I am honoured to have been invited to be a guest poster on Evan’s exceptional blog.  For those who don’t know, I am Evan’s grandmother and comment on this blog as Baba. We are fortunate to be spending 2 weeks travelling with Evan, Denise and their parents. So, this post is about our week together on the magical Greek island of Kefalonia. As Evan foreshadowed in his post about desserts – our time together started a day later than expected. Stanley (Evan’s grandfather) and I got held up in Frankfurt because someone was flying an unidentified drone over the airspace. The Frankfurt airport was shut down for hours and our flights (and the flights of thousands of other travellers) were cancelled or delayed. After an unexpected night in Athens we were delayed by one day. The up side was that we got to see Evan and family in Athens for a little while. Once we finally arrived – we checked into Villa Mandola – as pictured above.

While we didn’t have the very best weather, we made the most of every sunny moment driving to different beaches and towns. One day we made it to Dafnoudi Beach. After a short drive and a lovely little hike – we arrived at a secluded cove with the small cave pictured above just a few steps away.

Another day we took a much longer drive to the beach at Antisamos. This was the most developed beach we visited – with excellent sun beds and good food. As you can see above – some were even brave enough to jump in the clear, turquoise but chilly waters. 

As you can see – the beaches were mainly white pebbles and small stones. We found that if we moved the rocks around underneath us – they were more comfortable than expected. As the ladybugs above demonstrate – the stones also made a great base for painting with water colours and sea water. 

Our drives around the island were full of amazing vistas. Each turn brought a new verdant hillside, goats scrambling up the cliffs and hidden little coves. Here is a roadside view overlooking the town of Assos. We learned that there are 365 villages in Kefalonia. Each one is marked with a sign as you enter and a sign as you leave – often with nothing in between. 

But – it is the people who make the real magic. The Greek people we met were always friendly and helpful. They really wanted to share the beauty of their home. And, of course, for us, sharing our time on Kefalonia with our family was the most magical of all. Thanks so much to Denise, Evan, Jess and Dan for letting us share this experience.