Araxe

From our hotel, it was a 3-minute walk to the central plaza in Hora. We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant. It was such a charming place, shaded with trees. Unfortunately, the food and service were disappointing.

Rabbit Stifado with Potatoes—€9. This was a rabbit backbone which had been stewed. There wasn't much meat and the tomato sauce was flavorless.

Baked lamb with tomato & orzo--€9. This had the same tomato sauce as the rabbit dish. The lamb was tough and the dish was not flavorful.

Complimentary yogurt with honey. This was the best part of our lunch. The yogurt was thick and creamy and there was plenty of sweet honey to make it a nice dessert.

There was only 1 waiter and he was working very hard. Our lunch dragged out for nearly 2 hours and we only had 1 course.

2015 05 31

Wednesday Night Dinner

This week's Wednesday night dinner was pork chops and we couldn't resist. All this, plus a white wine and a red wine, for $18.95. The pours on the wines were unlimited.

Corn on the Cob, Spice-Brined Grilled Pork Chops with Sun-Dried Fruit Compote, Whipped Potatoes, Creamy Spinach with Homemade Sausage. This was the first time we had corn on the cob. It had a nice flavor from the grill. The pork chop was so tender and flavorful. I loved the creamed spinach and the sausage.

Farmhouse Soup--Lentil with Bacon.

Organic Green Salad--loved the fennel in the salad.

Homemade Bread & Butter

Chocolate Foldovers with Whipped Cream

2015 08 05

Meltemi, Hora, Folegandros

We booked a room at Meltemi for €30 for 1 night. It was in the center of the main town of Hora. I found the room on booking.com, which was a much better website than expedia for Greece. While we were sitting on our deck, we saw a French family with 2 teenage children walking from hotel to hotel looking for a room for the night. I was so thankful that was not us.

The hotel did not have breakfast but there was free wifi, a refrigerator and a hot plate. Best of all, we didn't need to vacate the room until 2 pm the following day, when we had to leave for the port.

That's our room on the right. Since we only had a scooter, we were able to park it just outside our room.

The room was clean and large and the bed was comfortable.

Our deck area.

2015 05 31

Motorbiking in Folegandros

Our next island was Folegandros. The ferry arrived in Karavostasis, on the eastern side of the island. There were just a handful of people who got off the ferry. No bus met the ferry so we walked up the hill toward town. Along the way, we found a motor bike rental and rented a 50 cc bike for €15/day. My husband drove the motor bike with his backpack between his legs and I sat behind him with my backpack on my back. It worked and we rode the 3 km to our hotel in town.

2015 05 31

On the Way to Athinios

We had an early ferry and left the hotel at 6:30 am. Breakfast wasn't served until 7:30 so we went in search of a bakery. Unfortunately, it was Sunday morning and nothing was open. We had a little time to kill so we drove to Gialos Beach.

At Gialos Beach, we found these openings in the caves. Not sure what they were.

Nearby was a beach.

At the port, we were instructed to find a parking space in the lot at the port. The lot was small but there was 1 spot left. If there was no space, we were supposed to ask the port police where to park. Thank goodness we found a spot because there was no port police that early in the morning. The rental agency told us to leave the keys under the floor mat. We were wary but we haven't been billed for the car so the rental agency must have been able to retrieve the car. 

When we arrived at the port, it was empty and we were worried that the ferry had been cancelled. Surprisingly, the ferry arrived on time at 9 am.

The NEL Aqua Spirit was a large ferry. There were comfortable airplane seats but you could walk around. Cost was €8 to Folegandros.

View of the port of Athinios as the ferry set sail.

2015 05 31

Fira

The capital of Santorini is Fira. It's not as pretty as Oia but it's pretty enough. There is a free parking lot in town.

Fira is perched on the caldera edge on the western side of the island.

There is a port in Fira. To get to the town on the cliff, you can walk, use donkeys or

take the cable car.

There are beautiful sunset views from Fira.

2015 05 30

Metaxi Mas

I had read about Metaxi Mas on TripAdvisor. It was one of the highest ranked restaurants in Santorini. We stopped by on our drive from Perissa to Kamari and tried to make a reservation but the only thing they had available was just 3 hours after our lunch. Plus, we had to finish our dinner within 1 1/2 hours because there were later reservations. We took it.

Metaxi Mas is located near Pyrgos. It's in Exo Gonia. Park at the church with the red roof and walk down the path to the restaurant.

We had an outdoor table with a beautiful view of the eastern side of the island. Complimentary bread, olives, cheese and raki were delivered to the table when we sat down.

Shrimp Saganaki—€8.50. What a great deal! Huge shrimp, big portion and delicious.

Grilled Octopus with Fava Beans—€12. This was delicious as well.

Complimentary Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream.

Complimentary Vin Santo.

The TripAdvisor reviews were right. This was one of the best meals we had in Greece. Next time, we will call ahead to make reservations.



2015 05 30