Waterside Festival

Every year, the grounds around Great Linford Manor house is the sight of The Waterside Festival, a free music festival with local acts from a school choir to a cheerleading group. The festival runs over a weekend, with two stages, kids games, bouncy castle and a few fun festival stalls in between.

Having gone to the festival last year, I wanted to have a stall this year, deciding to sell Mum’s pottery that she’s been working on the last few years. We also had cupcakes and greeting cards for sale as well.

We just did the stall on the Saturday, then on Sunday I helped out in the beer tent, was nice to be in a busy bar again. Weather was nicer on Sunday, Saturday was so windy but at least it didn’t rain. The stall wasn’t a big money spinner, we didn’t loose any money and if we did it again there wouldn’t be as many start up costs.

Waterside Festival

Volcano Day Trip

The second tour we took was to see the volcano, hot springs and Oia.

Santorini used to be a complete circle in shape, because of a massive eruption three thousand six hundred years ago, water flooded into the centre creating the group of islands that is known as Santorini, the largest, Thira island, resembles a crescent moon shape. The island of Thiraisa is still visible, near the top of the main island of Thira, with the volcano in the middle of the space between Thirsasia and Thira. The volcano last erupted in 1950 and has since laid dormant.

Our day trip started on a traditional style boat with a whole load of other people. First stop – the volcano. There were so many people on board that the tour leader did her speech in Greek, English and German. Entrance into the volcano area is two euros. We were given about an hour and half to wonder around the sight. Flip-flops are not the best foot wear to trample around a volcano island. The path was basically made of large black gravel; off the path were large black boulders and various sizes.

Next stop were the hot springs, which was more like a hot inlet, the boat couldn’t go right inside it. If you wanted to see the hot spring, you had to swim out. Smelled of sulphur and the water was really warm compared to the sea water right by the boat.

Lunch on Thirasia by the water in a large, open plan windmill place. Ordered the usual suspects, Greek salad, taziki and this time tomato balls that were so good with the salad and dip.

Back on the boat and towards Oia where we were dropped off with a whole load of other people who had opted for the Oia sunset tour. I took the donkey taxi up the steps to the town, an experience to say the least. The donkeys and mules are herded up the steps with passengers aboard and sent back down again to collect the next round. It’s a bumpy ride and you just sit there, the donkeys and mules know where they are going. There were a group of younger travelers in front of me, one of the girls cried the whole way up the steps, I’m not sure why she was so upset, the donkey was so docile and she was being lead by the herder. It just must be too much for some people.

With a few hours until sunset we had a time to chill out and wonder around the streets. We went right to the end and found a bar with a pool, and a view out into the caldera, the perfect place to relax in the sunshine. At over ten euros for a chocolate milkshake it wasn’t the cheapest of places, but we stayed there all afternoon and I used the pool as much as I wanted.

As the sun sank closer to the horizon, we left the pool bar and headed back towards the town. Choosing a rooftop to watch the remainder of the sunset with an ice cream. Looking back towards the buildings, people were sat, perched, stood anywhere they could to watch the sunset. After the event, it felt like a concert, as everyone was moving in the same direction, towards their return journey tour bus.

Volcano Day Trip

Santo Winery and Fira

The tour began in the early evening with a trip to Santo Winery which is on the other side of the island to Perissa and looks out on to the caldera where we sampled three of their wines as the sun set. The grape trees on Santorini aren’t cultivated in neat little rows, instead they are planted and grow very close to the ground. When it comes time to harvest the grapes, they are hand picked and collected in baskets carried by donkeys or mules. Sanorini also grows cherry tomatoes and pistachios.

After the winery we went to the capital of the island, Fira, for dinner and shopping. Had dinner on a very picturesque place in the cliff-side, over looking the ocean. I didn’t think the food was that special and was overpriced for what we ordered. I imagine we were paying for the location and the view. There were a couple of waiters serving us that evening, one of whom I think was in training. We ordered two mains to share, when the trainee brought them out, he placed the tomato pasta dish to the side and the second dish in front of us. The other waiter saw and started to shout things down, and he came down to switch the positions of the dishes. It really didn’t matter, and I felt a little bad for the trainee. They also forgot to bring out the taziki we ordered, and heard the commotion in the kitchen when we told the waiter we didn’t get the taziki. The bill paying was a little different to normal, we were sent inside the main building to a lady sitting at a desk surrounded with papers, notes, files. She totted up the bill and we gave her the money, her till was the bottom drawer in the desk.

Santorini is a stop on the cruise ship routes, we saw a couple in the harbor area. From the dock up to Fira, it is five hundred and sixty six steps if you wanted to walk. Alternatively, you can take a cable car or sit on a donkey up the steps. While we were having dinner I heard the donkey bells as a long train of donkeys were being herded back to the donkey station.

Perissa and Fira

Perissa, Santorini

Cheap, hot, good book and food, this is all I was looking for in a week away. Thanks to Debbie at Voyager Travel Direct I booked seven nights on Santorini in the Greek Isles, which fulfilled all my requirements. Staying in the resort of Perissa on the south east part of the island famous for it’s black beaches.

The island had a more mature feel, it wasn’t just about getting drunk which I would expect on an island such as Corfu. There were lots of couples holidaying together on the island, very few all girl/boy groups and even fewer groups with children.

There are two main roads in Perissa, one running right next to the beach and the other running parallel to that. Both roads had an abundance of restaurants/bars for you to patronise. After two or three days, there didn’t seem that much difference between the menus, all offering the same Greek dishes. So it was more of a choice of location and interior design with regard to which restaurant to eat at.

Greek salads come out with the feta cheese in one big slab on the top and one of my favourite things to eat on the island. Was introduced to taziki and moussaka. Taziki is a yogurt-based dip with cucumber and garlic. Moussaka is an aubergine layered, oven-baked dish.

As well as eateries, there were loads of dirt and motorbike rental shops, tour offices and twenty-four hour bakeries. Even in June the sun was so hot during the middle part of the day, can’t imagine how hot it must get in August.

Segovia

Madrid is at the centre of Spain and from here there are six main roads that lead from the city, point zero for these roads is in Plaza del Sol, marked by a plaque on the floor. On one of these six roads, we took a day trip, about an hour northwest of Madrid to Segovia, where Ester’s father is from.

There are three famous sites to see in Segovia, an aqueduct bridge (acueducro), a cathedral and a castle (alcazar, Segovia Palace).

The aqueduct was built by the Romans using no mortar, each block was custom carved and assembled together to create the grand structure that now remains. It's pretty impressive that they created arches and strong pillars that have lasted so long.

The cathedral is a cathedral, there were much less ornate looking churches that were prettier to look at in the village. Segovia Palace looked like the place a Spanish Harry Potter would have gone to school.

A local dish of Segovia is a piglet, split in half, placed on a stoneware platter and baked. We didn’t order this particular dish at lunch, instead opting for less grand, yet I am sure just as tasty platters of food.

A little nap in front of the castle where there was so much pollen from the surrounding trees that it looked like snow in the air and on the ground. I suspect this wouldn’t be good if you have hay fever.

Photos from our excursion to Segovia…

Segovia

Madrid

Went for a little trip across to Madrid to visit Ester and Fernando, two ski instructors that I met last season in Japan. They were wonderful hosts and took me all over the city, from each picturesque plaza to ham museums. Weather was a perfect temperature for walking out and about.

Hanging with a couple of locals was great as they introduced my to lots of little habits that are so Spanish. My favourite were the stops in a casual bar or ham museum which is more like a ham shop, for a plate of tapa and a ‘clara’ which is a small glass of half beer, half Fanta lemon, kind of like a shandy, but better.

Another favourite at breakfast, that I have continued since Madrid is eating olive oil and salt on toast, oh so good.

One of Fernando’s friends, also called Fernando, is a reporter on the bullfights, which happen every night in May. It was interesting hearing him talk, although I couldn’t understand a word apart from ‘toro’, I could tell he was passionate about a sport I know nothing about. From the snippets of conversation that Ester and Fernando translated for me, a bullfight is like a fight between life (the bull fighter) and death (the bull). After a successful fight, the bullfighter is carried out of the stadium and people try to grab the little tassels from his jacket which is very expensive. Fernando also mentioned that for him it was like a personal contraction, as he likes the bull but he also likes a bullfight. During each bull flight about six bulls are used and after are butchered and sold as meat. Not knowing the in’s and out’s of this sport it’s hard to comment on the event. Looking at it without really knowing the history and tradition it does appear to be a very violent sport that a lot of people seem to enjoy. In Japan, I would maybe compare bull fighting to whale and dolphin killing – I don’t understand it and the counter argument always seems to involve ‘it’s our tradition’ as a major comment.

We couldn’t get in to the bullring, but it is a very pretty building from the outside, when there aren’t bullfights going on, it is the venue for various concerts. 

Photo album from my time in the city...

Madrid