Crossing the Sea

 We have actually been off the island twice this month, once by car to visit an english friend over the waters and once by taxi boat where we went out to eat beside the sea, again with my dear friend.

  An aging expat left the island, returning to care in the homeland, and left behind many of her belongings, mostly clothes.  She generously agreed for them to be sold, at bargain prices, all organised by my hard working friend J, and proceeds go to the stray dogs.  There are fewer and fewer stray dogs thank goodness.  By law they should now all be chipped and J works relentlessly to find them good homes either here in Greece or elsewhere in Europe.  Any that are left are sterilised and looked after by J and a few other volunteers.

I was fortunate to 'inherit' some very nice tops and jackets.  Most of them are linen and I have been washing and ironing now for days.  Linen is cool in the summer but it does take a bit of ironing and creases easily.  Smart though.

Here are some photos from the car trip

Google has got all the photos back to front so we begin the journey at the end.

Coming back to Poros

The ferry boat worker stands on the front door ready to leap to land and haul a rope to tie to the bollard

We were the first car on this 'roll-on-roll-off' (as opposed to the other back-on-drive-off) car ferry

And this is the way we travelled.  With the door down, well slightly tilted up, and a front row seat of the sea voyage

Again, another photo from the front line

We had to wait inside the car in the boiling sun for 10 minutes before the ferry left.  Once it made open water we had a slight breeze.

K's temperature rose with the heat as we waited and he ended up tooting his horn twice when we were half a minute over departure time.  With me cringing in my seat and looking for a way out.

Here we are on J's terrace in the cool morning air.  We brought coffee with us from La Frianderie, just across from the ferry quay.  They have the best coffee in the whole county.  Accompanied by a cheese pie and a sesame roll for me.

J is very good at keeping K busy with small jobs so he doesn't have time to be bored.  Here he is fixing an old lamp while J and I natter away a mile a minute in English

The view from her balcony

Olive groves and the sea between Poros and the mainland

The little island at the entrance to Poros harbour

On it are the Venetian ruins of some sort of defense fortifications overseeing the passage

Underneath, so we've heard, are far more ancient remains