Kefalonia, Greece (Part one)

 After a couple of weeks sightseeing in London our family was off to Kefalonia to enjoy sun, relaxation and some family bonding.  Since the two halves of our family live on opposite sides of the world time spent together is precious and it was a good opportunity for my four grandchildren to get to know each other well. I chose Kefalonia for two reasons, firstly you can get direct flights to the island from Gatwick and, secondly, it is not as over run with tourists as some of the other islands.

We had an interesting start to the holiday when our flight's take off was delayed for four hours with everyone already boarded.  The delay was due to the aircraft missing it's allotted slot for take off but I have to say that Easy Jet went out of their way to make the long wait as pleasant as possible, including handing out free snacks and drinks and inviting passengers to view the flight deck, a rare treat these days.

The delay meant that instead of arriving late afternoon we arrived at our accommodation in the dark and quite late.  The trip from the airport through the small town of Lassi was exciting, though, as all the restaurants and shops were lit up and buzzing, we were looking forward to exploring them.

Our first view of Oskars

Our accommodation was at Oskars, a small family run hotel about two kilometres down the hill from Lassi.  The owners were aware of our delayed flights and were ready to greet us with refreshing lemon drinks and a chef ready to cook us a meal.  By the time we had eaten it was mid night and the children, well to be honest all of us, were exhausted so off to bed feeling excited for the week ahead.

The view from my room in the morning

It is always a bit of a thrill to wake up the next morning after arriving in the dark.  For the first time you can get to see your view and your surroundings and we were very happy with what we saw.  My room was on the third floor of a small hotel block with spectacular views out over the sea, my sons and their families had large, adjoining apartments with a shady outdoor terrace at ground level and, of course the children couldn't wait to get into the swimming pool. 

Our first view of Argostoli on our walk to the supermarket
You can see the world's longest stone bridge 

But first things first, we needed supplies, our accommodation had kitchen facilities and we needed to buy food.  The largest town on the island is Argostoli and our guide book said it was an easy walk up over the hill behind the hotel. Um, yes, maybe easy if it wasn't so steep and the sun wasn't so hot! Anyway several of us adults set off while one stayed behind to mind the children. Despite the heat we enjoyed the walk, taking in the views, the scent of the trees and flowers, the sound of the birds etc and finally found the supermarket we were looking for.  Piled high with supplies we took a taxi back to Oskars happy to be organised and looking forward to relaxing and enjoying our holiday.