We decided it was time to get some walking under our belts today. We piled onto the 10.30 bus from Skopelos to Glossa and got off at Palio Klima about an hour later, ready to head to the hills. It was a bit overcast, not so good for sun worshippers on the beach, but ideal for elderley Munro baggers out of their native element.

The walk from Palio Klima to Skopelos took us from one side of the island to the other, over probably three quarters of its length, and over its highest hill - Delphi (no, not that one) at 681 metres. The vast majority of the way is on forest tracks, with the odd bit of road and some stretches of footpath.

The weather meant the views to the neighbouring islands were not as clear as they might be, but it was a small price to pay for very comfortable walking conditions. The Skopelos Trails book only led us astray aa couple of times, but in fairness, we were doing the walk “back to front”.

We were back in Skopelos eating some really disgusting chocolate buns at 17:00 or so. When it comes to making sicky buns, the Greeks take a lot of beating. For once, we were not spotted by other wedding guests Some of the early arrivals have started to drift off - Donald and Mal, and Mandy and Rosie had left by the early ferry this morning.

Text from Rachel while we were eating dinner to say that the evening’s excursion was cancelled. There had been plans to meet up at 21:00 and go to the open-air cinema to see Mamma Mia (what else?), but it was too windy and the cinema was closed. We’d noticed a slightly autumnal feel to the air, with the odd drop of rain and a stream of leaves falling on us during dinner.

With the evening free, we decided to do some shopping. I’d had problems topping up my mobile from my Visa card earlier in the day and had to use my debit card instead. After a couple of failed attempts in shops it became obvious our credit card had been stopped, and after a couple of failed attempts at ATMs it looked like our debit cards had been stopped too. This was particularly irritating as we’d carefully rung the credit card centre to tell them we were off to Greece for a week.

Back at the hotel we counted up our Euros, cursed the bank, and wondered how to complete our holiday with no plastic. Then the mobile rang and a robotic voice from the bank took me through recent debit card transactions, and asked me to confirm one by one they were ok. The process was painfully slow - “don’t you know this call is costing me money and you won’t let me top up my phone?”

Looks like tomorrow will be spent on the phone to the bank…

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