Arrival
After a two and a half hour transfer we arrive at our lovely apartment - the Eliza, just outside the pretty town of Skala. It's situated up a hill, amongst olive trees, bougainvilllea, peppers and hibiscus ovewrlooking the sea - perfect! We rush down to the nearest Taverna and at 11.30pm have no trouble ordering dinner. Kefalonia mear pie with lamb and rice for me and rabbit stifado for Annette. the house wine is cheerful... holiday mode begins...
Day 1 - Welcome to Kefalonia
I take a wander into to town and check out some car hire prices and pick up some breakfast. After a lazy coffee and croissant breakfast we go to our 'Olympic' holiday welcome meeting and book a car for six days and three excursions, one of which is duly cancelled two hours later. Today and tomorrow is the patron saint of the island's day St. Gerasimos, but unfortunately we won't be going. Still we relax by the pool after lunch. In the evening we catch an open-air flick the bizarre, 'XXX State of the nation.
Day 2 - Skala and St. Gerasimos
We spend a lazy morning sitting outside the apartment, followed by a nice salady lunch. We finally venture out to our local beach at Skala, which is fine. It's sandy with some shingle and the sea is quite clear. In the evening there is a band playing in the main square and the locals are out eating souvlakia kebabs and doing some traditional Greek dancing (not the Zorba!) We have dinner in a restaurant just off the main square, red snapper, which is a tad over-cooked and soak in the atmosphere.
Day 3 - Kaminia and Katelios
We manage to get up and out for the morning, although Skala beach is a bit windy. So after our salady lunch with our usual cucumbers and green peppers and enormous tomatoes from Lukia's garden, together with Tatziki, Taramasalata, salami and olives, washed down with a crisp 'Menousis' Robola white wine.
We pick up our hire car at five o'clock and head straight out of Skala to the nearby beach of Kaminia, which is actually only a five-minute-drive down the road. It's a beautiful secluded bay and clearer sea than Skala. At 7.30 we're back home for a shower and in the evening make the short ten- minute drive to Katelios, a small, pretty bay with three or four Tavernas - we pick one with fresh fish and have a very tasty meal and relaxing evening.
Day 4 - How much can you do in one day?
Today with our hire car we go a bit crazy! It's a ten o'clock start and our first stop is the wonderful Trapezaki beach, one of the few sandy beaches on the island, with this incredible turquoise sea. We spend a couple of hours here, before the mid-day sun catches up with us. We drive up into the mountains and have lunch outside the 'Robola' wine co-operative, before going in and checking it out. This is mainly a bottling plant and enoteca, most of the wine is white and suitable for drinking young, so there are no barrels hanging about. We listen to a guide, who just happens to be an English guy called Bill (from Yorkshire) and he tells us that their top wine is infact the 83rd best wine in the worl! Quite a claim. On further inspection we discover that it scored 83/100 in a magazine wine tasting. Still that's not bad!
We move on to St Gerasimos's monastery, the one we couldn't get to a few days ago. Like many buildings in Kefalonia, it's new as the old one was destroyed by the 1953 earthquake that devastated the island. The 'restored' old monastery nearby has the relics of the saint in a big silver casket which all the locals are kissing. It's a kind of shrine to the island. Having made good use of the middle of the day, we but some sweet, cakey things and drive on to Sami.
Sami is a buzzy harbour town, where the ferry from Italy docks, so there are many Italians staying here, with their cars. We drive through onto Antisamos, the beach where they filmed some scenes from 'Captain Corelli'. It looks stunning from the hillside and when we make our way down the hair pin curves, it doesn't disappoint. Tiny white pebbles and the purest azure blue sea. We spend a lovely afternoon here soaking up the sun and swimming in the delicious sea.
At this point we should probably have had dinner in Sami and gone home... Instead we take the one-hour drive to Argostoli, the capital, go for a very tired walk through the very disappointing Livostratho shopping precinct, lined with tacky souvenirs and end up at the 'Mythos' restaurant, recommended to us by a guy we met on the plane... the food turns out to be very good, although they try to charge us 5 euro for a bottle of San Pellegrino water. Scandalous!!!
Day 5 - Trapezaki and Poros
A very late start after yesterday's shenanigans and a return trip to the wonderful beach at Trapezaki for the afternoon and we check out the very quaint harbour at Poros. We enjoy a very tasty fish dinner and there is also a full moon and starry sky to give some atmosphere to the evening.
Day 6 - Assos and Myrtos
We're up nice and early band back on the road at 10.30 with our hire car for the two-hour drive up to the picturesque town of Assos. It's nestled on a promontory with a Venetian fortress built on the top. We stop for our packed lunch under some olive trees with a spectacular view over the harbour.
Afterwards we go for a wander and enjoy an iced coffee on the front. We then drive on to the most spectacular beach on the island, Myrtos. The views down from the cliffs are breathtaking and the drive down, hair raising! Like Antisamos the beach is made up of tiny white pebbles and some sand. The sea is this great cornflower blue colour, but not quite as clear as Antisamos. After a very hot afternoon we drive through some of the pretty northern villages that weren't so badly damaged by the earthquake and end up back in Antisamos and settle down in a very buzzy restaurant where there are some musicians playing traditional Greek songs. They are sitting at a fully-laden table and are joined during the evening by locals on various instruments who join in with them. The food is super too, making for a very special evening.
Day 7 - Avithos and Poros
After our mammoth day we take it easy, especially as it's Sunday. After lunch we find the little town where Byron stayed and found inspiration from. We also find a tiny beach at Avithos and I have a chat with a restaurant owner
