Ioannina is the home of bougátsa and it’s absolutely delicious!! There is a little cafe called ‘Select’ whose decor hasn’t changed since the 70s. It only sells bougátsa which are made in the kitchen at the back of the shop by the owner whose picture is below. It’s served warm straight from the oven. There are two types savoury and sweet – no prizes for guessing which one we had.
The guide book calls it a kind of custard tart but this nowhere near describes it!
In every cafe we went into (and there were quite a few) we were given free pastries along with our coffee and tea. Each one was better than the last and the locations more and more beautiful. We thoroughly recommend chilling out sitting on a sofa at Cafe Imar (HMAP in Greek) on Aristotelous – fabulous.
I discovered a fantastic health food shop, and even better it was 5 minutes walk from our parking spot by the sea.
It’s called Greenhouse Bio, address Mitropolitou Gregorious Kallidou 108. They have a massive selection of vegan, gluten free, vegetables, bread etc. Definitely 5*.
With olive oil and vinegar- delicious!!
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.
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
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!
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
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.
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
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
