Day 11, Cruisin' to Skopelos

What...??? We're on holiday and our alarm wakes us at 7:30...!!! What the heck is going on here? Well, we're up to get an early breakfast before heading into Skiathos to board our boat trip to Skopelos and Lalaria Beach back on Skiathos.

The local bus was packed when we struggled on to it, but fortunately we were able to get a seat after the first stop! We wandered straight round to the quay ahead of the arranged time, expecting to be first there... wrong, half the people were already on board. Snapped up a couple of decent seats on the upper deck, where we would be able to see most of what was about to unfold for us.

We set sail on time but they hadn't untied the tender from the dock, so that was one very shortened rope they now had! After a bit of reverse thrust we managed to retrieve the tender and get on our way again. As a larger boat on the same route was following us, our captain changed the order of

play with the stop offs, deciding to stop at the Mamma Mia chapel on the return from Skopelos town, rather than on the way to it, enabling us to then avoided it's many passengers looking around the tiny chapel at the same time as us!

First stop was at the Blue Cave after passing the chapel, the water here was amazingly clear and appeared bright blue, hence the name! This was a photo opportunity only, so we're soon on our way again and after fifteen minutes or so we were cruising into Skopelos town. It looked stunning set on two hills around a huge curved quay side. We had nearly two hours here so plenty of time to explore and have a few cooling drinks... oh, and a naughty ice cream!

All aboard again and heading back to the Mamma Mia chapel,

the Church of Agios Ioannis Sto Kastri, which means Saint John on the Castle, suggesting that there once was a castle here to help protect the island. It was used in scenes for the 2008 movie of "Mamma Mia", though for external scenes only; the interior being too small for the actors and film crew, so a set was used for these. Now, various travel information brochures suggest that there are 110 steps up to this lovely little church... wrong, very wrong... I counted 196 of the blinking things and that isn't including the 63 up to the street level from the beach we were landed on from the boat...!!!

Ah yes, the inflatable tender transfer to the beach, wasn't at all happy with that but was the only choice I had; not my best ninety seconds of this holiday, and of course I knew I had to do it all again to get back on the boat...!!! So here I was, 40

something degrees, 63 steps up to the road with my feet covered in sand, oh how I hate sand, about 150 metres down in a dip from the road and then 150 metres back up on the other side. All the steps are in the full glare of the sun but I was not to be beaten, negotiated the 196 steps which to start with went down as well as up before you get to the foot of that huge lump of rock. Glad I did it, even though it was one heck of a struggle, and was able to ring the church bell to prove it! While I was playing the intrepid explorer, Elaine just sensibly spent the time swimming around the boat... she ain't daft...!!! Walking back down from the chapel was certainly much easier than the accent.

After having to wait for that horrid tender, and having to take my life in my hands again mounting and dismounting the

rocking rolling beast, we were soon steaming out of the little cove and on our way back to Skiathos with compass set for Lalaria Beach. This is an amazing beach, albeit with perfectly smooth white stones not sand, and has a natural rock arch to the left end, the photo they always use to advertise the island. Needless to say I didn't get off here but Elaine absolutely loved her time snorkelling around the boat looking for fishes in the crystal clear water. I was still very hot after my Mamma Mia climb so was pleased when we set off back to port when I was able to snaffle a chair in the shade of the canopy and cool down a bit as we cruised back to port. It was six o'clock by the time we moored up, a full hour later than scheduled, so we more than got our money's worth today!

We made our way to Ta Kymata, the lovely little taverna on the

water front where we had lunch a couple of days ago, and today's meal was every bit as good and we again had a bit of fun feeding our bread to the fishes. Saw an amazing sight while we were here, gazing out across the bay, we saw a huge gull drop into the water in front of us and catch something quite large. Our waiter said "octopus!", and we could see its tentacles thrashing around the bird, which very quickly gave up the fight and flew off without his tenacious dinner... Octopus 1 : 0 Gull

Seeing as we'd spent most of the day out on the water, we opted to take the bus back to the hotel, and twenty minutes later we're doing the now familiar stroll up the hill from the main road. After all that walking we feel we deserve a nice latte before bed so treat ourselves to one at the pool bar!