mothandflo BalkansToBaltics: Day 32 - Tuesday 4 June

Tuesday 4 June

I had messed up our boat booking last February, so needed to go to the office sometime today. Luckily there is a ticket office just near the bnb, so we went after breakfast and sorted it, and got our tickets. I'm not sure about the payment, so we'll have to wait until it turns up on the visa statement (same as the care hire - have they deducted the deposit or not?).

Then we walked through the city plaza, and up 193 steps to the Patras Castle.

We hadn't come prepared to walking, with not sticks, hats or sunscreen. We went around to the gate of the castle, only to find it is closed on Tuesdays, but we didn't have time anyway. So we walked through the big park, and found another set of stairs to climb down.

Nikos our host was coming to check us out and our bags into his storage room because he has other people coming this afternoon. However, we decided that it would be inconvenient for all of us to have to come back in only 3 hours, so we took off down the road with our bags, and were waylaid by a taxi driver with a distinct Aussie accent. He was born in Melb, but returned 25 yrs ago, and now is here permanently with his Gk family. So we were at the dock by 12:30, for left-overs lunch and wifi, and to watch our ferry come in.

We boarded at 16:15. On the way across the dock in the bus our bags rolled, and the purple bag suffered damage to its handle. (We got a crew man with a screw driver to try and fix it, but he couldn't. This will mean a reshuffle of gear to make it light enough to carry.) There are not many passengers on board, but quite a lot of truck drivers, whose rigs make up most of the roro space.