Greece 1. Off to a couple of Greek Islands - Naxos to start with

 

Having an island hopping adventure around various Greek Islands has been on our visit list for some years but had always been relegated by trips to more far-flung destinations. This visit to Naxos and Paros was to be a taster trip.

- a classic view to begin with

A Greek Orthodox chapel on Naxos

and a good piece of flowery bank

However, if you happen to believe in that sort of thing, the signs were looking quite dismal for this trip to just two of the Greek Islands followed by some time in Rome and Tuscany. Just after we’d booked, earthquake and volcanic activity broke out like a rash on and around Santorini, an island not far to the south of our destination. Then the Pope fell seriously ill and we thought we’d arrive in a Rome full of Conclave fever. After Rome we were going off to a variety of places including Assisi, where we now learned that the first saint born in this century (known as God’s influencer) was being canonised on 27 April, the day before we arrive. We have no car parking booked but perhaps a miracle will be performed for us. So far, so good.

All this has now been overtaken by what has actually happened. The pope, who seems to have been pretty good as popes go, has died and his funeral is on the day we leave Rome. The saint-to-be ceremony in Assisi has been postponed due to the current lack of one pope.  Then just a week before we were due to make our way to Gatport Airwick for the flight to Athens, we received an email letting us know that our ferry to the Greek Islands had been cancelled due to a one day seaman’s strike. So a quick ferry rebooking and an extra day in Piraeus was organised by Heather. Later that day, we saw the news of heavy rain and flash flooding on one of the two islands we’re headed to. News video showed cars floating along streets and roads masquerading as raging torrents.

I remember once hearing that an old Chinese curse is “may you live in interesting times”. We think we might be in for an interesting time, and of course we’re looking forward to it.

Part way across on the flight, the pilot came on the speaker system, told us the height we were flying at, the outside air temperature (presumably so that anyone wanting a short stroll along the wing would know to put a jumper on), the weather forecast for Athens and the time in Athens, which he managed to get wrong by an hour. He did manage to land at the correct airport so I suppose that was a bonus. I may have made that old jumper and wing joke before and have forgotten, just as you might have done too.

We had to spend the day of the Greek seaman’s strike in Piraeus which is apparently the biggest port in the mediterranean but it isn’t an attractive place with frankly not much for us to do. However, what it does have in it’s favour is that it certainly isn’t a tourist town. Many restaurant menus are only in Greek and we’ve been asked several times where we’re from with I suspect an underlying question of ‘what on earth are you doing here’. We’re probably seeing a really authentic Greek city and everyone we’ve spoken to has been incredibly friendly. The non-commercial part of the harbour has more hugely expensive private floating palaces than I’ve seen anywhere. Many of them making the biggest Sunseekers we see in Poole look like quite modest boats. For my readers who are not British, Sunseekers is a luxury boat builder based in Poole, Dorset, whose big boats certainly run into the millions of pounds each.

On our walk around Piraeus, just as we saw an unexpected Marks and Spencer’s store, we heard chanting and a protest march came along. It was about a thousand people who were presumably today’s strikers which we were told includes buses, trains and metro services, not just ferries. They were all very well behaved with a lead caller followed by everyone repeating the message which I doubt strayed very far from “what do we want” and “when do we want it”, they walked up the road past us with what could only be described as a light security presence. One policeman held back side road traffic and one policewoman walked at the back as backmarker.

the Piraeus strikers march

Tomorrow we leave the mainland and have a 4.5 hour fast cat ferry crossing to Naxos, which is longer than the flight from London to Athens. It was a stopper ferry calling at Mykonos, one of the party islands, among others. There were very poor announcements on board, quiet, fuzzy and mostly in Greek (fair enough) but without an English version that we could recognise. We ended up nearly getting off at the wrong island. Turnaround at each stop is quick, lorries were backing out from the ro-ro decks as foot passengers made their way off onto a crowded quayside unsegregated from each other. I’d describe the whole thing as semi-organised pandemonium.

the dockside at Chora on Naxos

Naxos, the correct island for us, had a non-commercial harbour next to the ferry landing, backed by a curving seafront full of restaurants with the brilliant white of the buildings rising behind that to the old centre of town. It looked very inviting. Behind the seafront the old town was virtually traffic free, full of narrow lanes, steps, steep slopes and acute turns. It was achingly photogenic with the blinding white of the buildings set off by bright blue everywhere, little nooks and crannies, stairs to nowhere, some derelict buildings but mostly very well cared for and with only a small amount of litter. It was like a monster sized rabbit warren. We followed a tortuous route to our very modern, low cost and large self-catering apartment which was nearly on the edge of town but really only half a mile or so from the seafront. Our living room could have easily accommodated a full sized table tennis table with plenty of room to play and we had four separate balconies to choose from.

a couple in Chora town, Naxos 

the chapel in the harbour at Chora, Naxos main town

an ancient Olive tree with a split trunk 

Most of you will know that Heather is vegetarian, I’m virtually vegetarian and as many of you will know, somewhat fussy (discerning, I like to say) about food. We wanted something to eat and headed across to a stylish looking cafe for a quick bite and ended up with three very different and interesting Scandinavian style open sandwiches on good wholemeal bread. One of them was pistachio cream (a very upmarket and delicious nut butter), sliced banana and chocolate buttons. Probably not a traditional recipe handed down through the generations since Alexander the Great but surprisingly delicious nevertheless.

those sandwiches

Chora Town from the ruins of the 5th C BC Temple of Apollo

On our first food shopping expedition we found ourselves a lovely bread and cake shop, chose a selection and were told “you can pay for the bread but the cakes are a present from us”. What an introduction to the Greek Islands. I do know the old phrase about not trusting Greeks bearing gifts but as these cakes weren’t in the shape of large wooden horses, we felt we were safe.

and finish with lunch

  8 - 11 April 2025