Day 3, Water taxi to Skiathos town

We made our way down to breakfast just after eight o'clock and, as was the case yesterday, only a couple of other guests on show... where is everyone? We thought we'd be a little more adventurous today so after breakfast we head down to the beach to catch a ride on the water taxi into Skiathos town. It turns up right on time and it's a pleasant ten minute or so journey across the mirror like bay, and at the bargainous price of only €4 each. It also affords us excellent photo opportunities looking back at the multi-level hotel with its adjacent beaches and then the scenic Skiathos harbour with

its many and varied waterside cafes, restaurants and shops.

It is sweltering in town and after chatting to a couple of the boat trip operators we wander around the narrow streets searching out shade where we can. There are some really nice shops here, as well as some obligatory tacky gift shops too. We quite enjoy our little bit of retail therapy, getting a few presents to take home, with Elaine finding herself a lovely little black & white striped beach wrap and I manage to locate for myself the must have beach accessory... a subtle pair of bright pink swimmers, there's absolutely no way she's gonna lose me on the beach in this understated bit of kit...!!!

Now we'd taken our time exploring Skiathos this morning and before we knew it lunch time had reared its hungry head, so

the challenge was to find a nice taverna that had plenty of choice and plenty of shade... not too much to ask, we soon happened upon Nico's Taverna on Papadiamanti Street and that more than fulfilled these two simple requirements, plus there was a huge fan doing its best to help cool things even further. It was relatively busy but we were served straight away, saganaki for me and a pasta dish for Elaine, and the waiter thought it would be nice for us to share, which was kinda nice! This was probably because mine was actually a starter while Elaine's was very much a main course.

After our sharing lunch we decided to head back to our hotel so made our way down to the old port for the water taxi, but we hadn't checked the timetable properly so didn't notice that there was a Spanish like siesta break of a couple of hours

and it was quite a wait before the next sailing! Could have been worse I guess, we mange to find somewhere in the shade for Elaine to sit down as her poor old back was still giving her more than enough discomfort, bless her. I wandered around a bit taking a few holiday snaps and nearer the time we strolled back to the quayside and had an ice cream to help while away the time. There was a taxi there waiting for its crew and as soon as they appeared we made our way on board, and the friendly archetypal bearded Greek sailor was right out of the pages of "Shirley Valentine", and he made sure that "my lady" didn't hit her head or slip while boarding his vessel... strangely he didn't seem concerned as to my safety in the slightest, you have to love these guys! We chatted to him while waiting to set off and although his English wasn't the best we'd encountered it was certainly a

lot better than our Greek!!! Soon we were chugging across the bay with him steering his sleek vessel with the crook of his right knee, adding to the romanticism of the moment.

As it was well into the afternoon by now we decide to do a little sunbathing around the pool, and when we get there it's all but deserted, so we pretty much have the area to ourselves with our own barman to supply us with cooling drinks, could so get used to this. Now, it's the Azerbaijan Baku F1 Grand Prix this weekend and there just happens to be a large screen television in the pool bar, so I checked with Dimitris if they could show it on there for us and after he looked up the local times he confirmed that although they weren't showing the qualifying on Saturday, they were televising the race on Sunday and it was on at four o'clock but only on a Greek

channel, no problem for us as we can easily follow proceedings in any language!

After all the hectic Formula One negotiations and tiring sunbathing we'd managed to work up a bit of an appetite and asked at reception if they could book us a table at the Taverna Kanapitsa down by the beach, which they happily did for us. So we had a couple of hours to kill which we did by resting in our cool room before showering and dressing for dinner. Our waiter managed to seat us in a prime position overlooking the water so our culinary experience got off to a very good start.

The setting was pretty good here... well, very good actually, right by the beach with views across the bay towards Skopelos, and a lovely warm balmy breeze blowing in off the

water made it very pleasant indeed. All of the waiters were very friendly and attentive, and the food was excellent... especially that saganaki, such a shame we can't get it back home! As is the norm around these parts the attentiveness dropped off a bit after our main courses and we eventually had to request the dessert menu, but no biggie really. As was the case last night, we weren't in any kind of rush at all, and the wait let our rather large meals go down a bit and make some space for those amazing, though completely unnecessary, sugar filled delights!

So, we had our fill and now had to make our way back up the hill to the hotel, seemed to take quite a bit longer than our stroll down the hill a couple of hours earlier...!!! A lovely day topped off with an even better evening by the sea.