Hydra - Day 2

Breakfast was as late as 8:30, and was very good. On a covered courtyard we planned an easy day, which was to walk around part of the island. The forecast was for windy conditions, and rain around 3pm, but the first lot of rain came when we were just a short way along the coast. We sat in the empty beach-side (stone beach) cafe of a closed resort and watched two catamarans beetle into the bay beside us to avoid a short but quite fierce storm. It went almost as quickly as it came, and we kept walking along the shore, zigzagged up the hills on very rocky paths, saw a few closed and deserted-looking monasteries off to the sides, and then had to put spray jackets on for some light but steady rain. We had not expected small patches of mud on rocky trails on Hydra, but there they were, along with asses and horses in tiny yards and belled goats out on the steep hills. All up, just 8km, and tomorrow we will do the coast on the other side of the town.

Once back, we planned the next trip: cultural. We knew Charmian Clift and George Johnston (no relation) had lived here in the 1960s, but found their friends here included Leonard Cohen, who stayed longer, had his own house, and kept coming back. His children inherited and still visit the house.

The house was not on or even close to the port, as we expected, but we found it... just as another short storm hit. We sheltered under an eave (the cats were not amused) and then a massive white bougainvillea while the lightning and downpour continued. A lady opened the door of the house across the alley (ie 1.5m away), saw us, and invited us in, and when we did not go in, brought her two children (c. 8 and 10) to look at us. Probably a while since they had seen idiots. We bolted when the rain slowed, but the disadvantage of flagstone-sealed alleys, with roof drains emptying into them, is that they become white-water rafting courses. We sat under an awning, on someone's steps, and waited until the torrent slowed and it looked like the storm had passed. We were skipping puddles on the way down when a man pointed westwards and said the heavy rain was about to start again, so we spent another 15 minutes sharing the porch of a closed restaurant with a bored cat, waiting for a break. We might have looked for the Clift-Johnston house, but we talked for a while with two puddle-wary Canadians, and by then it was getting dark.

We ventured out (with umbrellas) around 6:45 for dinner, having had a revelation: we saw the house next to Leonard Cohen's, so we have to go back tomorrow. Proving we weren't complete fools (no comments, Alistair), we saw a street name when we went around the port looking for a restaurant that was on the way to Charmian Clift's house, and in two minutes we had found it. Unknowingly, we had walked past it the night before. And Leonard Cohen was reportedly often there...

We went to a less rural restaurant for potato salad, Greek salad and pappadella with chicken and mushrooms...but wow! And fantastic bread, olives and olive oil.

21,433 steps, 15.8 km and 25 floors. The floors has to be wrong: the walk involved a 300m hill, and we started at sea-level!Lue lisää