Skopelos is the “Mama Mia” island, the film was predominantly shot here. There’s a beach on the Western coast where they built the famous jetty, and the church scenes were filmed on a peninsula about 25km North of where we tendered to.
As a consequence we’re not going on a MM trail, but there’s lots to see and do anyway. It’s a tender port, I remember back to QE2 days in the eighties, they were referred to as “Limousines” which was actually a joke, given how less sophisticated the launches were - I even remember open topped, wooden craft for the transfer! These days things are much slicker, and we’re soon at the dock in the town.
We start by clambering uphill to the Pangothea which is a church stuck right on the hillside overlooking the harbour. Despite it being Sunday it’s locked, so no further report is possible. We venture uphill even more, past another tiny church, and onto the ancient Venetian Tower, part of which has seccumbed to the pressure of capitalist society and is now a white-washed café.
After all this we’re heading out of town and it’s suddenly very rural. I’ll have to post my map because it’s impossible to describe the twists and turns, better to just show our planned route. I boob later with a turning and we end up having to make a “correction” down a path that has probably not seen foot-fall for centuries. We battle brambles and all other creeping flora, some evil looking insects, and terrain suited only to donkeys, but finally meet the road we intended to be following.
Touching civilisation again for a while, we the head off past the local track & football stadium before again heading off into the hills, this time on the other side of the town. We follow the road around until we’re way beyond the bay and further from town than the ship, so we’re looking back at town and the bay. We go as far as a group of five villas perched on the hillside, before turning round to back-track around the harbour, locating the alleged oldest house in town on the way, which just looked like a single-story shed!
On the pier the brown Seabourn canopy signals our sanctuary and we’re greeting with chilled water, before being escorted into the onto the tender for the return journey.
A light lunch of pizza, Cæsar and rosé keeps us going for a while. We change into cossies then head down to five to (hopefully) settle into a pair of loungers. We’re in luck as so far not many have discovered the delights of five aft and it’s fairly quiet. We alternate between pool, jacuzzi and lounger whilst I struggle to get the photos from Piraeus uploaded.
Managed a great conversation with a lady from Quebec who was on Odyssey the same time as us four years ago, although I can’t honestly remember her. We both lament the loss of Restaurant 2, which was a fabulous tasting menu, now it’s The Grill which we’re going to tonight.
Monique was very well travelled so we were able to swap loads of stories of our adventures, particularly Chile where her husband has worked for some years. It was a great surprise when on emerging from the water her husband lifted her into a wheelchair - the swimming pool had been supporting her weight, not her legs.
I spent ages trying to upload photos to FB, still having done Saturday’s let alone started on Sunday. The signal was weak and after three failed attempts I gave up. We enjoyed sail away from deck five, rather than going up to the party on eight, and soon after it was time to head home to shower and dress for dinner.
Our aperitifs were taken at the Patio Bar, we were very surprised how quiet it was, and the Patio Grill had just two pairs of customers, then of course we realised - the football was on. In fact, tonight was supposed to be a formal night, but they moved it because of the bloody football!
As previously mentioned we then went to The Grill. Regular readers will remember I have very mixed opinions of this place, or more specifically about the whole concept of Seabourn aligning themselves with this “famous” chef (well, he is to Americans) called Thomas Keller. The menu here is the same every day, although they have a special each night. Stupidity tonight’s special was swordfish, which was in the Main Dining Room (MDR) last night, and I rejected it then.
It was surprising to see how many men had managed to dress for dinner, this was way above the usual percentage - was it because they were taking their wives out to the “posh place” or just because they’d failed to grasp the fact that formal had been moved?
Our Grill experience was much better than on previous occasions, or maybe I’m just mellowing as I age, we enjoyed clam chowder, lamb ribs and coconut cake for him and crab cake, rib-eye and lemon meringue for me, plus I got the lamb ribs to knaw on too!
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