Category: Food

Mycenae

Revisted Mycenae after having read Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls. Felt we now knew more about Agememnon and the site would be more meaningful. It’s an amazing place and I get a real sense of the past from being there. The beehive tombs are extraordinary pieces of architecture and it must have been so exciting to have discovered them.

  • Lion gate
  • Lion Gate Mycenae
  • Grave circle
  • Grave circle
  • Back gate to the citadel
  • Entrance to the beehive tomb of Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra
  • Ceiling of beehive tomb of Clytemnestra

The museum contains some good examples of pottery 3000 years old with descriptions of history of the period.

And lastly, we stayed overnight at a camperstop by a cafe just down the road from the site. Very friendly guy running the place. It would have been better if we’d spent less time on breakfast and got to the site earlier, but what a fabulous location

  • Eggs and avo on toast

The Mani

Stayed at the campsite at Stoupa for a week and went on some great walks and a good bike ride. The countryside is fantastic for hiking but you have to watch out for paths on the map that disappear on the ground!

  • Pretty village of Agios Nikolaos
  • Guess who we met on our walk
  • Mountain tea at Kastania
  • Stifado with mushrooms – delicious!
  • Walking back to Kardamyli

First night in Spain

We arrived in Santander and decided that the one Camperstop in the town would be full up, so drove for 30 minutes to a delightful medieval village called Santillana del Mar. This had a great big Aire on the edge of the village with a few other vans

The village was just five minutes walk and we found a most acceptable restaurant up a little cobbled street, especially for Valerie’s birthday. A €16 menu 3-course meal including a bottle of Rioja ticked all the boxes.

I would definitely recommend it for a night’s stop when coming off the ferry

Varkala – best dosa in town!

It seems to be the case that Dosas are only served at certain times of day – mainly in the morning for breakfast but we found one place in Cochin (Sri Krishna mentioned in a post right at the beginning of the trip) they were only served at lunchtime.

Today we really fancied a dosa for lunch but the Ootupura restaurant only served them up to midday. But the man there told us that if we really wanted a dosa we could get one in a little place a few minutes away in the main road. So we walked in the blazing sun, weak from hunger ( we’d got up very early so we could do yoga on the beach before the sun got hot), and eventually came to a little unprepossessing eating place at the side of the road. And there we had the best dosas either of us had tasted. Freshly prepared especially for us

and the two together cost 96 rupees (just over £1).

I don’t know the name of the place but it’s just further up the hill from the Krishna supermarket on the way up from the temple junction. Here’s a photo.

if you’re in Varkala it’s definitely worth a visit.

Varkala – Spice shop

Just down the road from our hotel is a delightful spice shop with spices from the owner’s spice farm in Munnar. We have stocked up with Masala spices but also have discovered Keralan raw chocolate – It is delicious !!!

But also he has raw cacao and I’ve discovered that it’s very good for you. You can buy cacao nibs back in England and add them to your breakfast. Yum

Varkala – fishing village

We went for an early morning walk along the long long beach to a fishing village. The fishermen were hard at work bringing in their canoes.

We decided to explore the village and found a little place selling chai. So of course we had some sitting outside on the step. Then the lady suddenly brought out an appam on a plate for us, and then a second appam, and then some sambar. So unexpected and it was delicious

 

 

Takeaway thali for the train

16649 Parasuram Express

Travelling by train today from Cochin down to Varkala – a four hour journey. Found a lovely veg restaurant which did us a thali takeaway (South Indian Thali Parcel it was called).

delicious and we managed not to spill any!

The restaurant is also part of a hotel and we’re going to stay the for our last couple of nights. Simple but clean rooms with a/c for £26. It’s called OYO Gokul Ottupura. The restaurant is lovely.