Home Sweet Home

Our 2026 Greek oddity is sadly over, but we're safely back home to the open arms and rapturous welcome of the ever fragrant Alice and Eric, eager to hear of all our adventures .......

..... and marvel at all the treasures we've bought back.

First of all there was the heart shaped stone Darrell found on the beach for Alice .......

 ...... she absolutely loved it, it was, it has to be said, an emotional presentation. She said that she'd half expected a holey stone, but never in her wildest dreams such a beautiful heart.  

Then, there was the wonderous, supermarket, loukoumades mix. I can't tell you how much we're all praying that Goggle will be able to translate the instructions so that Darrell can recreate puddings from oddities past for our delectation  ...... trust us, we await with baited breath and a groaning hope in our tummies!

For our beloved niece and nephew there was an assortment of exotic biscuits, I mean, who wouldn't just die for a Papadopoulos Jaffa Cake and/or banana sandwich!

And for everyone else there was soap, nougat, nuts, Turkish delight, olive oil and spicy olive paste to fight over ........

...... however, the goat milk soap was strictly Darrell's and mine, as a funny reminder of our unique Kefaloinan alarm clock.

Happy, happy, happy days, with the weird musing that, in all probability, you'll find us doing the exact same thing around about this time next year ........ Greek gods willing!!!

The Perfect Birthday Present

Time To Bid A Fond And Emotional Adieu

Our very last evening on the wonderfully romantic and beautiful island Kefalonia, for tomorrow we must away, back to the waiting bosom of our family, to wit Eric and the ever fragrant one.

It's been quite an experience, Hotel El Paradiso, being the most obvious reason we'll reminisce and chuckle over it for many, many years to come!!

However, we have no regrets over any of our choices, well, except for perhaps not finding and then buying several more tubs of the magnificent, glow in the dark, bright yellow, banoffee cookies Darrell discovered this morning in our local supermarket.

Goodness only knows what all the additives and colourings could do to your system, but, oh my goodness, they are to die for!

Soooooooo, as holiday tradition holds, before we went for our last evening meal of the holiday, with us both set on having the kleftico, we opened a small bottle of Prosecco to toast all our adventures past, present and future .......

..... still smiling over how we'd finally stumbled upon and then fought over our forever Greek spiritual name of choice  (Attorney of Law) ....... Stavros. D. Travlos!

What are we like?

We'll be taking all our euro coins back for Eric and Alice, plus a book we swopped from the extensive Hotel El Paradiso library ........

...... which we think they may appreciate as an amuse-bouche and segue into their own BIG adventure later on in the year ........ 

It's been all rather wonderful .......

..... where we wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else but here ......  it's been emotional in more ways than one, and yes, we have submitted a full bodied review of our hotel on Tripadvisor! But for now ..........

The ...... Erm ...... Art Work Of Hotel El Paridiso.

As you know, Darrell always takes a very keen interest in all the art work we find in the various hotels we stay in and Hotel El Paradiso is no different ..... 

...... however, without wishing to sound overly critical, according to Darrell, the art work on display, it has to be said, does seem to reflect the whole ambience and mood of the hotel perfectly. To me, the uninitiated, the house in the picture above looks like it's wearing a Santa hat?? There again, perhaps I'm just a philistine in such matters of beauty being in the eye of the beholder!

But, I think even I can see this isn't the most inspirational of curations, all houses, every one bereft of people (as per our hotel) ....... and how shall I put it, joie de vivre maybe??? 

Oddly enough the painting in our room doesn't include a house, but Darrell says there's something unsettling about it. He can't make out if it's the creepy tree, with branches like fingers, waiting to reach out and grab you, standing in front of two very skinny, dark, forbidding, pointy mountains in the distance.  Something ain't quite right.

In all honesty, these are not the sort of art works that the fragrant Fiona Bruce would pour over for hours, visiting numerous experts and galleries and scraping off tiny samples of paint, trying to find their providence on Fake or Fortune!

And, is it just me, but are all pictures on the slant or is it simply the angle of my camera?  Sooooooo, I'll park that one with you, with apologies that we forgot to make a note of the artists name for any of you  who might be interested in enquiring as to making a commission. What are we like?

Peach Envy

One of the unexpected highlights of Hotel El Paradiso is the abundant peach tree we pass on the way to and from the beach.

Poor Darrell is beside himself with envy, the idea of having soooooo many glorious, ripe peaches on your very doorstep is almost too much for him to handle ......

...... dreaming of all the wonderful melbas, cobblers, tarts and coulis, to name but a few, he could rustle up and all for free! He could be so wantonly and openly abandoned with such plenty he sighed!

While here they just fall, unloved and cruelly wasted, a pain of a health and safety issue type nature, that has to be cleared up each day, but, by only goodness knows who?

It's all Darrell can do to drag himself away, with a million and one ideas of all that he could create, if said tree was anywhere near our estate.

Trust me, if he could smuggle a few in his suitcase when we go home he would........ heaven help me! 

Staying Late, Just Because We Can

We usually stay on the beach until seven o'clock in the evening, but yesterday we thought we'd go all rash, thrown caution to the wind and stay 'till nine, just because we could, living the full la vida loca ...... what are we like? 

We'd got absolutely nothing to do, except read an extra chapter or two of our books, there no one to text, phone or Facetime, we were as free as two proverbial birds in a pod! 

 

We could watch the other sunbeds gradually empty, the sun slowly go down and the sea turn from the brilliant turquoise of morning to the darker shades of sapphire as the day finally faded ...... as well as go all poetical on each other!!

We did leave the beach, temporarily, to fetch our tea ......

..... well, it would have been rude not to, especially as there was the availability of a most excellent souvlaki just a five minute walk away.  It certainly filled the spot, but Darrell did later confess to missing his de rigueur Kefalonia pie.

Now, sat sitting on an almost empty beach, Darrell became curious about the price and comfort of the "luxury" cabana's to our one side.

We've been paying 12 euros a day for our two sunbed, parasol and table combo, next door was fifteen, however with the weight of those beds, you just can't move them around to afford you more shade as the sun moves and that, in our books, is a big no no......

....... but with no one about, we thought it wouldn't hurt to just try out the facilities to see what, if anything, we've been missing.

To be honest, not a lot, apart from the potential romance of a gauze curtain that offered no proper shade.

If the ever fragrant Alice had been with us and wanted a little extra pampering and comfort, we would have probably treated her ......

....... but as rufty tufty blokes, we don't really require the extra tranklements of a maiden as fair as our beloved Alice ........ 

...... and with that, we both settled down, in silent and amiable companionship, embracing the cooling, eventide breeze and the everso gentle lapping of the waves ......... paradise found ...........

Happy Nights And Balcony Traditions

This is a relatively new holiday tradition for us, but nevertheless, one that has become one of our very favourites .......... 

....... to wit, we like to find a shop that sells the very large, foil wrapped chocolates common to Greece, buying one of each and then keeping them cold in our fridge until we return to our room after a night on the town. 

We then take a selection out on to the balcony each night to cut up, to compare, contrast and score as we also enjoy a cheeky, moon light nightcap!

And, this years night cap of choice? Well, that has been a very happy discovery, namely a Schweppes pink grapefruit soda, trust us when we get home this will be de rigueur in Darrell's cocktail cabinet, we absolutely LOVE it .........

...... which is all quite bizarre in itself, as we have never ever been any sort of aficionado of said fruit!

So once again happy, happy, happy days ....... 

............... and nights.  What a holiday so far, for soooooooooo soooooooooo many reasons!