Kefalonia, day 1. Backblip

Well this was our third visit to Kefalonia, kicking off with a 3 hour flight from Gatwick, taking off at 6am. Personaly i prefer these early morning flights, not so much traffic on the roads and the airport terminals are relatively quiet.
Travel to the airport, check-in, the flight and arrival on Kefalonia all went very smoothly..........
We stayed again for the third time in Apt 81, which is a self catering apartment on a small complex run by a company call UniqueVillasKefalonia.
Apartment website here........
My "Special Moments" flowed beautifuly through out the course of the day.......
1, After landing, the plane taxis' to the apron next to the small terminal, once the ground crew have secured the plane and the engines have stopped, the passengers start filing off the plane, down the steps and walk across the apron to the terminal.
My first special moment is when you step out of the plane, out of the dim cool interior and out into the warmth of a beautiful Greek morning..........The Holiday starts here..........."YES"..........
2, After clearing customs and collecting our luggage, we headed out through the terminal of be met by the rep from Venus Car Hire, who took us out side to the Suzuki Jimny we'd hired for the two weeks of our holiday. Venus car hire is a small business run by a guy called Costas and is based in Katelios.
I've hired a car from Costas on our three visits to Kefalonia, the cars have alawys been very clean and reliable, well they would be, only being a year old.
Many years ago Bev and i used to hire cars from the big multi-national companies such as Avis, but having booked a particular type of car over the internet with a large company, then on arrival at the airport they didn't have the car we'd booked, having an argument at a car rental desk isn't the way i want to start my holiday.
If i've booked an open top car from their web-site, and paid damn good money for the privellege, i don't consider a saloon car a suitable alternative.
If they can't supply the goods they advertise, they shouldn't be advertising at all, end of.
So now we always use small companies who are local to where we're going to stay, and christ knows the greeks need the money at the moment.
Venus Car Rental.........
So moment 2, is driving away from the airport in an open top car in glorious sunshine.
3, The journey from the airport to Lourdas takes about 15 minutes using the local lanes which have beautiful views out across the Ionian Sea. Lourdas is situated on the lower slopes on Mt Aenos, so the road that runs down through the village to the sea side is quite steep in places. There's a small road that runs the length of the beach, so after coming down through the village you have a t junction, at the junction the view ahead is that of a sandy beach with a stunning blue sea beyond.
4. Our Apartment is set back about 30 mtrs back from the beach and sits atop two levels of smaller apartments, adjacent to the beach and a little to one side of the apartment is a small restaurant called Clematis, this is our first port of call on our arrival to Kefalonia. As on our two previous visits to Kefalonia we sat at a small table only feet away from the sea, and enjoyed a couple of ice cool Heinekins, enjoying a large Greek Salad with some soft Greek Bread........Beautiful........
Late afternoon and early evening is taken up with getting unpacked, doing a little shopping and getting showered ready for going out for dinner.
We returned to Clematis for our meal, as in previous years, the food is superb with a very friendly staff and management. 10/10
5. The apartment has a very large balcony which is where we end our evenings, we pull the sofa forward to the edge of the balcony leaving enough room for a small table on which we place a couple of well earned drinks, and a small music centre, from there, we can see the island of Zankythos twinking in the distance, below couples walk back and forwards arm in arm along the beach, and over head either the moon looks close enough to touch or the stars put on a show which makes the Blackpool Illuminations look dull. Just Perfect.
Holiday 2012 has started.

Today's butterfly blip was taken at lunch time while having lunch at the Clematis restaurant, not a wasp in sight, just beautiful flowers and butterflies.