Breakfast was the usual buffet but with a new addition there was a chef cooking rotisserie which he formed into cones which sat very proudly on the plates. The buffet also had little tiffin dishes in which to put your curry so the different flavours did not mingle together.
The day was planned as a day at the beach but B and I decided to have another walk along the beach and Libby joined us before meeting in the German bakery for a proper coffee at 11. We saw Malcolm and Caroline with Ellie and Alex leaving in a tuk-tuk and later found they went to explore the local fishing village around the headland the other side of the lighthouse.
I returned my T-shirt for a larger one XL rather than L. Not sure if that is trying to tell me something. We had a good stroll around and decided to come back via the streets behind the main seafront and on our way passed as few other little shops but the ‘find’ was a cobbler making sandals. He could over 2 days make sandals to fit your feet and as we phased a lady was having a pair fitted. They were Birkenstock equivalents and looked nice. He also has a stock of a few hundred ‘ready’ made sandals and Libby and I both ended up with a pair and they could not have been much more than £7-8.
Coffee and cake in the German bakery – called Waves – is to be recommended and we met Nick and Karen and Sven there. The kids turned up about 12 after some drinks and walked away with takeaway cake too.
We spend some time on the beach… Libby and B reading…. I went for a swim and then somehow it was lunchtime. Nick had scouted out a restaurant our end of the beach called Fusion and we had a very nice lunch there. It has an interesting menu which has East, West and a fusion menu. I went to find the kids after having order to make sure they had some money for lunch too and found C and T in the German bakery with Fiz and Mills. Charlotte came back and got money for lunch. We found out that Fusion is linked to Waves. Probably to two most western friendly places we found in Varkala.
The afternoon was spent on the beach. Nick, Libby, B and I decided to climb the lihthouse which is open for viewing in the afternoon. There was a great, but very windy, view from the top and you could see the fishing village and its mosque, where Malcome and Caroline had gone in the morning, and further in the distance a new church in construction, in one direction and all the way round both beaches in the other.
We all meet in the hotel reception at 7.30 for our final dinner. Mills has got the results for,her exams to get to Melbourne Uni – a fantastic achievement with 97% relative ranking vs other applicants. She is over the moon and imcan see Nick & Libby are also proud and pleased. We depart to another restaurant Crab Club along the front (the original plan had been the hotel but they do not serve alcohol and actually no one really wanted to eat in the hotel so we were all pleased to got elsewhere). We had a good dinner and gave Eugine his tip which I think he was pleased with and all swapped email addresses.
The kids went back to chat in their rooms (all in Mills and Fiz) and we went to the German Bakery for coffee, tea, etc and continued to chat until about 10.30-11.
This was the end of the tour for 2 families and they were leaving at 6 so we agreed to meet and say goodbye just before they left in the morning.