- An Exciting Journey Begins
- Touring Greece Without a Plan
- Day 1: Crete Arrival
- Day 2: It’s Windy in Palaiochora
- Day 3: Palaiochora Morning Exercise
- Day 4: Exploring South-Western Crete
- Day 5: Grammeno Beach Again
- Day 6: Finally the Wind Dies Down
- Day 7: Elafonissi Beach
- Day 8: Last Time at Grammeno Beach
- Day 9: Last Day in Palaiochora
- Day 10: Road Trip Across Crete
- Day 11: Preveli and Agia Galini
- Day 12: Phaistos and Matala
- Day 13: Gortyn, Heraklion and Sitia
- Day 15: Karpathos Arrival
- Day 16: Karpathos Beach Day
- Day 17: Karpathos Beach Day…Again
- Day 18: Ammopi Beach by Bus
- Day 19: Exploring Karpathos by Car
- Day 20: Rhodes Arrival
- Day 21: Exploring Rhodes Town
- Day 22: Rhodes Town Beach
- Day 23: Rhodes to Tilos
- Day 24: Cutting Tilos Short
- Day 25: Kos Town Beach Day
- Day 26: Kos Car Hire
- Day 27: Kos Beach Day Again
- Day 28: Kos Town Hotel Move
- Day 29: Why I’m Still on Kos
- Day 30: Ed Arrives on Kos
- Day 31: Boat Trip with Ed
- Day 32: Road Trip (with Ed!)
- Day 33: Ed Departs, I Remain
- Days 34-36: Nothing But The Pool
- Day 37: Back to Kos Town
- Days 38-41: Living Life in Kos Town
- Day 42: Visiting Tigaki
- Day 43: Moving Hotel Room
- Day 44: Moving Hotel Room Part 2
- Day 45: Last Gym Session on Kos
- Day 46: Kos Final Full Day
- Day 47: Kos to Amorgos
- Day 48: Amorgos to Naxos
- Day 49: Relaxing in Agia Anna / Plaka Beach
- Days 50-51: Agia Anna
- Day 52: Exploring Naxos by Car
- Day 53: Naxos to Ios
- Day 54: Exploring South Ios Magganari Beach
- Day 55: Ios Agia Theodoti Beach
- Day 56: Ios Chill Day
- Day 57: Ios Psathi Beach and Palaiokastro
- Day 58: Ios Last Full Day
- Day 59: Ios to Sikinos
- Day 60: Relaxing on Sikinos
- Day 61: Sikinos Sightseeing
- Day 62: Sikinos to Sifnos
- Day 63: Sifnos Cloudy First Day
- Day 64: More Clouds Over Sifnos
- Day 65: Sifnos Sunshine
- Day 66: Mum and Dad Arrive on Sifnos
- Day 67: Mum and Dad’s First Full Day on Sifnos
- Day 68: Bus Trip to Apollonia
- Day 69: Sun, Sand and Sea on Sifnos
- Day 70: Exploring Sifnos by Car
- Day 71: More Sifnos Sightseeing
- Day 72: Our Last Full Day
- Day 73: Homeward Bound
- Greek Odyssey 2021: Retrospective
Thursday 8th July 2021
Early Morning Vlogging
I woke bright and early just after 7 am and decided to take a stroll south around the headland, partly to explore the area but also to start recording content for my first YouTube video of the trip:
After a decent breakfast at the hotel, Mum and Dad left for the beach just after 9 am. I stayed at the hotel a bit longer to check out my recordings, then joined them around 10. Walking to the main beach from the hotel took about 10 minutes so it wasn’t far, but the temperatures in Greece were pretty high already – somewhere in the early 30’s Celsius – so you definitely noticed it when outside in the full sun.
Escaping the Breeze
What I hadn’t noticed until I reached the beach was how windy it was! Palaiochora main beach is quite wide and exposed so the sand was being blown around, making it quite unpleasant to sunbathe. We lasted until just before midday, then retreated to a beachfront taverna for an early lunch: Greek salad with bread and tzatziki, plus the obligatory beer!
Due to the high winds, we needed to come up with a plan for the afternoon as we’d intended to spend the day at the beach. We decided to use the car to see if there were other beaches nearby that offered more shelter from the breeze. That turned out to be Grammeno beach just a few kilometres west:
There are two beaches at Grammeno separated by a very small rocky patch. The smaller beach (the photo at the top of this post) was quite sheltered and not that busy when we arrived, so we grabbed the sunbeds closest to the rocks (for extra windshields) and had a nice afternoon sunbathing and swimming.
Dinner Time
We left Grammeno around 4 pm, driving back to the hotel for a shower and rest – sunbathing is hard work! Before dinner, we took a walk through the town, sticking mostly to the less windy eastern side. Fancying some Italian food, we ate at a taverna called Gusto Italiano. My starter, mushrooms à la crème, was delicious and the spicy pepperoni pizza was pretty good too!
To help digest our rather calorie-dense meal, we took another stroll south towards the old castle, stopping at an ice-cream stall because we clearly weren’t quite full yet!
