We survived 5 earthquakes and the attention of countless cats on Samos during the girls’ half term holiday which also coincided with the end of the season on Greek Islands. So we were one family of very few staying at the hotel. We ate lots of olives and feta cheese and tried the stuffed vine leaves and moussaka and ouzo. Even though Turkey was barely a swim away from the east coast of Samos we resisted the temptation to take the ferry over since the prices were so high. The weather was always sunny though a bit chilly at the beginning. Everyone except Anne managed a dip in the hotel swimming pool and/or the sea. The Greeks kindly translate town names into western lettering but the spelling is not always standard so following directions could be something of a guessing game but we seemed to get there in the end. Another guessing game was interpreting the ruins that we saw since there was very little help on hand, even for world heritage centres. Tony scored a miserable tally of 34 different bird species but that beat at least China.