Elle Takes Europe 2026 - Day 16: The Answer is No
It took us all a bit to settle in last night, but eventually we fell asleep and slept in until almost 8 AM this morning. We left for breakfast an hour later and made the walk to the hotel’s restaurant. We didn’t realize when we booked it or even yesterday how many kids are at this hotel. Given that most rooms are more like condos than hotel rooms, it makes sense, but I’d say 95% of people here have at least 1 kid with them. When we arrived at breakfast, it felt like we had boarded a Disney cruise. We were lucky to get a table with a great ocean view, away from the crowds. It was also the first breakfast on the trip since Dublin that Elle actually enjoyed. She ate eggs, pancakes, bananas, ham, cheese, and a ton of juice. We still can’t get her to drink milk out here.
We finished breakfast and went back to our hotel room to get ready for the pool. Elle is all in on the pool now; she is constantly bringing it up, and when we are not in it, she’s talking about what we did in the pool. The difference in her vocabulary and intellect now compared to 3-4 months ago is staggering. For the most part, Jenn and I spent time in the pool together with Elle. We did take a few turns here and there, but for almost two hours, we went up and back in the pool and let Elle tell us what she wanted to do. Jenn got a pina colada (a requirement), and we split a pizza for our lunch.
After a few hours at the pool, it was back to our hotel room to put Elle down for a nap. While Elle napped, Jenn also took a nap while I worked on catching up on some of these daily recaps. It was such a beautiful experience sitting on our balcony, overlooking the ocean, with a nice summer breeze keeping things perfectly comfortable. You couldn’t ask for a more relaxing afternoon.
We weren’t really sure what to do when Elle woke up from her nap at 3:30 PM. We decided to take her for a walk. The tough part of walking here is that it’s all massive hills, and to get around, most people request golf carts. We try to avoid them as much as possible, rather than lugging Elle and her backpack wherever we go. Today we took her to the kids’ area, which is fully equipped with fun outdoor activities and a playground. She was far more enamored with the animal sculptures than the swings today and had a blast running around.
For dinner, we had planned to go to Thalos, the hotel’s Greek restaurant. When I re-looked at the confirmation, I saw it was a buffet. Jenn will tolerate a breakfast buffet, but for any other meal, she is out. We gave it a quick glance, and Jenn said no, and so we asked the hotel for a Taxi and made our way to Porta, a 5-minute drive from the hotel. We were the only ones in the restaurant for most of the meal, but the service was great and the food far better than anything we had had at the hotel. We started off with a carafe of their house white wine, pita bread with hummus, and cheese croquettes. For our mains, Jenn had their fish of the day (seabream), and I had their hamburger to split with Elle. The owner was enamored with Elle and tried to interact with her a few times, even offering to walk her around the restaurant or to the kitchen. Eventually, both Jenn and I had laid down the law and put down a strong “no”. Jenn ordered the crepe with ice cream for dessert, and either they don’t know what a crepe is or we said no, got us a waffle with ice cream. Fortunately, both Jenn and Elle enjoyed it.
We decided to walk back to the hotel rather than pay 9 euros for a 5-minute taxi ride. Might not have been the smartest move without the stroller, but eventually, after taking turns carrying Elle, we made it back to our hotel, grabbed a golf cart, and turned in for the night. It was one of the easier nights putting Elle to sleep, which allowed Jenn and me to sneak out to our living room and enjoy a few hours of trip planning for my 40th birthday before also turning out for the night.
