Steni Vala

Steni Vala

 

This little hamlet is popular with yachting people and is a nice place to have a long lazy lunch.  If you walk around the point on either side of the harbour, you'll find a couple of our favourite beaches....  Petros Beach and Glyfa Beach.  There's a map in Petros Cottage, and if you use it with our good beach guide, it's easy to find.  It's not a long journey (nothing on the island is too far!) and the drive there is very picturesque.  Click on these photos for a better look.

Sky Blue Pink

Walking around the village at sunset.

One thing we really like to do after a hot day on the beach is to take a walk around the village just as the sun is setting.  The colours are amazing.....  our family calls this colour sky-blue-pink, but it's probably more like a sky-blue-orange. These electricity poles are slightly eccentric, and I love the shapes they make against the evening sky, but what we really like is that the electricity in the village has recently had a big upgrade and is now much more reliable than when we first visited Alonissos. 

 

Once the sun has set, the night sky has more stars than I've ever seen anywhere, shame my little compact camera isn't good enough to record it to show you. We love spending time up on our balcony to sky-watch, both the sunset and night sky are spectacular from there.....

A sunset from our balcony.

 

Bourgainvillea

Colourful bourgainvillea in our lane in Chora....  one grows next door to Petros Cottage, the other is opposite.  Just gorgeous!

Price Freeze!

***We've decided to keep our 2013 rental prices the same as they were in 2012***

Have a look at Petros Cottage with this link.

And here for some extra images, there are more here too!

Part of the courtyard

Alonissos in September

 

Clear water at Glyfa Beach, Alonissos

 

Sandy beach at Crissi Milia

 

Alonissos in September

 Lucky us, we've just spent a couple of weeks relaxing at Petros Cottage in the late summer warmth.  September is a great time to visit Alonissos, the beaches are empty and the sea is warm.  Here are a couple of photos of the clear, clear water round the island.

Mamma Mia

Did you catch Mamma Mia, the film, on tv the other night?  I don't like the movie (sorreeee....) as I'm not  fond of Abba's music or Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth looking so squirm-makingly (is that a word?) embarrassing.  I mean Pierce Brosnan in a cat suit at the end of the film?  Oh deary, dear......
But, here's the point, the film is set on Skopolos, which is the next island along from Alonissos, so the scenery in the film is stunning and very similar to the scenery on Alonissos. We can see Skopolos from most of the windows and from the courtyard in Petros Cottage, it's that close.
So when I'm really missing being at Petros Cottage, I watch Mamma Mia on dvd, but I confess to using the fast forward when necessary!
Here you go, a  Mamma Mia clip to give you a taste....

Milia Beach

Milia Beach, Alonissos

I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone, possibly because here in Suffolk we're still waiting for it to begin!  But we've got some time coming up when we'll be at Petros Cottage, and this beach is one of the treats we're looking forward to.  Gorgeous isn't it? 

Tsoukalia Beach

I'm not very good at using the video function on my little pocket camera, but if you turn your sound up you can hear (and see) how peaceful it was on the edge of the water on Tsoukalia Beach on a hot day earlier this year in May. Tsoukalia Beach has an abandoned windmill which now seems to be used by sheep and goats....  It's a very pretty beach, as  you can see in the photos below. Click on each pic for a larger view.

Butterfly

A swallowtail butterfly, lovely aren't they? There were loads on the island when we were there in May this year. 

The Record is 36

They say you make piles of stones like this if you want to come back.... well it's possibly true as you see these on several beaches in Alonissos throughout the season.  Some are quite fancy and engineered with small balancing stones, but mostly they're plain like mine.  This is my personal best, it's a 36-er.  If you're going to Petros Cottage this summer and make one with even more stones, send me a photo.  The gauntlet is down!

Blue Sky Day

How blue is that?  Believe it or not, this photo hasn't been enhanced in any way, it's straight off the camera.... ok, so the white of the parasol has made the blue look deeper, but otherwise this is just an unprocessed image. And this is what I'm so looking forward to on our next trip to Petros Cottage, blue sky and sunshine, mmmmmm........

Some Kind Words....

Hi Tony, Alison

Just a quick note to say what a fabulous time we have just had in Alonissos and to thank you both for enabling us to share your special house
Your cottage is fantastic...exactly what we were after
And time just stood still...it was as if we had been there for a month!!

Thanks again,
Emily and Stef

Aaah, thank you for those kind words Emily and Stef, we're very pleased you had a lovely time....

Coffee time at Petros Cottage!  Check out that sea view to see why the secluded
 courtyard is such

 a great place to just sit.....

There are some good tavernas and restaurants within minutes of here,

 but why move too far?

Unless it's for a laze on the beach?

Agios Dimitrios, towards the north of the island is great for swimming

 and the traditional taverna is right on the beach

 - very handy for a lazy lunch.  Check out that turquoise water!

It's Jubilee weekend in June, and we've lit the log fire because it's cold, wet and miserable in England.  So to cheer ourselves up we thought we'd browse through all the Alonissos photos we took while we were there this May, and put a little gallery of them online....

You can see images of Petros Cottages and some of our favourite beaches here http://www.pbase.com/flocolm/alonissos_2012 

Promise you they're not our holiday snaps!

Chrissy Milia Beach

So here's Chrissy Milia Beach, one of our favourites....

All ready for the new letting season

We've just got home from Alonissos... having had 2 weeks of glorious weather and a fabulous holiday. While we were there, we whitewashed the walls and refreshed the blue paint on doors and shutters, and added lots of new stuff that we took over with us from mainland Greece.  So now Petros Cottage looks lovely and is all ready for the summer letting season. But I do just have to tell you that we skived off most afternoons to spend time on the beaches and to swim at Chrissy Milia....

And our wonderful friends Sue and Trev surprised us with a visit from the next island where, unknown to us, they timed their holiday to co-incide with ours, so we partied for one of our holiday weekends. (Really great to see you guys! xx)

 This is a corner of the secluded and private courtyard - the sitting room door leads onto this vine-covered outdoor space as you can see....

An Alonissos Book

Tony ordered an Alonissos book called 'These Scattered Isles' online, when it arrived yesterday we were chuffed to see a photo of Petros Cottage on it's front cover. Judging by the clothes the two people in the foreground are wearing, it looks like it could have been taken in the 60s.....  We were surprised at how little our house has changed and how much the village has. The book is written by Kostas Mavrikis who built and installed the Alonissos museum in Patitiri harbour, worth a look if you're interested in Greek history.

Ouzo Hangings....

This is the roof of an open-to-the-elements, water-side Alonissos beach bar.  Fab decorations, no?  These empty little bottles once contained the local ouzo and now they tinkle in the breeze.............love them!  Just click on the photo for a better view.

Blue Skies, Turquoise Water

Click on this image to see how clear and clean the sea around Alonissos is.  The island sits in a marine park designed to protect wildlife, which means water sports are banned.  So the beaches are peaceful and the water is crystal.....

Things We're Looking Forward To.....

Oh so looking forward to being at Petros Cottage in a few weeks time.......it'll be early summer on Alonissos, the island will be covered in wild flowers and the beaches empty. Perfect.

Counting Down.....

Milia Beach

Ok, so we're officially counting down now..... it's only a few weeks until we go to Petros Cottage for our spring trip.  Whoo-oo!  Can't wait to open the first cold Mythos, soak up the sun and sit looking at our own sea views from the courtyard....  
Alonissos in early summer is stunning, have a look at this gallery of photos from last April/May. http://www.pbase.com/flocolm/alonissos_2011   Promise you they're not our holiday snaps, but they will give you more of an idea of the island and Petros Cottage and why we love them both so much....