Travel Tips

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P.Tirou

TRIPS OUT

We had trips out in the car most days, revisiting lots of places previously visited in other years(which I will hopefully get round to writing about soon) and discovering new places as well.
Paralia Andreas is about 8 kms. south of P.Astros.It's a lovely drive down to the coast from the main road.Look out for the old stone bridge in the dry bed of the river Vraiotis.The road ends at a tiny harbour and fish farm, with a tiny spit of beach. There's also an interesting lagoon teeming with wild life. One solitary taverna caters for the visitor, drink prices being the same as P.Astros.There is a chapel and some pretty, old buildings. There seemed to be what looked like changing rooms along the harbour edge. We were the only customers at the taverna.
On the way out of P.Andreas we gave an old Greek lady a lift up to the main road. She kept crossing herself and muttering over and over again.Was it something to do with Nick's driving??

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P.Tirou From Harbour

Paralia Tirou

Paralia Tirou is about 28kms. south of P.Astros and is quite a bit larger and has a long pebble beach. Again this is a resort for the Greeks in high season with lots of eating places, not open at lunchtime in May. The whole town seemed almost deserted apart from a large crowd at the northern end of the beach. On passing we realised a dead dolphin or porpoise had been washed ashore and much poking and prodding was going on.
P.Tirou is a picturesque place with a lovely mountain backdrop.
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Contingency Picnic

Paralia Tirou

Not finding anywhere open to eat we had to resort to the contingency picnic(Greek staples such as salami, cheese, tomatoes crisps, bread, tiropita and retsina fresh from the coolbag. What a feast!!)
We ate by the children's playground, by the harbour wall not realising there was building work being carried out and dust was blowing everywhere. A bit of a gritty meal!

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Hot Beach

Paralia Tirou

Passing the crowd on the beach again, we realised that the poking and prodding had turned into butchery and the beast was skinned and being divided up(or was it a natural history class preserving it for posterity?)

We found a beach all to ourselves here by following a narrow coastal road out of the town northwards. There was quite a lot of sea-borne rubbish here so we felt it eas our duty to tidy the beach up.The swimming was excellent but shoes were needed as the pebbles were so hot. There was shade for when it becme too hot.

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Sleepy Village

Xiropigado

Xiropigado is about 10kms. north of P.Astros.
A small seaside village which had been tidied up since our previous visit some years ago. Very attractive.
It was incredibly sleepy and was hard to believe it would ever get busy although there was plenty of accommodation.

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Another Crowded Beach

The beach is narrow and gritty and most inviting in the morning sun.

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Fancy a Swim?

We had a drink at the taverna/restaurant Blue Sky and were probably under charged here with an Amstel and a coke costing 2.20eur. Very friendly service.

We were greatly entertained here by some locals using a pedalo minus it's pedals as their boat's tender. They nearly swamped the whole thing and just about made it to the jetty! A good morning's people watching.

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Big Pot

Ancient Lerna

Some miles north of P.Astros is ancient Lerna. An archeolgical wonder? built out of layers of stone tiles. The whole site was was housed in a large, corrugated iron shed. I'm afraid we didn't find it terribly exciting and the most memorable part of the visit was sighting a snake. That's the uneducated for you!!