Mrs. in her favorite travel skirt (it is on every summer trip)

Wonder what is getting most attention these coming days… the ring or Douwe?

Layover antics in Greece

She found goats cheese 🧀

He found goat cheese pie 🥧

After a minor delay we got on a tiny propellor plane. A few more naps later (for Douwe) we landed on Leros, where the taxis were already waiting to pick us up. We shared a taxi to Platanos with a woman called Suzanna, a Canadian who got stuck here during COVID and never left.

Our ride

Leros airport, basically the size of the villa in Glads vei from last week

Once we got to Olga’s place we unpacked, pinched ourselves a little bit that we were back, and headed out to the supermarket for some essentials!

We found it a little easier than last time. Since we had new keys made, we sweated it a little bit cause the doors were hard to open, but we got there. The neighbor was right where we left her last year, and we tried to communicate some with hands and feet. We really need to brush up again on the basic Greek!

Thank you Eli for our present! (Never mind the travel hair…)

Our coffee view for tomorrow morning

Can’t beat this view

We love this place!!

We might have bought all the sheep yogurt!

After enjoying an easy dinner on the terrace we headed out to Agia Marina, seeing as we needed some cash to pay back the woman we drove the taxi with. Turns out she lives on the same road we walk on our way to the beach at Pandeli.

The turkey horn bus greated us on the way back up! It feels really nice to be back and we cannot wait to start the day tomorrow.

New additions to our morning coffee; table and analog camera!

A cup of coffee with a side of wedding ring.

Brekkie!

After breakfast we went for a morning swim at Panteli, and we quickly picked up old routines. Swim, Freddo Espresso, orange juice and settling in for a nice long morning with dips in the water and reading.

Back in our old spot.

Our pool!

Panteli

Panteli

Once home we got changed and headed to Lakki to hunt some gluten-free products in the super nice organic and allergy friendly local shop.

D lost G in this shop!

Back at Platanos square with our favorite car in town.

Greengrocers on the corner!

Also a way to put your house on sale!

Douwe’s way to come down the stairs has not evolved since last year!

After we had forced out a ballet barre, we headed out to go to one of our favorite places to eat; Stis Anna’s. Slightly disappointed they had changed the menu we decided to stay anyway, turned out that their best dishes were luckily daily specials; Imam and Moussaka!

We left our table at the beach with full stomachs and cannot wait to return here!

Agia Marina; on our way to dinner!

Aperitivo and finding shade Grete style; it was a long haul on the beach!

Finding shade Douwe style (with the scarf he always makes fun of Grete for bringing…)

Reading, napping and some lengths across the bay to keep Douwe calm!

After a long afternoon on the beach we headed back to Platanos. We made a reservation at Apostolis, right next to where we just had spent the day, but wanted to freshen up a little.

On the way back we decided to drop by Suzanna, the lovely Canadian lady that paid for our taxi the first night. She invited us in and showed us around her apartment.

D found a cute staircase and wanted to go up, excited about an alternative route home. G, convinced it would lead to someone’s property, humoured him and followed, soon we stood in the backyard of a house with the owners sitting right there. They directed us further with hands and feet, clearly amused, to walk the rest of the property and led us back on the road! People are really nice here!

Colors!

Nice light!

Our walk back home

Once back home we freshened up and sat down on the terrace to enjoy the amazing air, breeze, smell and light! A small glass of our favourite rosé, which tastes very different from other ones we have tasted before!

Afternoon snack with a view, and salt crusted hair!

Wedding bill paid… Stin ygeia mas!

After some great fresh fish, imam, horta, and a table on the beach, we got home with full stomachs and ready to tuck in!

Kalinikta!

Our daily breakfast photo

Ready, packed, GO!

On the road!

New road signs since last year; one says don’t drive when you have had a drink. We wonder how many locals listen to this….

Agia Marina, where we came from, in the background

Once we arrived at Dio Liskaria we got a sunbed, which is basically a guarantee for us these days that we won’t move for the following hours to come.

Soon it was time for lunch at Vareladiko. And it didn’t take much convincing that with lunch one ought to have a glass of wine.

We promise it is after 12.

The food is so fresh and uncomplicated! \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240

G sneaking in her gluten-free bread everywhere she goes!

D amused by Ingunn’s reminder that the diary was not uploaded correctly and if we could pretty please get on it!

Quote: «I sunned, you should be proud.»

Sunned…? First of all is that even a word, second of all does 2 minutes in the sun count to have sunned?

Go away with your poison!

Another conversation that day..

G: «I am barely ever this quiet, like really quiet» (I guess she meant on the inside)

D: «I can still hear you…»

Around 17 we thought it was time to pack up so we could make our evening appointment with Alexandra. We met her last year and she showed us the island from a whole other perspective and we were super excited what she was gonna take us on this time.

Our outfits… they need no words.

Impressions along the way! This hour of day is when the amazing light starts!

Impressions Agia Marina

Impressions Agia Marina

Time for some face masks from the pharmacy to unclog all the clogged sunscreen pores!

Trying to prep his analog camera.

At 20:00 Alexandra and Stefanos picked us up at Platanos for a small walk. A warmup for more to come. Walking around this time of day, when the sun is setting, is beautiful. They are taking us out on Tuesday for an experience they will start to offer people from mid-August on. A 6-hour guided trip around the island to remote places, with local delicacies, hidden beaches and a dinner at the end. They wanted to test it on us, which we happily said yes to!

Sunset

With Alexandra and Stefanos

After having met some more familiar faces from last time, we said bye to Alexandra and Stefanos and went up to Platanos square for some really good meze to finish off the day!

Back at Platanos

Douwe’s hair is also living its best life

Sweeping the shala for yoga

Ready for some back bending

Back at Pandeli

We tried a new spot today!

«Soumada», a very sweet drink made out of bitter and sweet almonds and water, mainly served at wedding receptions. We thought it would be appropriate to give it a go. It tasted really good, but it was way too sweet!

After swimming a few lengths in the bay, breakfast and some reading we headed back for lunch and Mesimeri at the house. We have enjoyed being out a lot, but missed spending time at this peaceful place!

Before heading out we did a barre and some exercises, just to feel like work is not gonna be a slap in the face and to have our bodies feel a little nicer.

Upkeep!

She’s ready for the McGregor

After 19:00 walking outside is absolutely amazing, and those two last hours before sunset have become one of our favourite times of day. Today we decided to just walk around, pick some new roads, and see what we would find. Of course that lead to a Dekkers style off road adventure, where we definitely trespassed someone’s property, crossed some barbed wire fences, got a beautiful 360 view, and got kind of lost just on the way down as the sun was setting. Made it out alive, and surprisingly still friends, and set our sights on dinner!

Analog photography takes time….

On the way up

On the way down

Made it; now we only have to find dinner!

It’s definitely high season, and it’s not always easy to get in without a reservation. After being rejected by a very cooked out chef at one of the places we haven’t tried yet, we decided to try our luck and ended up \240at Apostolis, one of our favorite places in Panteli.

Book on Lerian architecture

Street in Pandeli

The Greek Giagias swimming in the morning; walking right in with their walkers

Freddo Espresso

On the way to the supermarket we bumped into our favourite ride from last year. The local \240bus with the turkey gobble horn! (we were probably the only two people on the island taking it). The streets are so narrow that you can hear it coming, honking at everyone that is in its way, from miles away. Even the police needs to give priority! We have yet to take it this year. We wanted to on Thursday, but the schedule we found at the airport was not correct; of course the one on Olga’s fridge was to be trusted!

Turkey-gobble-horn bus forcing the police to give way

Back home we made a nice lunch and we enjoyed sitting reading our books. Turning on a CD of one of D’s favourite pianists, Sokolov, and really giving in to not doing anything at all!

Lots of books to get through! Not enough time

Really not enough time, luckily some are in written languages that we don’t understand…

We decided we wanted to try Serza Leros, a restaurant outside of Lakki close to the botanical gardens. We found a nice route that crosses the island, hopefully catching the beautiful sunset here!

A small appetizer before heading out to walk to our destination!

Beautiful view of Agia Marina

The west side of the island. It seems like there is much more vegetation here, and a lot of olive groves!

View of the bay by Lakki; it was reassuring cause it meant we were walking the right way!

Golden hour

We found the bee hives that are used for our favourite Artemis honey

And there were a lot of them!

And we also found our cheese source

Little chapel along the way

A familiar sight

We had some great food and the place did not disappoint, with our tummies full we strolled to Lakki to get a taxi back to Platanos. We definitely would want to come back here again!

Last years favourite was appropriate again today!

Something is missing….

And we are complete…

Tomorrow we are going with Alexandra to the herb gardens Caserma mid-day and the walk that was planned on Tuesday had been moved to Friday, because of chaos at her hotel. Just because we would be spending some hours in full sun we wanted to buy something long sleeved.

We decided to take some different roads down to Pandeli.

D succeeded quickly in a shop owned by two Italians, where he bought two tops last year also!

Waking back to Agia Marina we had a peak around at Irini’s, an interior shop, where they have a lot of beautiful furniture, linens, and other interior items.

Cute apartment for sale…..

Different way down to Pandeli

Shadows

Italian linen

Golden hour!

Giving ourselves a viewing of a property on sale; the door was open and judging by the footprints in the sand we were not the first

Are these ones ripe?

Finally found some good ones!

Agia Marina; the building Irinis is in

Irini’s

Breakfast

We love being on this terrace!

Our morning coffee spot

She wanted to quickly finish her book before heading out!

Our morning spots

Beach filling up behind us; meaning we are soon out of here!

Alex and Stefanos picked us up in their little red VW polo and we headed towards the old mental hospital. These buildings are impressive and were built when the Italians captured the islands to use as a naval base. From 1957 on, mental patients were sent here from all over Greece, later it was shut down because of overcrowding, under qualified and not enough staff and in general bad conditions. The buildings are totally abandoned and totally derelict (a word G taught me this holiday, go and look it up), but you can feel what purpose it served. In more recent years you can see it has been used for refugees. Names are written on walls, UN mattresses and food boxes are plentiful and in general it looks as if a whole group of people came here with nothing and found refuge in these buildings before being transported away. The EU invested in a 40 million euro refugee camp a little further up the hill, which you can detect at any given time because it looks like a big prison where lights are on continuously!

Out on an adventure with Alexandra and Stefanos

Our ride

The former mental hospital

You can imagine it has been a beautiful building, but it has been totally abandoned

Clear remains of refugees staying everywhere

Learning about Leros’ history

Trees will find a way everywhere!

Once back home, Grete wanted to go back to the fig tree we found yesterday. Delicious with our replacement of the anthotyro we found. A Lerian fresh cheese called, mahoura gylomeni.

Freshly picked figs!

Figs with fresh cheese from Leros

The days are a little hotter than when we came and we decided to head down to Panteli for an evening dip.

Pomegranate

Evening dip

Cat family down the road

Cat family’s hideout

Locals favourite way of transportation; the scooter!

After lunch and a few more lengths in the bay we were joined by Zoi and Ivy, mother and daughter that we met last year and who are into dance! They gave us a ride home in the evening and we arranged to meet them tomorrow morning. Every summer they are here to spend most of it on the island, where Zoi was born. She holds a university degree in Greek so we have found our new future Greek tutor, whereas Ivy has started dance and is totally obsessed by Grete.

View on Agia Marina from Dio Liskaria

Dio Liskaria

One we got home, we ran some errands; Douwe is still trying to find and fix a lightbulb and there is still some ironing to do. We decided we wanted to have one last dinner at Stis Anna’s and booked a table for 20:30

Platanos square; the library on the left and the town hall on the right

Platanos square with Leros castle in the background; Platanos was called after the Plane tree that stands at the square

Ironing duty; even these chores don’t seem to be too bad here!

At Stis Anna’s it is clear the Meltemi winds are picking up today. We are slightly worried about our return flight since we don’t have a lot of time to change planes and it is with a different airline, but we just have to take it as it comes.

After a swim by sunset, we decided to read our wedding vows to eachother again, since we both had forgotten them with all the commotion that day. \240A beautiful dinner (and a new favourite Prawn Saganaki); we feel so lucky to be here!

Evening swim

Hoping there are no sea urchins

There was a lot of wind on the beach

«le penseur»

He made a friend with his leftover prawn heads

Lines and quiet

We love this green colour on the houses with the stone rim around it!

Pandeli

Fridge raid lunch; Greek style

Zoi was nice enough to offer us a ride tomorrow to the airport. Our way back is potentially a little cumbersome; the winds have delayed planes, we have a suitcase that we need to pick up and check-in again in Athens and our stop-over is not all too long. Plan A, B and C are in place, and worst case plan D a night at Athens airport and having to buy new flights… oh well, 10 days here have made us very relaxed!

After a little more cleaning we sat down to read before heading out with Alexandra on our 6-hour adventure.

We met Alexandra and Stefanos at 17:00 by the hotel that is owned by Alexandra’s family. We headed out on sand roads and once we parked the car on the west side of the island, we hiked for 1.5h, first on a gravel path, and later off road and on rock cliffs. They had planned a few experiences along the way, and after a small meditation that they led us through. we arrived at a cliff at sunset and a picnic was laid out from local product. We joined them for a swim in a wavy sea; it was very windy today, and afterwards enjoyed the food and wine together with them before heading back with full moon. Alexandra shared a lot of stories about the island and the people here! It was an experience that in total lasted almost 6 hours and we will never forget it.

On our way! The red VW polo luckily came out of the workshop quick enough; it was broken yesterday!

First remote beach we reached

We thought we might stop here; we were wrong, we continued on the cliffs

I think she likes it here…

Climbing over rocks

Best time of the day to be out!

Our dinner spot

A swim before dinner (if you look closely you can find us)

The sun was moving under the horizon whilst we had our dinner

The wind was wonderfully cooling and like a warm cloak at the same time. Coming out of the water was fresh at times which made sitting in the sun even better. Today though the winds were of slight concern; the morning flight was 3 hours delayed and seeing as we only had a 2-hour layover we were squeezing it a little bit. Besides the short layover time, we realized we needed to pick up our luggage to check it back in.

We decided to have lunch at Apostolis (the best imam we have tasted, we are determined to make it at home), and to head back to repack our bags. All our essentials in our backpacks, and the suitcase only with things we can miss for a while.

After having cleaned out the house, taken out the trash and done the last chores, we were picked up by Zoi and Ivy, who offered to drive us to the airport yesterday. This turned out to be our savior.

Arriving at the airport we got quickly the message the airplane was first half an hour delayed, 1.5 hours quickly after and in the end 2 hours. Looking up alternative option quickly made it clear that if we wouldn’t make our flights it would quickly cost €1000 extra and a night on airport chairs… Plan C was activated meaning; leaving the suitcase at Leros, seeing as it wouldn’t be send through automatically.. After a quick repacking session (read: Grete opening the suitcase, repacking bags and changing her mind about 4 times), we were all set and Zoi would drop the suitcase off at Alexandra’s hotel. How happy we are to have made friends here…. (plus it means we HAVE to come back!)

We said our bye’s, watched the plane land and being unpacked at an excruciatingly slow pace (in all fairness the ground staff was working hard, there was just only one guy unloading the suitcase) and with a 2h delay we made our way to Athens.

Of course once we landed we had to wait for the entire bus to be full with all the passengers, in order to drive us to the gate. And if landing at 21:15 (next flight to catch 21:30) wasn’t bad enough, we had to wait for some people with special assistance. We felt like two racing dogs stuck in their starting boxes, ready to be unleashed for the run. Being stuck on a plane or bus seemed too much out of control for us, we rather fixed it ourselves.. LET US RUN!

Of course Athens airport didn’t make it easier, having landed at the B gates we had to exit and make our way to the C gates, which really felt like the universe was just having a laugh. It felt like the longest sprint we had ever don’t, and we were cursing our repacked backpacks that at this point were probably twice the allowance in weight. Running through two ticket controls (funny sidenote: G got told off for running through it, she had to walk, and after she was through the security guards cheered her on «GO GO GO RUN»), up stairs, past a security control, screaming and yelling «EXCUSE ME, I AM SO SORRY». Douwe ran through the airport carrying the Olympic torch (as one does when in Athens), cheered on by fellow travelers, leaving Grete in his wake. She made a heroic effort, but definitely came in to an honorable second place. Good thing he has the VO2 max of an Olympic 1500 m runner. We were very happy we did our runs to Dio Liskaria, and for Zoi’s «good feeling».

Long story short, we got to the gate at 21:30, departure time. They told us to hurry, and let us in. We boarded the plane at 21:35 sweaty, and feeling our lungs ripping out of our bodies. Found our seats… 5 minutes later boarding complete… another 5 minutes later «Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to announce we are delayed with another 50 minutes», luckily the delay was shortened and we departed at 22:30… We like to believe that without our heroic run, we wouldn’t have made it!

Now we are sitting on our plane reminiscing over the past two weeks, feeling lucky with all the people in our lives and all the people we have met!

Not reminiscing yet; just trying to breathe