The ferry to Naxos meant we had to get a fast one to Paros first and then change at Paros for the slow one to Naxos - a very different island - a lovely harbour front and the temple to Apollo visible from the harbour. The resort was a bit disappointing - our room overlooked the pool but was a bit small and the view to the side is basically of a dump - a not very well maintained empty block and then the beach.
The weather was windy each day in Naxos, so didn’t do a lot of sitting around the pool and it wasn’t good beach weather. Walked around town - up to the temple and through the old town on the first day - discovered a lovely little patisserie which also handmade gelato - yum! The wind was so cold we headed back to the hotel - tried to find a piece of sunshine near the pool to warm up and met a lovely aussie couple - Roy and Gloria from Ulladulla.
We had lunch and dinner at Scirrocco near the square on the first day and then went back there again for dinner on the night before we left. Again, one of those places where the food was good but also the place was entertaining…
Hired a car on the second day - a little four wheel drive - ‘Jimmy’ - who took us reliably up hills and down dales - we discovered an ancient aqueduct, a statue from 570BC lying in a glade, a mountain of marble that is still quarried today and supplied the marble for many of the ancient statues in Greece, and a lovely beach where we had a picnic lunch watching the kite surfing….. A little bit of everything on this island! The mountains were high and the little towns in them had very narrow streets - there were also many walking tracks - a great island for walking if you were so inclined…. Perhaps a tourist venture to start up like the agritourism in Italy - there could be a fortune made.
This island’s liqueur is Citron, pronounced Kitron - it also is very nice - need to find them when we get home……
Cut short Naxos because of the general strike - otherwise we would have had to cut short Santorini or change the fast ferry as well as the slow ferry - we decided to leave early and Mike arranged it without any hassle - the benefit of a Greek travel agent! A couple we met on the transfer to the harbour said they also were going to Santorini early, but they had to spend one night in a different hotel because theirs was booked out - the advantages of having a greek travel agent helped with our booking……highly recommend fantasy travel.
Getting ready to leave the ferry - everyone gets their gear and waits for the ramp to go down ... the turnaround at each port is about 10 minutes.
Had to take this for our friend Susan!
This really was a lovely little church - couldn't resist the photo
The main square near our hotel
This restaurant, Sirocco was lovely - we ate there three times I think!
Naxos main town was quite spread out
This isthmus led to the temple of Apollo - a much lauded vantage point was to be up here when the sun was setting through the arch
We hired a four wheel drive 'Jimmy' to get around - so glad we did - we got to places we would never have thought of in another car
Like this 3000 year lod aqueduct - it was up a rough dirt track - worth it though - gorgeous
This is a marble mountain - we wondered what it was from this distance and then got up close - it is the site for all of the marble used in statues in Greece.
The island is the largest in the Cylclades - from lovely flat seaside towns to very mountainous country similar to that on Mainland Greece.
This beach is famous for the wind kites - no wonder - the whole island was very windy
This was taken from a lookout built to defend the island - we drove right into someone's backyard and had anon-conversation with a very old Greek lady
some sense of the difference in the geography
A closer view of the marble quarry - on the right hand side in the middle is a huge grader - you can hardly see it because it is dwarfed by the mountain!
A closer view still - you can see the grader a little more clearly in the middle of the photo
An ancient marble seat
Yes - very interesting information.....
the marble statue broke its leg on the way down the mountain - more than 2500 years old!
It would have been so easy to miss her - just lying there in the glade
OK - so we had to take one photo of a mule - saw a couple of working mules in Greece, but not as many as we expected.
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