Get Her to the Greek: Day Six

^{We enjoyed a huge breakfast on the terrace, overlooking the calm blue sea.}

I have to say I loved making breakfast each day. The Greek fridge looks so simple and fresh, nothing like my refrigerator at home with stacked up re-used butter containers holding God-know-what, at least 7 different half empty jars of mustard, and an excessive volume of condiments. This refrigerator made me excited about making food.

We decided to start our day by finding Pessada Beach.

All I knew was that it was beautiful and hard to get to.

I didn’t know we had to trek down 9,857 steps in the blazing sun to reach it.

We stood at the top looking down. “Do you want to do it?” I asked Matt. “I won’t be mad if you don’t want to do it.” I was desperately hoping he’d take this generous offer and proclaim he’d rather find some easy loungers that would require no more than 10 steps from the car door.

“Let’s do it,” he said with enthusiasm.

Damn his enthusiasm.

We were about halfway down when we reached a man who was bent over at a 90 degree angle at the waist, clutching his knees, heaving for breath. Sweat was pouring down his back and his face was an unnatural shade of pink.

I knew I was in trouble. Later. Going down was easy.

The beach was beautiful. And SMALL. But beautiful.

We found a little place to spread out on a large flat rock and took a swim. After drying back out and enjoying a bit of sun, we decided to head to lunch, as this beach had no facilities, food, or drinks.

This meant it was time to go back up those 12,986 steps. I know I said 9,857 before, but I was pretty sure more steps had been added while I was napping on a rock.

After stopping approximately 14 times, each time pretending I simply needed to adjust my sandal or wanted to look back out at the view (secretly hoping Matt couldn’t hear my ragged breathing), I made it back up.

We drove down to Lourdas Beach to find Klimatis Tavern. What we found was a delightful restaurant with the beach in front and towering mountains in back. We passed through a garden to reach the entry. The tables were set under a grape arbor that hung thickly with purple grapes. Of course, several cats played nearby, hoping for a dropped bit of fish or a tidbit of chicken.

We had one of our favorite meals that day: delicious cheese stuffed peppers, mussels in a mustard garlic broth, a fresh salad with tomatoes and barley rusk, baked halloumi cheese with tomatoes, meatballs, and a tomato and basil risotto.

On the way home, we stopped at Klimatsias Beach and enjoyed drinks at Waterway Café, overlooking the beach and group of large topless women below.

With such a stunning villa view, we had wine on the deck before heading to dinner.

Not wanting to make another mistake and eat at Denny’s Acropolis, I had made a reservation at Cavo Liakas, an enchanting little restaurant in the nearby village of Spartia. This adorable tavern in the center of the village was dripping with ivy and glowing with warm light.

Our dinner came with cats as well as traditional Greek sausages, mushrooms baked with cheese, and two fish dishes – a bream for Matt and salmon for me. For dessert, we had their crazy good custard pie.

Yes, we were getting very fat, indeed.