We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way........"
As we came to the end of what has been a very successful season, (90 gigs in 18 weeks; an average of 5 per week) our last visitor arrived. Carmel flew into Corfu all the way from Oz, (via London, Paris, York & Leeds)
Carmel and Liz ..........(our house is just over the hill behind them!)She spent 3 days with us on the island chilling, as part of her 4-week trip to see family & friends in Europe. So we treated her to sea, sun, fine dining and of course a Keith gig.
The weather held fine for the duration of her visit. The first day though the sea was rough which gave Carmel chance to show off her body surfing skills she has picked up in Oz,
.........plenty of surf
but the next 2 days the sea was like a lake so swimming across the bay before breakfast was the order of the day. (Obviously not Liz ;O))
As we were winding down from all the gigging we had most nights free and we reintroduced Carmel to Jenny, they last met at our wedding 4 years ago, she is now running the Mythica restaurant with her partner Leo; and to Stefano & Athina and family at the Condor Bar. She also had the pleasure of meeting some of the other musos from the UK, who live this strange lifestyle of gigging all night, sleeping all day or just hanging out in bars. She was amused to find that we were known as Keith & Keithena (Liz) or Keith & Mrs Keith and Carmel became known as Miss Keith by some of the local bar owners.
We ate out with our friends Bev and Bob, and took Carmel to their house to see their new baby chickens. 
Keith, Bob, Bev and Liz in the Athens Bar
And of course we did the “Waves” Taverna lunch,
the Condor breakfast, and the final gig of the season was fittingly at the 5 star hotel “Restina Suites” for a chill out evening with a great atmosphere. 
Keith played at the 5 star every Sunday night all season
It was sad to say goodbye to people who have become good friends over the past 5 months but we can look forward to seeing them again next year as lots of work has been pencilled in for the 2010 season.
It took us no time at all to pack up our house having done this for the last 3 years. We stored away our belongings ready to do this all over again next year. Our house overlooks the sea and even in the height of summer everything is fairly damp, so all our clothes, bedding and towels are vacuum packed, and stored in breathable boxes, so that they don’t rot away during the winter. We gave everywhere a quick clean, turned everything off and locked the door for the last time until May 2010.
We set off before sunrise for the ferry and arrived at the port and loaded on at 7am for the 26-hour journey to Venice.
This is our ferry pulling in with its doors opening at the same time (will the Greeks ever learn?)
.....A Beautiful sunrise at the ferry port
........Our ferry from Corfu to Venice
Carmel watching the sun rise at the start of our 26 hour journey across the Ionian Sea
Keith managed to catch a few hours of sunbathing on deck, whilst Liz & Carmel caught up on their sleep. 
Carmel just about managed to shut the world out
The view of Venice as we sailed up the Grand Canal
Poor Carmel didn’t know which side of the boat to film from as there is sooo much to see.
We docked and made our way to the town of Verona where we had arranged to meet up with Shiela (Liz’s sister, one of our strategically placed relatives when planning our route home)
Sheila, Carmel and Liz in Verona We had a few hours to kill so we saw the sites, including Juliet’s balcony!
and the Coliseum
We had several great Italian coffees and Pizza and wine for lunch with Sheila
before getting back on the road to Keith’s sisters home in Milan (yep, another strategically placed relative)
That evening, Keith went with Franco to watch his nephew Georgio play football whilst the girls (Liz, Deborah, Carmel and Eleonora) chatted and chatted. A fab meal later with kilo’s of home made tiramisu,
Deborah's Home made Tiramisu......yum!
we retired to bed to get a good sleep ready for the next leg,
This is just before we drove through the 17km long San Gottard Tunnel, one of the longest tunnels in Europe, which takes you from the Italian side of Switzerland to the German side of Switzerland
....then through the Swiss Alps to Germany 
and another overnight stop with our 3rd strategically placed relatives, Paul and Milena in Heidelberg.
Paul, Milena and Carmel had a lot of catching up to do having not seen each other for over 3 years; we decided this was best done over a meal. So that evening the five of us walked into the old town of Heidelberg. It is an amazing town full of old buildings and cobbled streets, ornate bridges over the river and lots and lots of restaurants and street cafes, all overlooked by a beautiful castle.
View across the river to the Castle in Heidelberg
It was a great evening; we ate fantastic local food and drank some pretty good German wine & beer! The following day we set off for the last leg of our journey to the coast, the long schlep to Rotterdam to catch the ferry home!
Once again the weather was kind to us, we detoured slightly to drive up the Rhine valley, then across Germany and a bit of Belgium & Holland. As this was the middle of September, the autumn colours were starting to come in with the trees changing from green to red and yellow hues; the massive wind turbines towered over the trees as the scenery changed from the rolling hills of the vineyards of Germany into the flat landscape of the Netherlands.
For the whole of the journey through Europe we’d had bright sunshine, clear skies, and open roads! A totally smooth journey! But as we got closer to Rotterdam the roads got bigger, with more lanes and the rush hour traffic was starting to build and it quickly became apparent just how big the City of Rotterdam is. It was quite stressful to drive through, (but still not as mad as the Italian motorways near Milan). This was a new route for us because we have always sailed from Zeebrugge before. We seemed to drive forever through endless miles of oil tanks and petrochemical works, before we reached the ferry port. We got on board, found our cabin, then settled down on the ”sun deck” with large drinks to watch the sun set over the docks and chemical works. And congratulated Carmel for surviving the 1000-mile road trip with us!
...... Rotterdam docks at sunset
We woke up Sat morning with the ferry in the Humber estuary,
and gorged ourselves silly, on a massive “eat all you can” breakfast buffet, before heading west on the M62 towards home!
More of the same next year!!! Love L&K
"........Just can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again..........."
ps ....see you Christmas 2010 Carmely Choc x
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