Liverpool, United Kingdom

I got tugged from my sleep by a sickening familiar feeling of anxiety as the bed swayed in a building which felt more like a boat on the ocean as the sizeable earthquake moved it backwards and forwards or it may have been sidewards. Holy s*t, of all the places to be in an earthquake – rubbly Greece, full of ruins and on the top floor of a dated hotel.

I hate earthquakes after experiencing our big one in 1987, and whilst I cope with them at home (cause you have no choice really) I have some comfort in knowing what to do in our open spaces and knowing our earthquake building standards give some insurance. Not here. It was severe enough to wake Vernon instantly too – and he is a lot calmer than I. Nothing to do but wait and see if it subsided, which it did and then I put on a dress – in case I needed to make a hasty escape. Vern went back to sleep (grrrrr) and I lay there waiting for after shocks of which there were none of notice. I started googling the iPad to find information on it and it was a 5.2, in a town not too far from Athens – on the other side of the peninsular and 5km deep. Apparently Greece does have big ones, and back in 1999 one killed 143 people.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep before it was the early start of 6am to get organised and breakfasted before we left. The hotel price included breakfast and it was quite good for a hotel, including some lovely fresh hot spinach and cheese filo twists. I also made sure I savoured my last bowl of genuine Greek Yoghurt which I love some much, especially with a modest drizzle of runny honey.

The train to the airport was packed, and we ended up having to stand most of the way. It is a big saving though, €8 each verses €35-50 for a taxi. Check in went smoothly and we boarded our ezyjet flight to Geneva first, where we had to change for the flight to Liverpool. We had booked front row seats for this leg – you pay a little extra – and it was really nice to have extra leg room and priority boarding and exiting.

Before moving on, final thoughts on Greece. The opening photo is of a stray dog – I forgot to mention it but they have heaps here. What we may perceive as a problem is just one of those things here – and apparently the locals tend to feed and look after them although they are definitely strays. If there are any aggressive ones dog control will destroy them – otherwise they are essentially ignored. We also saw at least 20 mangey cats at the base of the Acropolis. The dogs are typical of the photo and large – Labrador and bigger. Often with hair as long as a German Shepherd. Kind of made me sad to see them with no one to love them as they just hang around everywhere. There was even one half bald with mange hanging around the cafe at the Corinthian canal, when it came onto the deck it just got mildly shoed away. At the Ancient Corinth site there was a whole pack with Ma, Pa and puppies.

And our time in Greece? I have been quite frank about the things that we found not so appealing and don’t want to give the impression that we have not had a good time – we have. We have seen much, experienced much, eaten more ….. and pleased we came. However, of all the countries we have visited in Europe, Australasia and Americas it is one of two we have no desire to return to for more. If its ancient ruins and history – Italy has a lot to offer. If its sun and beaches – Italy and Spain, Croatia, beat it. Food was good, but Greek food in Melbourne is equally if not better. The people and easiness and experience? This regard it was disappointing for us. So as mentioned before, unless you are a real ancient Greek History buff or there is some other unique reason for coming here you would probably have a better experience elsewhere.

So back to our journey – the flight was great and we had 4hrs in Geneva to wait before our next flight and we saw free train tickets to town for 90 minute duration. Long story short on this, the airport is so big we had trouble finding the train part – the airport joins a regional station all undercover and we couldn’t find the metro. Then it was going to cost us equivalent NZD$35 to store our bags for a couple of hours, and we were too early to check them in. So we settled for a lunch in a cafe in the complex and waited till our flight. We both were a bit tired and wanted to go into town but the thought of missing our connection and the bag storage price was a big deterrent. Experience has shown us that while you think you have time to do something, it can soon run out if you miss a train or bus.

Lunch was lovely and expensive as one would expect of Switzerland. I enjoyed those jellied over little sandwiches, one of which was a celeriac mousse and absolutely delicious. Th other was a lobster one …. the sweeties were a mocha eclair and a chocolate mousse cake with a crunchy base like a rice or wafer crisp, my my NOM NOM award there.

As it happened as we were waiting they were late in announcing the gate for us and then by the time we got there (big walk) we were like 5 minutes late and a cow of a boarding attended growled us in a condescending manner. I ignored her but Vern did have better manners and apologised just to get her to let us on the freaken plane!!!

Flight was not long to Liverpool and as it appeared as we were descending through light cloud I felt a little thrill seeing the neat green flat land, wind turbines in the bay and the wide Mersey river. Airport staff were really cheerful and nice, and our hotel just across the road, booked for convenience as we have a bit of travel ahead of us.

We went to a neighbouring hotel for dinner a couple of km down the road as the one we are staying at only has bar food and a bad reputation for that. As time was moving on we took a cab and were thrilled to hop in one of those funny black english London cab (actually they come in all sorts of colours). We had a right giggle like a couple of kids as the scouse accented driver asked where we wanted to go!

Dinner was a burger for Vern, and salmon for me which was very nice and reasonable. Its not as rich as NZ salmon and I got a big piece for equivalent $15 – not bad at all. Vern fries got served in a mini metal bucket which was cute. Nothing flash, but nice and washed down by some good ale!

We have a view of the Mersey from our room and I am very drawn to it – have no idea why but its calling me! We are here for 4 nights, so it is nice to be able to open our bags up a bit and set up camp. Early start tomorrow again, as we fly to the Isle of Man for the TT race.