Another Greek jaunt. We're now being used to the comparative comfort of BA flights with better legroom . We spent the first night in the airport hotel in Athens. Completely soundproofed, very comfortable, we got a room upgrade, not sure of the difference. We decide to start the holiday with an indulgent meal in their roof top restaurant. "Ship" theme in decor, views of the runway. Canned music mostly US swing, jazz, even George Melly and Georgie Fame. "Free" amuse-bouche. Cakestand of six chocolates with coffee. Bill came to euro 130- about the cost of 4 meals on the islands!
Early start next day. Taxi took us on the new motorway to the ferry. Smooth ride, comfortable seats allocation near the cafe. Usual scrum to get off but the van from the accommodation was waiting to take us on. Our host gave us a discount card for his various other businesses- cafe, bakery, minimarket. Very comfortable room, nice balcony. We were one street behind the harbour with a large Tamarisk tree obscuring our view over the waterfront properties, though we had an oblique view of part of the harbour, obscured of course by the traditional Greek telegraph and power cables. My theory is that Photoshop is in league with the Greek infrastructure companies to ensure no scenic view is unencumbered. Room tastefully decorated in pastel shades with just the lose loo seat and lack of sink plug to remind you this is still Greece. On the terrace was a nice pesoula with a comfortable cushion but if you leaned back the shutter fixings stuck in to you! There were quite a few island specialities on offer- icecream with mastic, pastry mastic flavoured, a chick pea casserole which was very nice.
The town beach at Livadia is very long and has some sunbeds and eateries, but also stretches where the sand is unencumbered and locals or Greek weekenders bring their own lawn chairs. There was a volleyball setup which I didn't see in use, but someone decided of the whole beach that is where they would set up their chairs. As it is only 2 ½ hours from Piraeus on the fast ferry, it is very popular with Greeks weekenders and the Friday to Sunday ferries were very busy and the ensuing traffic competed with the diners doing the pre-dinner volta in the main harbourside road.
Tripadvisor and other reviews we had read described the owner as "elusive".   He was obvious busy checking on his other businesses. We managed to give him the accommodation voucher about 3 days after we arrived. However, once nabbed, if you had a problem he set about trying to fix it.
The reception office was empty most of the time, just the property dog lying on the sofa. He was very friendly, gave one bark to announce visitors, but was unable to book customers in! Neither was the monoglot Greek cleaner who was the person most around all day. We could see from our balcony, Greek guests arriving in their own cars off the ferry hanging around the office. The cleaner did not seem to have the authority to take them to their room, or ability to track down the owner. Often these guests drove off to get a meal and returned later to have another go at checking in.
One of the frustrating consequences of the island tourism being aimed at the locals was that everything was geared to the peak Greek holiday times of July and August. We went into the Serifos Tours office. A poster in the window and a pile of leaflets on the counter advertised minibus tours of the major villages three times a week. The staff seemed astounded we should expect this still to happen in September. They took our number as promised to phone if they had enough enquiries to make it worth running. Never heard back. There were some dog-eared posters around advertising boat trips but no sign of the boat pictured.
The two properties we could see from our balcony were a large bookshop (no, they didn't have any non-Greek editions of the island guidebook) where we bought a well-annotated walking map, and the very busy pharmacy. It had a flashing display on the wall, variations on the green cross, representations of pills and tablets, something that was either a stomach pump or an enema , and the temperature. It became quite a game with us to try to spot the point in the sequence when the temperature came up. Highest we spotted was 41 degrees in the sun.
WiFi was widely available but a good signal as elusive as our owner.   We only needed to check some expected e-mails so it didn't bother us but other guests were clearly relying on it and the owner, once pinned down spent a whole day replacing cables, finally coming round just after we had gone to bed, to install a new server in our apartment.
We found a particular spot on the town beach with sunbeds and handy for the tavern for drinks and lunch, and did most of our sunbathing there, becoming buddies with the waiter who spent winters in the UK. We also tried the beaches on either side but they had limited facilities , one in particular which boasted a Sunday Telegraph rating as one of the top ten beaches. We couldn't see why. Half the beach was covered in seaweed, there were no sunbeds, a few stunted tamarisks for shade and a couple of tavernas, one of which had no electricity on the day we visited. The sea was shallow and the sand ideal for sandcastles or games but we've seen better. A day there on beach mats confirmed the fact that our old bones need the support of sunbeds.    The town beach was obviously very popular with Greek models. Unfortunately they tended to be models for Donald McGill postcards. My body is a temple:at least it looks like the dome of St Pauls.
I mentioned the local specialities. These included keftedes with fennel, pork with celery (never on when we asked for it!) and a local drink called rakomeli which is the grape spirit flavoured with honey, served warm in a small bottle. It was served with a small meze of ham, cheeses tomato and rusk. "Interesting". I dropped the rusk into the sea and the fish used it for waterpolo.
The local bus service kept to timetable and wheezed and chugged its way up the zigzag roads to the Chora.   Once we'd seen it from different sides we could see how small the hilltop original village was, but on the ground the maze of winding streets, ivy grown archways, under buildings was a continual photo opportunity.    The main upper square had the cathedral, its blue paint needing a touch up, the classical town hall with cracks in the plaster and missing pillars on the roof and a couple of cafes. One had a write-up for its famous chocolate cake – not on on either occasion when we went there. The bus journey took 15 minutes, the walk down the old mule track took about an hour.   Many of the customers on the bus were little (under 5 foot) old locals with their walking sticks. How they manage in Chora I don't know.   The health centre was on the bus route with great views but not near anything . The folk museum was on the way down but had already closed for the day.    We also passed several churches, all locked except one where a lady was preparing the flowers for the saint's day service that evening. Sheila was impressed with the special bread edifice on the altar (one for Paul Hollowood?)

We tried most of the eateries in the village as well as a couple in Chora. We didn't have a favourite. One we intended to go back to closed before we could.   The volume of traffic from the ferries showed that they could have kept some facilities going longer. There was a news channel showing on the ferry but the tvs in the bars all showed basketball and soccer. You got no sense of the imminent general election.
I was disappointed that there was no live music. All the canned music was standard US/UK , mostly '60s.   It was strange to hear the opening chords of "House of the Rising Sun" and not being expected to lead the singing.
The pharmacy was very busy, on occasions people were brought outside into the better light and treated seated on the wall outside- grazes and bits, blisters. I wouldn't go in with piles! Sheila grazed a knee and they gave her an antibiotic spray to put on. Our home pharmacist confirmed it was safe but would not have been able to supply it without prescription.
One day a series of yellow planes flew low in a circle, they were fire planes. Later we saw firemen in a small 4x4 firetruck having a coffee but we didn't see where the fire was, only some smoke in the distance.
On our second visit to the Chora we popped in to the small archaeological museum and continued past some restored windmills up another well- marked mule track until we were actually higher than the Chora. We carried on for about an hour to the little church of Ayios Giorgios where the surface deteriorated to loose stones which are hazardous when coming down so we turned back at that point. Great views all round of the dam and reservoir, the Chora and a few goats. Until then we hadn't seen many animals. On a subsequent walk to the neighbouring village of Ramos we saw goats, mules and horses and cockerels. When we got to Ramos we saw the interesting church but it was like a ghost village, hardly a person about, no cafe or shop.
We were interested to see that jumping off the jetty into the sea was still a popular pastime with small boys.
We were in one beach side tavern for lunch when a group that had been snorkelling came in. They emptied a bag of sea urchins and oysters   and tucked in with bread, lemon and wine supplied by the tavern. They did order other dishes later but it was a new take on BYO.
There were several different ferries coming in by day and night and a steady stream of yachts. There weren't any of the super yachts we saw last year. We did see one that cost £65,000 a week to hire: 8 guests and 6 crew.   A Greek patrol boat came in one evening but didn't stay long.
One " proud to be British" moment. A French man was very arrogant to the lady at the beach tavern claiming he'd been coming for years and had never been charge for his sunbeds (they'd only been open since 2012. The same day a large German extended family came of the beach into the eating area and proceeded to change the baby's nappy-gave us all an appetite.
On our last day we didn't have to leave the room till it was time to go to the ferry so we had a good morning on the beach, had lunch , got back to the room , shower, change, pack. The drive was waiting to take us to the ferry and so home. The meltemi wind had blown up during our last week so the ferry ride was a little delayed. Our seats were in the bows so we felt a bit of motion. We couldn't find our designated seats from the directions given us. A helpful Greek family agreed with us that the row number didn't exist, but there were plenty of empty adjacent seats.    The returning Athenians were carrying cats, dogs, rabbits, canaries, and children.
Thursday night traffic in Athens was gridlock. Our taxi drivers said there had been two other big ferries in, Olympiakos were playing Bayern Munich and there was a big election rally in one of the central squares. We shared the taxi with a grumpy local lady whose destination was on our way. She only spoke to try to redirect the driver who clearly had a better idea of the easier routes. Even allowing for the ferry being 15 minutes late and for dropping off this lady in Athens, once the driver got on to the motorway to the airport he made up a lot of time. On the way he phoned his daughter to say he wouldn't be able to bring her an ice before she went to bed. He also checked on his i-phone whether Arsenal were in the same group as Olympiakos. All while driving of course. I could tell he was NASCAR trained as he forced his way through the Athens traffic.
We had a nice meal in the ground floor 24 hour restaurant at the airport hotel (only about twice the cost of an island meal) and an early night in another upgraded room. We're proud to say the tvs in the hotel and the apartment were not switched on during our stay! Had a leisurely breakfast next morning then wheeled our cases across the road to the airport and so home. Temperature in Athens as we left 31 degrees.   Temperature in Ascot next morning 10 degrees. When we got home I nipped out to the corner shop for some milk and fruit. Mrs Patel looked puzzled, I realised I'd thanked her in Greek!
Next year? Still to be decided.

RtS