We have hours to kill today – as our flight to Frankfurt isn’t until 6pm. Which is the whole reason for the car! We waste time this morning, just hanging out, drinking coffee, organizing the bags, then check out just a little before the 11am checkout time. Since we have all the time in the world, we hang out at the restaurant in the hotel with a couple of cappuccinos, making use of their bathroom facilities at the last moment before departure. Then we are off!
Today we are exploring the Northwest part of Kos, around Kefalos. This is the one place we did not make it to on our last trip here. The drive out here takes only about 30 minutes, and we go right past the airport and through the “forest” where we thought we’d explore last time, but it isn’t really too much of a forest – just a few scraggly trees. We drive out the one main road with little traffic, passing Cavo Greko where we ate on our last trip and finally pressing on through Kefalos to the “Kefalos viewpoint” way up on the mountainside.
This place is fantastic! First of all, Ed is loving the drive, steep uphills, switch back curves, incredible views out over Kefalos Bay on one side and the Aegean Sea on the other. It is stunning up here. We stop at the viewpoint and walk down this dirt road with signposts that point to a church or monastery – but we’re not walking that far! We’re happy here with the stunning views across the mountains and the water. Beautiful – and a perfectly gorgeous way to waste time!
We wander around, getting our walking in, enjoying the cool breeze and abundant sunshine, until it is time for lunch.
We have a restaurant all picked out, and I know it is by the “castle” of Kefalos, so we plug it into Google and off we go. F’ing Google Maps. That should be the official name of that app! Instead of taking us directly to the restaurant, which is on the main road, I might add, it takes us through the town of Kefalos with narrow little twisty turny lanes reminiscent of Crete! God I hate that app sometimes! Ed actually stops the car and I get out and walk down the road to ensure we can get out back to the main road – and not the way the stupid app is sending us either! Sigh. PS – we could get out that way, and it actually works out because we are right at a little pullout in the road where we can park the car and walk down the road to Maistrali, our chosen lunch abode. Phew.
Here, on the patio, in the shade, overlooking the water, and up the hill, the castle, we have a wonderful lunch of fried meatballs (really, really good!), more garlic bread – this time with cheese! – some excellent sausage and of course, Saganaki. Totally filling and lovely.
Lunch done, we wander through the little streets of Kefalos, where sleepy is the word of the day. There are tourists but not many. Most of the shops here are locally oriented – a butcher shop, laundry, tailor, etc. If you want to be away from the worst of the crowds, Kefalos might be the place. At least it is easier to get to than Patmos – but then again, that is what we love about Patmos!
There isn’t too much to see in the town, so we walk back to the road that leads to the castle (and our car), stopping at the overlook across from Maistrali for some beautiful coastal vistas.
Then we head up the hill to the castle, which is just the ruins of the fortress, but still gorgeous up here on the highest point overlooking the water.
With tons of time still to kill, we walk to the other side of the mountain peninsula to a new resort/village place where there is a windmill – obviously new and recreated for the “village” and a restaurant and a host of shops. We’re just killing time, so the views are what we are after.
Back to the castle, we retrieve the car, then head down the mountain, stopping at one of the pretty whitewashed and blue chapels that dot the roadside. It is gorgeous with a huge patio area – for events maybe? – and a tall bell tower. After our explorations here, we sit in the lot with the cool breeze blowing through the car and just hang out enjoying the day.
Then we head back toward the airport, trying to visit Saint Ioannis O Rosos, a pretty little chapel that supposedly has a museum. The signage is not good – and we miss the turn off pretty easily, and unfortunately are on the only stretch of road that is divided with no u-turn lanes. Oh well, we’ve got time! So we go all the way to the end of the divided road, find a place to turn around and drive all the way back down the road to do our own U-turn and finally get to the chapel. Once there though, there isn’t any museum, just a brand new chapel, one they are still working on. Hmmmm….not what we were expecting, but pretty in its own way sitting solitary out in the fields of the plateau. Hey, it’s an adventure!
And now it is time to put our Kos adventure behind us. We head back to the airport, find a gas station right there, fill up and manage to find a parking space in the little carpark at the airport. Little is the operative term! The folks at Easy Rent told us it was a little lot – and boy were they right! We were totally lucky to find a space. And then it was just the waiting. We’ve got plenty of time, our flight is already 30 minutes delayed (which, if that holds, will be a miracle because sometimes it is hours late – who knows why?) and when the rental lady (wife) shows up flustered because she is a couple minutes late, we put her at east right away. No worries. We’re here and that’s all that matters, because now we have 2 hours to kill in a little teeny airport with no lounge. No problems!
And kill time we do. We splurged and used extra miles for Business Class tickets on this 3 hour flight – business class being the same as on Eurowings being the same as on Aegean, Aisle and Window on a 3 row up front – but we figure, we might as well. We have the points and this way we won’t be slammed in the back. (I won’t go into the total joke it was to change our initial economy award tickets to business – phone calls, chats, app bookings – it was stupid and in the end it was totally easy. We just booked the business class tickets and canceled the economy. I mean really, why couldn’t either airline rep have done that on the phone? )
Check in was a breeze -walked right up and had the sweetest girl check us in. Then through security, again a breeze and we had a couple hours to kill in the teeny airport. We plopped down in one of the restaurants (Italian – but we were there for the drinks) had 2 beers and 2 wines over the course of 90 minutes and then reported to our gate where we miraculously boarded with only the 30-minute delay.
And oh boy are we glad we blew the points on Business. You would not believe the number of kids (unruly kids at that) that are on this flight! A couple of them were trying to walk out onto the tarmac, through the boarding door on their own, before their parents bothered to notice and grabbed them. Yikes!
At any rate – this is far better than Aegean! We have a welcome drink – and honest to goodness drink! Haven’t a clue what it is, some sort of juice concoction which I think had alcohol and I think oregano. That might have been the little specs that were in there. Who knows? It was good though. And the views were gorgeous as we flew over the islands – unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the plane to see Patmos, we flew right over. Bummer.
Then we had a full meal – a real full dinner meal with china and everything. An excellent salad with what we now know is traditional German green sauce (excellent and fresh!), a wonderful pretzel, very good meatballs and a chocolate mouse with raspberry sauce. Then later a warm cookie! Oh, and the attendant figured out I liked the wine and kept coming by filling up my glass. “Why not” she kept saying! She was a hoot – over the PA she tells everyone their holiday isn’t over until they put the first load of laundry in. LOL.
So the flight was delightful and we weren’t even all that late to Frankfurt.
Of course, that’s when the fun began! There were a lot of folks on our flight with tight connections, and of course, we don’t have a gate, we have a bus way out there on the tarmac. So they were all a little stressed to begin with – understandably. Then we deplane, and there are 4 Polizei standing by the airplane stairs, 2 at each exit. They are checking the men’s passports – only men. Hmmm….very odd. After Ed passes inspection, we hop on the bus, only to sit there forever until the Polizei are through and say we can go. Then we drive, and drive, and drive, finally making it to the terminal only to be stopped in a long line of buses all waiting to off-load their passengers. What the heck?
There are Polizei all over the place, flashing blue lights, flashing red lights. We get stuck in the line for the terminal, and then have to move because a jet is trying to leave and we are in the way. So the bus driver passes in front of the other 6 buses waiting for the terminal and circles around, making us now 12th in line. Oh geez. We don’t care, we’re just going to the hotel, but this one family here with us is trying to make their connecting flight to Heathrow and we are literally on the bus right in front of their plane! No way they can get off though! How frustrating. Finally after about 45 frustrating minutes on the bus, we are let off at the terminal. The poor family heads to their gate, just in case, but it looks like their plane didn’t wait. We head to baggage claim thinking we’d probably never see our bags – but oh now – the bags weren’t held up by the police action! They are all there circling the conveyer belt. Have probably been there for the better part of 30 minutes now. Whatever, we have our bags and are out the door looking for a taxi in no time.
We flag one down – weird set up, there are signs for a taxi, but not queue and no one organizing rides, so we just waved and a guy stopped. Okie dokie! It is a quick – seriously like 16 minutes, it’s only 6 miles to town – ride to the hotel where the cabbie then bitches that I’m using a credit card. Hey – that was a 16 minute ride and you charged us 33 Euros – take the darn card buddy!
Check in at the Ibis is easy, we’re prebooked and just have to give them our card, then we’re up in our little, teeny, tiny room – seriously teeny tiny, there isn’t even a closet and you have to make sure the desk chair is in the right position to open the bathroom door! It is clean, organized and very serviceable (even if there is no refrigerator or kettle), and we’re only here for 3 nights – what do we care? There is a bar that is open 24/7 – so if we need refreshments we are set. We don’t, because we have beer and wine from Patmos, which we dig out of our suitcases and use for our night cap. It’s late and it has been a long day. We’re off to bed to begin our German adventures early tomorrow!
Andiamo 