Sunday, 9 June 2024

Friday 7th June 2024 – Aboard the Florencia ferry to Ancona

 

We drove into Igoumenitsa about midday, shopped at Lidl and another supermarket for essential Greek goods that we wanted to take home. We left the van parked up close to the Archaeological Museum and walked a short distance to find a restaurant. It was a Gyro taverna but also did oven-cooked dishes. Jane had moussaka and I had a half-and-half combination of yigantes and chicken and pasta. Both dishes were enormous and very reasonably priced. What is more, we were able to sit outside, under cover, a great relief given that the temperature was at least 35 C. We moved on to find another cool spot for a coffee and then went back to the van. The temperature inside the van was 50 C – I had to remove the steering wheel lock with oven gloves as it was in the direct sun.
We drove to the port where, with typical Greek efficiency, the signs for the international port were completely wrong. Even though we had booked on-line, we had to pick up the tickets from an office. By luck, we found the office but then discovered that they had closed it and ‘moved to T1’. Needless to say there was no indication where T1 was and no signage off the road. Fortunately, we saw some parked motorhomes and turned into a car park to discover the T1 building. The boat was actually scheduled to leave an hour after our tickets said and we had to wait another hour before we could carry on into the port itself. I got out the seats and we sat in the shade of a high lorry conveniently parked next to us. When the appointed hour came, I had to take the van into the port whilst Jane had to go through the T1 building – why?????. I used the mobile phone to tell Jane where I was so that she could join me.
Eventually, we boarded the ferry, found our cabin and selected a comfortable position in the lounge to watch the French Open Tennis on the TV. I must say that after the extreme heat of the last few days, we were very grateful for the ferry air conditioning.
Photos: When we work up this morning we found a new arrival at the campsite – this German fire wagon, still with all its original paintwork, had been converted by its owner; The leaving of Igoumenitsa and Greece but we will be back!



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