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yes its hitting the mountainside now


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I saw my first snake, a black and brown coloured one but it saw me first and slithered into the undergrowth before I could get it's picture, Hans did tell me some snakes are poisonous out here


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I do have a blurred picture of a goat that also scattered into the bushes, one wondered at that time whether it was the snakes mother coming out lol



I wondered if people would recognise their accommodation from up here


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this walk is so exhilarating


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and the views are stunning


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If you are reasonably fit I would recommend doing this walk but take some water and a phone as you are unlikely to meet anybody else walking up there


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Delboy stands tall lol


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trouble is it's difficult not to take hundreds of pictures lol


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Mrs Db sleeping peacefully down there almost in this shot lol


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coast


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The 5 star Alexander Boutique hotel where some of their rooms have their own little swimming pools in the back


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and now round to Panagria


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blimey Delboy's early this morning


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and back for breakfast at 7.45am


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so our final day is a beach day


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lunchtime was at Playa D' Oro

with that last cheese pie


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a last Greek Salad


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then back to that old beach again for the afternoon


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This evening I had booked a table at the Enavlion for our last meal


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We shared the stuffed mushrooms as a starter with bacon and cheese they were very nice


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for my last meal I had Fillet Porto, a fillet steak done in a port sauce it was the best lol


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Mrs Db had chicken rolls which she said was also delicious


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and of course a free pudding each


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Sunday Day 15

That dreaded day when holidays have to come to a end and the coach for 7.45am came at 8.00am


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where we had one more pick up and it was straight to the harbour for the waiting ferry


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And it was goodbye to Thassos


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might see you again next year then Delboy


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the ramps come down and the reps get ready to guide you to the coaches


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Then back on the same coach for the airport


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Now hands up who drank from the Kissing Fountain and who's just coming back anyway


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our coach was the first to arrive, so no big queuing problems like we had last year, bag drop off were in place and with the boarding passes the guy just used a ruler to rip them in half lol

However, our takeoff was delayed as the pilot had to go out and inspect whether the turning circles to get out was possible as the planes had been packed in to tight lol


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a very long wait at Gatwick to get the carousel number for our baggage but hope you enjoyed seeing our virtual holiday as much as we did doing it


over and out lol