Naxos - 37 hours and our final island hop before Athens

The tiny and no longer used St. Giogrios' in a village on Naxos - click to enlarge.

We arrived on Naxos after a stunnning two-hour sailing across the Aegean, right past the Santorini volcano, covered with dark lava scree. It was a massive cattle call getting on the boat, but I raced ahead of the family, sidestepping all the maddening roller-carts, and snagged a table and chairs on the very top deck, in the open air. It was a great ride past dozens of islands. We arrived on Naxos at about 7:00 pm. Naxos is a gorgeous, less hectic island than Rhodes or Santorini. We mainly just chilled out, wrote, swam a little, and had some drinks.

Keelin and Jack on our one night in Santorini/Thira - click to enlarge

Our landlord, Irena. proprietor of Irena II Pensione was sweet, and greeted us with ice cream bars, compliments on our family, and asking us about our Presidente. Then she laughed and made the throat cumming pantomime as we let her know we were glad he would soon be out of office. Like many Greeks and Turks, she seemed to feel warmly about America(ns).

We rented a car today and drove out to an extremely remote and windy beach and enjoyed our last beach day of the trip. I wrote a poem. We watched dozens of parasailers, kites, etc., in the brisk winds. I collected a few rocks.

Our two little friends who thought we'd come to feed them -click to enlarge

On our way home we stopped by one unmarked ruin, an old monastery, and at an old "plant" that makes Citron liqueur, Raki, Ouzo and some other distilled goodies. Then we walked through some alleys and fields and visited St. Giorgio's, an old Greek Orthodox Church that is extremely intact. I don't know if it's been restored or not. And I am blanking on the name of the village--something that has been happening a lot...we've been so many places in the last four weeks, it's sometimes hard to remember!

We saw two adorable lambs, chickens, and figs, grapes, and artichokes growing in fields and yards. Then we drove back to Naxos Town (Chora).

Tomorrow morning, we sail to Piraeus, the port of Athens, for three days in that polluted, hectic, crazy city, to visit the great archaeological museum there, and of course, the Acropolis and Parthenon...definitely the most inspiring ruins I saw on my last visit to Greece.

As always. when I am on a computer at a hotel, two people are waiting, so I'll post the poem another time, and another article I wrote on changes in Greece.

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