Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 26 Sep 2018, 07:36

Tuesday - Tolis

The plan was to meet up with Ö&L and head over to Tolis Beach for the day and after our usual breakfast that is exactly what we did.

This is a firm favourite of a place as it’s peacefulness is maintained by the fact that the taxi boats don’t service the beach and so it is the intrepid walkers, those who hire or have access to a vehicle and those who avail themselves of the Symi Tours trips that make it.

The sun beds are spaced out along the length of the beach and in the raised areas behind, where there is plenty of shade. As like most beaches on Symi access to the sea is over rocks but there is a jetty with a ladder that makes things easier and it is a shallow bay for quite a distance out. D did some snorkelling and saw a good array of different and one or two fabulously colourful fish.

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A Shady Spot Tolis

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Sea Creature ? D Snorkelling

And of course there is Taverna Daphne which is simply superb. Sitting quite high above the beach it is a beautiful building surrounded with very colourful plants and it was there that we had our frappé on arrival. Then we swam and after a short rest on the free sun-beds it was time for lunch.

A mezes of Daphne Salad, with that wonderful dressing, accompanied the totally yummy courgette fritters, tuna salad, tzatziki and the tenderest piece of grilled chicken from the bbq. A complimentary yoghurt with plumped up raisins ended a truly fabulous lunch.

We then had a couple of hours in the sun and then a beer to cool off in the shaded area of the taverna before returning to Pedi taking in the spectacular views of Symi and far off Turkey.

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Till Next Time Tolis

Being our last night in Pedi we wanted to savour this part of Symi that we have always loved and will definitely look to stay in again and so there was no debate about what we would do.

Ouzo and retsina in Katsaras beach bar watching the moon come up from behind the hills and bathe the bay in a silvery sheen. The light breeze that had started just as we had returned to the apartment increased and before long it became quite gusty.

And then we headed to quite a busy Apostolis where the side covers had been dropped to address the increasing wind. As the moussaka had been the best we have had we ordered that again alongside the kefedes that were light and gently spiced. To keep things light we included tuna fish salad and beetroot, that came with tiny slivers of pungent garlic. This taverna with its family feel and stand out traditional cooking is also excellent value for money.

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Beetroot & Tuna Salads

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Kefedes

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Magnificent Moussaka

And so for the final time this visit we walked the length of Pedi with the moon shining and the wind blowing and had our coffee and a piece of the delicious chocolate cake that Sevasti, the owner of the apartment, had left on the doorstep that morning and reflected that tomorrow it is all change.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby rockbottom » 26 Sep 2018, 08:36

Love reading your blog D and E and we're missing the island! Hopefully we'll make it next year! Are you staying in the new apartments at the beginning of pedi or further along by the hotel? It doesn't seem a year ago we were enjoying the island ourselves!
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 26 Sep 2018, 17:24

rockbottom wrote:Love reading your blog D and E and we're missing the island! Hopefully we'll make it next year! Are you staying in the new apartments at the beginning of pedi or further along by the hotel? It doesn't seem a year ago we were enjoying the island ourselves!


Thanks for the kind words Rockbottom.
Sými is missing you both.
We stayed at the far end of Pedi where the bus always turns. The ASymi apartments you refer to are at the other end of the bay and look very swish. Our place was perfect with a private balcony and being one flight of stairs up was a great viewing point. We loved it & will return there.
We are now in Nos looking out over Nimos as it gets dark. The wind has died down but we understand the scheduled Blue Star & the Dodek services that are due to head on after Sými are cancelled due to weather so this may affect arriving visitors due to be here this evening. The day boats between Rodos & Sými seemed unaffected today.
Now to decide on dinner .......
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 27 Sep 2018, 08:15

Wednesday - Moving

Our first ever week staying in Pedi came to an end with a final visit to the supermarket and breakfast on the balcony looking out over the bay and we vow to return as soon as we can.

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Bye Bye Pedi

We have enjoyed having the supermarket close by as although it denied D his much needed lengthier bread “run” each day it did mean that we didn’t have to stock up and popping over each day for just one or two things became part of the daily routine.

After breakfast we packed ready for the move and somehow so much easier than when packing to come over - the choice element of what to take is removed of course and this must be the time consuming factor.

We were picked up at 11:30 and were unpacked and settled in our new apartment by 12:30 sitting out on our balcony taking in the view of Nimos and that expanse of sea between Symi and Turkey and the departing Cypriot cruise liner.

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Hello Nos

We decided to take a walk round the port and booked a table for dinner on the way. Although we understand many Symi regulars departed on the early morning ferry there are still plenty of people going about.

We got as far as Elpida’s where some well known faces were waiting to depart on the Skiadeni later in the afternoon. An ouzo & retsina came with the complimentary mezes of small samosas with a curry filling and a plate of the salty ewe’s cheese, tomato, cucumber and the excellent salami - perfectly sized for the small carafe’s of ouzo and retsina that we have.

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The View From Elpida’s

We strolled on and had a natter with Takis, walked round the square where E purchased a very cute tin made boat that is a tea light. We had a look in a few shops before having a beer stop in the Corner Cafe which was very busy as were most of the cafe bars around the port. D’s techie “skills” were called upon to unstick a stuck till which was making things rather awkward for Yiannis and his mother but with a lot of laughter and a bit of brute strength the problem was solved.

E had caught the shopping bug as well as a coughing bug she picked up on the way over, so as she headed to the pharmacy, which she just missed, and the shops, which she didn’t, D returned to Elpida’s to watch the Skiadeni leave. We headed back to the apartment and as LisaB had mentioned the Carnagio Cafe in one of the threads on this Forum we decided to have a drink there. It came with complimentary cheese, ham, cucumber and dolmades. Our friends Ö&L were returning from St.Nicks so they sat down and had a drink with us and then J&M stopped and had a chat.

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The View From Carnagio Cafe

After getting ready for the evening we returned to Carnagio Cafe where we met the young owner Manolis and asked him to hold the mezes but had our usual ouzo & retsina. A short walk back for our 20:30 table at Tholos where we know it is always advisable to book and when we got there people were already sitting on the wall waiting for a table - such a popular place. A big table must have had a booking just before us as the staff were rushed off their feet attending to the 20+ strong party. But having to wait 15 to 20 minutes isn’t such an ordeal in this idyllic setting, watching a full moon rise over the hills and light up Yialos.

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Moonrise Over Tholos

Our table was such that the torch feature on our iPhones came in very handy to read the menu although the staff will provide a lantern if needed. We knew we would be having the grilled prawns to start. Four large prawns cooked on the bbq with lemon and a small pot of a Marie-rose type dipping sauce - simply the best. E followed this with spicy pork in mustard sauce with the best lemon potatoes there are. This was a good sized piece of pork cooked on the bone with a true mustardy sauce. D had his favourite dish of goat liver with onions and baked potato wedges - a dish he dreams about. A complimentary glass of honey ice cream was luscious. Having Tholos on our doorstep is possibly too handy.

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The Best Prawns

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Spicy Pork

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D’s Dream Goat Liver

We walked the short distance home and were sound asleep in minutes.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby Gemma1 » 27 Sep 2018, 16:46

Your photos are absolutely stunning. Looking forward to your updates from Yialos :D
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby silverfox » 27 Sep 2018, 18:01

Loving the moon picture.

Although we did not go to Tholos earlier this month their lemon potatoes are worth the booking alone.

I'm feeling an urge to get the oven on!

:)
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 28 Sep 2018, 08:21

silverfox wrote:Loving the moon picture.

Although we did not go to Tholos earlier this month their lemon potatoes are worth the booking alone.

I'm feeling an urge to get the oven on!

:)


E is now very proud with praise indeed from the pic maestro :D
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 28 Sep 2018, 08:23

Gemma1 wrote:Your photos are absolutely stunning. Looking forward to your updates from Yialos :D


Thank you Gemma - we split the pic duties, most taken on our iPhones - with the majority of those posted being taken by E.
Will post our first day in Yialos next & then read about more of your adventures.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 28 Sep 2018, 08:36

Thursday - The Gathering Clouds

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The View From The Nos Balcony

D had his first real bread walk but instead of taking the direct route turned towards Emborio before cutting back and going through the church that is high above Hirrani and then walking down the slope behind Odyssia.

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The View From The Bread Walk

In the port a super-yacht was having problems as it floated in the middle of the harbour revving its considerable engines. It spent the morning going out into the bay and back to the harbour and by mid afternoon it was moored on on the far side of the port and looked caput. Poseidon headed out early and appeared to be on its way to Pedi where it is often chartered by a tour operator that uses the Pedi Beach Hotel as its base.

The shops and cafes around the port were starting to open and there was the usual exchanges of “Kalimera”. D had decided to try the new Panormitis bakery on the square rather than his usual near the bridge and returned with a €1 still warm bread with a sesame seed crust that could have fed a small village.

E prepared breakfast which we had with our new view and as D did the photos and the blog the first clouds we had seen on this visit started gathering above the Vigla and in doing so started to darkened slightly.

With time escaping as it does on Symi it was 11:30 before we started out. Having missed the pharmacy the day before we decided that would be our aim with a frappé stop at Cafe Aiglios where we also had a fresh orange juice. The skies kept changing with clouds breaking to let the sun through but the overall theme was one of worsening weather which everyone had been predicting and was being declared as far worse up beyond Kos.

When E was in the pharmacy D settled himself in Katoi Cafe with a small beer and before long his early warning system (his bald head) picked up the first few drops of rain. There was then about half an hour of spasmodic splashes that couldn’t even be given the title showers but it did make Katoi extend its awning which in turn encouraged us to sit and have an ouzo & retsina and watch the hustle and bustle of the port along side a first time Symi visitor who was very much enjoying her stay.

Our original plan for the day had been to walk to Emborio but as often happens with plans on Symi...... E went for a wander around the back streets and D moved onto the Stella Bar for his first visit and encountered a fellow Scot who was on a day trip on the St.Nicholas. Fancying some of those wonderful mezes we had our daily ouzo & retsina in Elpida’s where a large party of departing visitors were having a farewell and the place was packed. By now it was past 4pm and so we headed back to the apartment where the $100,000,000 mega-super yacht Savannah was moored just off Nos. Google informed us that it is owned by a Greek-Canadian oil & gas magnate whose personal wealth is in excess of $2bn and that the ship can be chartered for $1,000,000 per week so we didn’t wait for the invite to go aboard.

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This Is What $100,000,000 Buys

Instead we, along with Ö&L, had been invited to a traditional Greek table for dinner so that was what we did and it was amazing tasting things that one wouldn’t encounter in any taverna, or in any of the tavernas that we have visited.

This was one huge mezes including needle fish done two ways - cured in salt and kept in sunflower oil and also fried in flour; sea snails; preserved stalks of oregano; mild & strong skordalia; herbed potatoes; tuna salad; shredded cabbage; octupus cooked in red wine; pickled caper leaves with feta; fried galeos (a small shark type fish) with a local unbranded dark retsina, this was a Greek gastronomic experience and pleasure we will never forget. If D had to single out one dish, and that is almost impossible, it would be the octopus and for E the fried needle fish.

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The Mega Super Yacht As We Head To Bed

And so another experience and another day on wonderful Symi came to an end and the wind stared to blow.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby Gemma1 » 28 Sep 2018, 15:52

Wow $1,000,000 per week :shock: Can you imagine how many holidays in Greece you could have for that...
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 29 Sep 2018, 07:31

Friday - Walking

After a blustery night where gusts of wind were loud enough to wake D at least, we woke to a cloudy morning but with some scattered blue clouds; a perfect day for walking we thought.

Ö&L had given us some spare bread. This, added to D’s supplies from the previous day, made a bread walk unnecessary. It was therefore 08:30 before we surfaced and around 09:00 before breakfast which had the added amusement, as it often does when staying here, of the shenanigans of Dimitris on Nos Beach. He is desperately trying to make the beach a sandy one and is using a hand-driven mini-tractor that first of all dug itself into a great hole and then conked out due to over revving. His f’ing & blinding reassured us that there is some commonality between our languages.

Breakfast, blog and the usual things took us until 10:30 before we set off on the Nimborios road. It seemed that other people had thought the same as there were numerous walkers doing the “circuit”. We went as far as the shack below the Niredes Apartments / Hotel and had a frappé there. Turning back at this point we then took the right turning which is less prominent than it used to be due to a new house being built where the steps takes you up onto the track to St.Georges Church and over the top to Yialos.

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Just A Lovely Boat

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Looking Down Towards The Shack

The church was open so we took the opportunity of taking some photos.

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Looking Towards Nimborios From Church of St.George

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The Courtyard

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The Alter

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A Fresco

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The Font

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Lighting

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Looking Towards Nimos


Then we headed down past the small holdings and cemetery and went round by the area that had been damaged by last year’s storm and noted the great progress that has been made in sorting things out.

We arrived in Yialos to once again find it very busy with day trippers. None of the taxi boats had gone out and neither had Poseidon. The Dodekanisos service called in during the morning and headed onwards and returned, bound for Rodos, later in the day.

We had a beer stop in the Corner Cafe where D’s “techie talents” were called upon again. This time to get the MP3 player to link through the laptop onto the WiFi and get the Greek background music playing. That done we shared a very good cheese & ham omelette before E headed to the supermarket for some provisions and then rendezvousing where else but Elpida’s. The complimentary spetzofai mezes today was scrumptious. We watched the St.Nicholas, ZeusD and Skiadeni all leave and then walked back to the apartment in the late afternoon under blue skies and full sun but with there still being a strong breeze blowing in from Nimos. No one can predict if the storms battering other parts of Greece will hit Symi this weekend but if they do the betting is on Sunday being the worst day.

We had decided that fish should be on the menu so first of all we headed to Elpida’s for our nightly pre-dinner ouzo & retsina and watched the traffic emanating from the Blue Star arrival at the new jetty.

We returned to Hirani and Odyssia for dinner. Having been regulars at this place since it was a simple cafe bar we were given the Manolis bear hug and the traditional welcome from the lovely Katholiki. We were offered a drink and E stuck with her retsina. The small bottle that we had never seen before proved to be a hit. D went for ouzo and was shocked when a half-carafe appeared - there is generosity and then there’s lethal generosity but we are confident that what he left will be in the mussels cooked in ouzo the following day. We shared a starter of lovely sardines cooked on the bbq. E followed this with a good sized sea bream that was cooked whole on the bbq and came with broccoli, carrots, very nicely prepared oven potatoes and a small pot of tartare sauce. D had the amberjack fillet which came with the same accompaniments and was grilled to perfection. A complimentary creme caramel hit the spot perfectly. Although with the change in chef the menu has been curtailed somewhat there is still a good choice and the cooking we experienced was to a fine standard.

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A New Brand Of Retsina - Hit

We were the last customers so we spent some time catching up with Manolis at his table before heading round the corner under a cloudy sky but the wind had dropped away considerably.
Last edited by D and E on 29 Sep 2018, 07:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 29 Sep 2018, 07:40

Friday - Food (omitted from earlier post - sorry :oops: )

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The View Over Dinner

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Sardines

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Sea Bream

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Amberjack


Maybe we hit a pic limit with all those church photos :?:

Just for info it is a sunny Saturday morning with a few clouds going around and the occasional gust of wind - still difficult to say what the weather may do today. The Dodekanisos has just been through but there is little else in the way of shipping activity in the bay.

So maybe a walk up to Chorio is in order - far too early to say ;)
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby silverfox » 29 Sep 2018, 14:51

D and E wrote:
So maybe a walk up to Chorio is in order - far too early to say ;)


Can I hear Yianni calling?

:D
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 29 Sep 2018, 14:55

silverfox wrote:
D and E wrote:
So maybe a walk up to Chorio is in order - far too early to say ;)


Can I hear Yianni calling?

:D


The calling is strong today :shock:
Visited this morning & heading up again soon.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby Allan » 29 Sep 2018, 16:03

D and E wrote:Friday - Food (omitted from earlier post - sorry :oops: )

Maybe we hit a pic limit with all those church photos :?:


I think you might have!
There was a limit of 10 pictures per post which is the default setting for the forum software. To be honest, I had no idea that setting was there!

I say "WAS" because I've now changed the limit to 20 images per post so keep posting! :D
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby Gemma1 » 29 Sep 2018, 16:22

Another great report and laughing at the language coming from Nos beach. One of the problems I have when trying to post photos from my phone is that it asks me to log in every single time - I don't seem to have that problem when I'm using the netbook - though it is dreadfully slow. Maybe I need to investigate in more up to date technology ;)

Lovely photos once again and especially inside the church, it's always been locked when I've been.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby JuliaB » 29 Sep 2018, 17:01

The little chapel on the way to Nimborio is well worth a visit. We used to think it was always locked until we discovered the knack of opening the door. Do persevere if you're in that direction again, Gemma.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby silverfox » 29 Sep 2018, 18:33

It's always been locked everytime i've done the walk. I mean the gate too not just the church.

Does anyone have information of when all the churches or open?
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby Allan » 29 Sep 2018, 21:59

These days I always assume a church is locked. It's a sad sign of the times I'm afraid. It's always worth trying the door though and I've been pleasantly surprised to find some churches unlocked on occasion.

The gate at Ag Georghios above Nimborio has always been open when I've visited although you have to reach through the gate to release the latch on the inside.
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Re: Ready Steady Pedi (& Nos)

Postby D and E » 30 Sep 2018, 09:01

Allan wrote:
D and E wrote:Friday - Food (omitted from earlier post - sorry :oops: )

Maybe we hit a pic limit with all those church photos :?:


I think you might have!
There was a limit of 10 pictures per post which is the default setting for the forum software. To be honest, I had no idea that setting was there!

I say "WAS" because I've now changed the limit to 20 images per post so keep posting! :D


Thanks Allan - will do our best :)
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