Epic Day Out on Naxos

(Guest post by Topher, written on ferry to Piraeus)

Yesterday we took advantage of our bonus day on Naxos to rent a car and tour around. The friendly rental agent gave some good routes and recommend places to stop.

Our first mission was to locate the Kouros of Flerio, a pair of large marble statues that were abandoned in antiquity close to where they were quarried. These were in a pretty lush valley with lots of springs, now dotted with sheep, orange, lemon and olive trees and a million stone terrace walls and fences. Boys were happy to have a bit of a quest/hike and the views were great (see photos opposite and on following pages).

The two big hills nearby are being slowly carved down by modern quarrying - we stopped to get some little bits of waste stone as souvenirs at a quarry between Kinidaros and Moni (photo opposite at top right).

After winding up and over the mountains towards the east side of the island, including taking the road between Moni and Keramoti for some breathtaking views of a Byzantine church in a terraced valley surrounded by olive trees and grapevines (middle photo opposite), we stopped in Aperathos at the first restaurant that was open (Hugh reminded us that’s not the way you’re supposed to do things) and had an excellent slow lunch of beef, godlike eggplant with local cheese, and very good local homemade wine.

Feeling refreshed we continued along a high ridge with more spectacular views, and another stop to look at an old church between Aperathos and Filoti. Next we wound our way down to the village of Chalki where we walked out to another old church and looked around the neoclassical downtown (see photo above). We always seem to be touring around during siesta so it saves money - can’t buy souvenirs.

Final goal for the day was to visit a temple of Demeter in another lush valley. Between vague maps and confusing signs we ended up driving down a farm track and almost getting stuck in our little Fiat. Checked out the local chapel (trying to only look at the chapels that have official Historic Site signs) and started walking to the temple. Soon realized we didn’t know where we wanted

to end up so, very carefully, turned the car around in the rocky little space between stone walls and gunned it up the washout.

Back on the main road we soon found the right way and had a nice visit to the temple, which was recently restored and well explained with signage. Boys did their usual thing of running around like goons and ignoring the history. The site was very lush and green, in the middle of sheep farms - could have passed for England, while only a few kms away the mountains were very dry, rocky, covered in scrub (photos opposite).

Having exhausted all sense of adventurousness we drove back down into town, dropped off the car and walked out the causeway to watch the sunset at the temple of Apollo (photos on following pages). Boys had a great time playing chicken with the waves on the little beach (photo below) and then getting soaked on the breakwater - soaked to their underwear. (Wind is still crazy strong after 3 days). Then home for leftovers and doughnuts for the boys, and some complimentary kitron for the adults - a local green, citron flavoured liqueur.

Up this morning to catch the ferry back to Piraeus for our next hop to Chios - our final stop in Greece! Got some plastic flags to wave for Independence Day tomorrow.