Day 70 - The Sunshine State, My Arse.

Author – Grant
Based In – Orlando, (Florida)
Feels Like - Manchester (God's Country)

Today’s Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157612485606279/

Given Disney’s power in the Orlando region, I can’t believe they don’t control the weather. Surely Bob Iger has had the foresight to offer Mother Nature a one year unlimited pass to the theme parks for her and her family in return for 365 sunny, rain free days a year. Unless Disney own all the cinemas and indoor mini-golf courses in town as well. The crafty buggers.

Clearly the reason I muse this concept is because Day 70 was windy, rainy and cold. We had planned to visit Epcot but the weather, wanting a day off and being a bit done with outer space themed stuff after overdosing in Cape Canaveral meant that we gave ourselves a theme park free day which is probably a felony for British people in Orlando. Instead, after the obligatory lie-in (cut short somewhere around 9am by a whistling dog with crossed legs and a leash in her mouth) we dusted off the bikes and bashed out 24 miles in world record pace. Unfortunately it’s not the good type of world record; it’s the record for slowest pace ever set. It took us about 2 ½ hours which is only about 50% faster than running. Admittedly those 150 minutes did include ‘convenience’ stops (which, for us, includes both bathroom and bakery visits) as well as getting lost time. Even so, it was pitifully slow and I don’t like to point fingers but it was Kate’s fault as she has the thigh strength of an unborn baby. She considers herself a bit of a bike enthusiast and has even tried to give herself the nickname ‘Spokes’ (hence her user name for this blog) although, to date, she is the only person to refer to herself that way. My theory is that she only likes cycling because it is the only cardiovascular activity that can legitimately be done whilst sitting down.

After a rather fine yet healthy homemade lunch of shrimp, ham and veggie wholewheat pasta, the idea was to hit one of Orlando’s many and magnificent mini-golf courses but it was raining miserably so we just flobbed (if that’s a verb) and spent enough time with our needy dog in order to justify leaving her alone in the evening to hit downtown Orlando.

Google Maps is rapidly becoming my favourite restaurant guide which might sound a bit heathen but typing “Greek restaurants in downtown Orlando” actually results is seven options with a summary of reviews from selected culinary websites all mapped out. And as the websites they choose only take reviews from actual customers, it’s usually pretty accurate. So that’s how we ended up in The Greek Corner and, once again, Google did us proud. Our uber-friendly, scar-faced, super-Greek waiter started us off with a couple of Greek Salads which were good but olively frugal totaling just a single olive per salad. This sort of thing worries me in a restaurant’s opening gambit as I fear that following courses might be equally measurable in Weight Watchers points but luckily my fears were entirely misplaced. Our mixed Meze platter (“small”) was pictured twice – once stand alone and once with a human hand next to it in order to gain some perspective of it’s magnitude. It contained (take a deep breath…) slices of roast lamb, sliced doner meat (such a teenage flashback to unsuccessful nights clubbing ended with comforting kebabs – they never rejected my strong advances), babaganoush, hummus, feta, dolmus, taramasalata, olives (too many, ironically), chicken spanikopita, spinach parcels and some spicy sausage. Now I arrived at this restaurant ravenous but after this mega-starter I was completely stuffed. Unfortunately we ordered mains at the same time as ordering starters so my lemon and oregano lamb chops (all five of them) and Kate’s beef kabob (think skewered elephant’s leg) arrived with lemon and thyme roasted potatoes (excellent). It was a crazy amount of food but it was really good stuff, apart from the mild side taste of petroleum which, presumably, they had used to start the charcoal fire. At the end of the meal Kate and I did a swap. She passed me her ‘on the house’ shot of ouzo and I passed her the car keys. You should have seen the horrified look on Kate’s face when I ordered some Baklava (my all time favourite dessert) to go…it was nearly as harsh as the look on my face when she shnarfed waaay more than half of the said dessert before I had chance to get at it.

Universal Studios tomorrow – Shrek me up, Shrek me up my little buttercup.