This was to have been a day beside the pool at the hotel according to our original plan of alternating relaxing days in the resort and cultural or historical days elsewhere on Kos. It wasn’t much of a plan to begin with, the “elsewhere on Kos” having already been shrunk down to “somewhere in Kos Town” because very little else was open, but on the day prior to this fifth full day of the week-long Greek island break we’d learned from a local in the town that this would be the last day that anything was open as Greece had decided to follow in the UK’s footsteps and initiate another lockdown too. This meant we’d have just one more chance to try some of the local craft ales we’d discovered so our flimsy plan was torn up and for the second day in a row we walked into town.
If you’ve read previous entries in this travelogue series (a forlorn hope) you’ll know that we were staying at the Blue Lagoon Resort outside the normal tourist season – extended because of that pandemic you might have got wind of in the paper, and the reason for there being a lack of activities in general – and that on the two previous occasions that we’d walked into the main town we’d taken the shoreline route first, then the more direct route second. For this third and final trek from the hotel we went all crazy and mixed those two routes up into an exciting mostly-direct but with a little bit of the east coast’s Lambi Beach walk thrown in for variety. More photos from the walks to and from Kos Town can be found in those other write-ups; on this day we were on a mission.
Our mission was simply to return to the best bar in Kos Town, Zero.
Now, best is a subjective term, of course, and our experiences of drinking in Kos were somewhat limited, but let me describe what makes it so good in my opinion. Firstly, it’s right in the heart of Kos. If you can find the harbour then you can probably see Zero. It has plenty of seating inside but it also has a small courtyard area and a large garden area in front of the building too. What really sets it apart from other places we passed by is that it’s not one of your typical “couple of local lagers and all the usual popular crap you can get everywhere else in the world” establishments. Zero is where you go when you want to try some craft ales – pale ales, golden ales, amber ales, ruby ales, porters, and stouts – that are either brewed on Kos, on one of the other Greek islands, or in Greece itself. If you’re a proper beer-drinker, a real ale fan, or just want to have something a little more local when you travel abroad then this, I assure you, is the bar you want to visit in Kos.
On top of that you can expect nibbles with your drinks. On top of that you might even get the occasional complimentary shot of ouzo. On top of that you might get paid a visit by one of the local cats. I mean, what more could you ask for?
As you can tell from the photos above, we had a few drinks. Mission accomplished. My wife managed to drink all the Septem brewery red ales in the bar while I jumped from drink to drink through the menu. The Athens brewery-brewed Mandy Black was an absolute joy to down and the stand-out ale for me.
With this being the end of the tourist season and the last few hours before lockdown we felt it was the right and proper thing to do, as responsible visitors from overseas, to help a local business owner run down his stock. You know, in case it went off, or something. This effort from us over our several visits during this week did not go unrewarded from Zero’s owner who gifted us with two glasses as we bade him farewell. We use them regularly.
We headed back to the hotel as the sun started to dip in the sky. It wasn’t that late in the day – this was November, remember, when the days are shorter everywhere in the northern hemisphere – but with the lateness in the year and Kos being somewhat susceptible to strong winds (somewhat of an understatement) it could get a little chilly in the evening and we wanted to get back in time to freshen up before grabbing some food.
As we reached the boundary of the sprawling resort complex we spotted a group of guys playing cricket on a section of waste ground by the side of the road. Not a sport we ever thought we’d see being played on a Greek island if I’m being brutally honest here, but the suspicion is that these were likely hotel employees originating from India. They didn’t seem to mind us standing around for five minutes and firing off some shots, and I resisted the urge to ask if I could join in which doubtlessly was much appreciated by my wife as she’s seen just how terrible my bowling skills are.
We arrived back at the Blue Lagoon Resort at that time just before dinner started being served when the complex felt eerily empty; around the pool was practically deserted and we didn’t bump into a single person on the walk through to our room.
From our garden-view room balcony we had another lovely sunset in the western sky to admire before freshening up and making our way to the buffet restaurant where food was as expected – good, not fantastic – and desserts were numerous and ridiculously sweet.
The next day would be the final full day spent in Kos, and with lockdown coming into force on the island we would have to spend it around the swimming pool and enjoying what the all-inclusive resort could provide in terms of food and drink. That, and details of the last few hours before leaving to fly back to the UK on the day after will be covered in the last of these Kos 2020 break posts.