We booked this holiday on a Thursday three weeks ago, the day Greece was confirmed as "Amber". Every 3rd Thursday or Friday the Transport Secretary tweets the new list of Red, Amber and Green countries. Perhaps I am old fashioned but shouldn’t he announce them in Parliament or write them on parchment and pin the up outside Number 10?
You can imagine someone being prosecuted for not following the rules and the prosecution having to explain to a judge what is meant by a "tweet"
The new list comes into effect at 4am on the following Monday morning. Greece was Amber so we were safe until this Sunday but as a precaution we have flights booked home then. We will have to have a covid test before we leave and another next week but all fairly straight forward.
If Greece were to go Red we must return home on Sunday otherwise we are spending 10 days in a hotel eating room service but if it were to go Green then coming home on Sunday means we need tests, delay a day and no tests required.
So you can see people on holiday become obsessed by the tweets from the Transport Secretary who today is Grant Shapps but tomorrow who knows. At the time of writing this blog no announcement has been made.
Thursday was an up and down day. The snag with island hopping is the day you move on is governed by ferry times and somehow you feel you are wasting time. I know a Greek holiday should be slow, slow and more slow but the clock watching takes over on “ferry” days. So Thursday morning we wandered along the beach, admired the remains of a Roman bath house and had a long lunch before the ferry arrived.
We (I) decided we would stay out of town on Skiathos this time as we had sussed out the excellent bus service. The hotel I booked said we needed to get off at stop 15 which we did. There were lots of signs to places to stay but not ours, I tried ringing them, no answer, the Booking.com map said the hotel was 20 yards away, it wasn’t. I was beginning to feel we had been conned.
After 30 minutes of marching up and down (in 30 degree heat), asking locals etc etc we eventually found the place, very hot and sweaty and extremely cross. This was the down part of the day. Our suite (yes it’s a bit swanky, pictured below) is very good and then I discovered a highly recommended restaurant about 10 minutes walk away, it was great, so good we have booked for the next two nights. So by 9pm I was very much “up”.
Today we collected a hire car and set off to explore Skiathos. There are two "must see" sites (other than the beaches), the city of Kastro which was built on a rock outcrop to deter invaders, it had 1,500 inhabitants and 20 churches in quite a small area, four of the churches survive.
The second site is the Evagelistria Monastery whose claim to fame is that in 1807, a group of Greek freedom fighters met at the monastery and swore the Oath of Freedom on a newly designed Greek flag, a white cross on a sky-blue background, which was woven on a loom at the site. The loom is still there but for some inexplicable reason other than they want to sell postcards, photography was not allowed.
By the time I write the next blog entry we should know if we are red, amber or green - gosh isn't this exciting!