We kicked off the 3-day journey back to deliver our multivan safely to Germany, with a splendid but simple meal at our favourite taverna before boarding ferry number 1 destined for Pireus. After a very rattly and bumpy night in an overheated cabin, it was great to hop back into the bus in the morning and go sightseeing before the next ferry. We went down to Isthmia, the entry to the Corinth canal from the Aegean. It is very pretty and very quiet down there, specially first thing in the morning. We headed just north of Patras to admire the Rion-Antirion bridge linking the Peleponese to the Greek mainland. And then we explored the ruins of the impressive Patras castle, its fragrant gardens full of cherry-pink and white blossom, and its wonderful wide views over the town and to the sea.
The next leg of the journey was a very comfortable 25 hour ferry-ride to Ancona where we were the fifth last vehicle to disembark, crawling out from the furthest corner of the very lowest vehicle deck, at about 5pm. Further crawling took place on the Italian motorways beset by accidents and busy with traffic at the end of Italy’s Easter holidays. After a few hours stuck in traffic we dived off the motorway somewhere near Ravenna to a very popular local Italian trattoria which was everything you expect an Italian trattoria to be. I had the most delicious dish involving fried wedges of polenta (crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle) served in a lake of wonderful cheese sauce, with wild mushrooms. Heaven on a plate and a few inches on my hips, but so worth it!
Back at home we waved a very sad farewell to our beloved multivan. It served us so well during all of the preparation and moving phases, carrying hundreds of loads of goods and chattles all boxed up, from house to storage in Berghofen, from storage to fleamarket, from fleamarket to charity, from storage to the flat in Landshut, to the new storage, to the boat… It took us to Greece and back (twice), and several times to Switzerland and Austria. Noticing its distinctive hail damage provided (mostly male) passers-by with a great deal of satisfaction and either disbelief, or glee. And in Kos town it became something of a celebrity vehicle. It never made it to Scotland though. Ach weil, I tell myself the multivan was our trusty workhorse for stages 1 and 2, and now we are nearly at sailing stage it will be Opua’s turn to take that role on.
It was a bonus to be able to spend time with the family and catch up with some local friends during our mini-break in Germany. It did feel a bit weird to me (but not to Ralph) to be back so soon though. On reflection I suppose it is because we had not been away long enough to really get established in our new life - even though the 6 weeks in Kos were quite intense and felt longer. So I am looking forward to the next phase in which sailing and living on Opua will really start to feel like our real life.
In our eighth week we have done quite a lot of fine-tuning of our storage on the boat to make it look less like a warehouse and more like a home, as well as replacing some plumbing to address the blocked sink (it’s not all glamour you know) and some testing of systems on the boat and checking the sails, to make sure we can set off as planned in week 9 on our first small trips. We happily anticipate the visit from our Scottish niece who, weather permitting, will accompany us on our maiden sailing voyage.
So while we head off into the blue yonder I hope that this dull rainy weather in northern Europe lifts very soon and some warmth and sunshine return to light up the late spring. And in Kos I am asking for lovely light southerly winds to speed us on our way. My mother used to sing a beautiful lullaby “blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly; blow bonny breeze my lover to me.” I don’t want the breeze to bring any lovers but if it can blow us very gently to the next island I would feel blessed.
Translated to German with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) - with some tweaks
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