Visiting the Cyclades: Naxos

The regular ferry from Syros left at an awkward time, so we bit the bullet and paid a little over 40 euros each for the fast ferry.  We stayed for 7 nights on Naxos, the longest of our island stays.  That was for a number of reasons.

We had been traveling for more than 3 weeks (7 nights in Istanbul, 5 on Milos, 2 on Kimolos and 4 each on Sifnos and Syros), so we were about due to chill on the beach, and settle in.  Also, Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades.  Finally, Naxos is ideally situated for day trips, including the one we took to Delos and Mykonos.

The decision for a long stay was made easier because I knew we had booked a charming room right on Agia Georgios (St George) beach.  Our room at Kalergis Studios was reasonable at 70 euros per night.  The picture above is from our patio.  The bed was an extremely comfortable CocoMat mattress, a well regarded brand in Europe.   

The terrace was an idyllic place to sip the local citrus based liqueur called citron, and Roslyn's faithful tsipouro.

Breakfast was not included, but the hotel has a charming bar/cafe on the water where we often took our morning coffee.  There were a number of other restaurants on the beach in easy walking distance.

At Yialos we were on the sand.  We ordered three appetizers, including tasty french fries, and a house rose, deviating from our usual house white.  Big mistake.  We never ordered the house red because Roslyn likes most whites, but only light bodied reds.  With a house wine you never know exactly what you will get.  The whites were uniformly good, this rose was bit off putting.

A few days later we ordered a full breakfast at Manolo's next door. Both restaurants are good, well priced and right on the water.

Melimilon made us regret that we were seduced by the outer beauty of the beach cafes, and discovered, too late, the inner beauty of the best breakfast cafe on Naxos. The hot chocolate was thick, and their speciality of fried bread with local cheese and home made jam was perfect.  Even at brunch they gave us a liqueur on the house.  At least our last breakfast on Naxos was our best.

St George is an ideal shoulder season beach.  A short walk into Naxos town, surrounded by restaurants and tavernas, with golden sand and warm (for the season) shallow water.  It is the town beach so locals equaled tourists.

But in high season the beach is over run, and better choices are farther out, such as Plata beach.  

Our exploration of Naxos town started at the main square.  While I took a few pictures, Roslyn shopped for shorts and/or a sun dress to better enjoy the now, warmer weather.

The next day we explored old town.  It is a labyrinth of stairs and alleys.  There are also shops and restaurants.  If you are young and able to handle multiple steps every day, there are hotels with wonderful views.  Near the top are the remnants of an early 13th century Venetian castle (kastro).

Having  climbed to the top before, I deferred to my sciatica.  Roslyn continued to the top and took the last 6 pictures.  Whilst she climbed, I stopped at Port Tou Yialou.  Having already overloaded on coffee, I had a snack of meatballs and a beer.  Greek meatballs are fried crisp on the outside and tender inside.  They were wonderful.  An hour or so later Roslyn joined me and we had a half liter of house wine and she ordered a lovely moussaka.

What a difference a block makes.  As you walk along the water on the town's main tourist drag, you pass an endless row of seaside tourist oriented restaurants.  Port Tou Yialou is just a block off the main drag, but caters  to locals.  Great taverna food without the tourist tax of either reduced quality or inflated prices.  Highly recommended.

Before describing further sight seeing, let me finish off my restaurant reviews.  Oasis is the most popular restaurant in the St. George beach area.  The restaurant serves standard taverna food, expertly prepared, and well priced.  As a added bonus they speak multiple languages including French.  This spared the many French tourists from the indignity of ordering in English.

Two of the top dishes were fried eggplant and lamb chops.  The restaurant was only a block from our hotel.  As good as Oasis was, another block took us to the dramatically better Nostimon Hellas.  Once again, what a difference a block makes.

While Oasis is a superior taverna, Hellas elevates Greek food to a whole new level.  I believe it to be the best restaurant on Naxos, which is saying something, since Tripadvisor rates approximately 100 Naxos town restaurants at 4.5 stars and up.

The homemade rolls were warm and came with two dips.  The shrimp was great both ways, but I highly recommend the fried version.  The whole fish was perfectly prepared, and the fries were to die for.  The lemon liqueur on the house was tasty, and they generously brought the whole bottle.  Someone, who will remain nameless, had seconds.

It was the best restaurant during our nearly 5 week trip.  We dined there twice.  I lobbied for a third night but was overruled.  Roslyn still apologizes for her error in judgement.  The substituted restaurant is not worth mentioning.  So I won't.

Our first excursion was a one day trip to Delos and Mykonos.  The price was a reasonable 60 euros each, but did not include food, or the Delos admission charge. This was a fast ferry as you can see from the wake.

The water was glassy smooth.

On the way to Delos we stopped ever so briefly at Naoussa, Paros to pick up passengers bound for Mykonos. 

Delos has long been regarded as a holy island, home of some of the Greek gods.  It is a unesco world heritage site.  Overnight stays are forbidden.  There are no hotels, restaurants or vendors.

There is also no shade.  So. particularly in summer, bring your own.  I always say about Roslyn, that she is high maintenance but self maintained.  Also be sure to bring water.  You cannot buy it on Delos.

Visiting Delos in Spring is ideal.  You get more temperate weather, and wild flowers amidst the ruins,

The remaining columns allow you to imagine the city that once flourished.  The mosaics are timeless.

The most famous statues are the Delos lions which were dedicated to the sanctuary of Apollo.

The next stop was Mykonos.  There are two reasons to go to Mykonos-- you need a place to dock your yacht or you were abducted.  Mykonos is overcrowded and over priced.  Do not go there.

Mykonos has some pretty beaches and nice white and blue Cycladic architecture. Neither of which are in short supply in the cyclades.  During our short stay, we did not visit the beaches.

We hoped to find a less touristy restaurant, so we strolled the backstreets.  Finding nothing, we asked a local merchant.  She said all the restaurants were touristy, but advised a restaurant on the quay named Captain's.

To the often repeated adage, never eat at a diner named Mom's, I add the admonition never eat at a seaside restaurant named Captain's.  Below is a picture of the worst meal I had in Greece, which includes meals I skipped.  Since it was Mykonos, the inedible was insufferably expensive.

This is the ship that blessedly returned us to Naxos.

Being tired, upon our return, we had booze and gyros on our terrace.  

Long ago, in my Southeast Asia travel guides, I coined the expression the 3 Ps of travel: Priorities, Price and Pace.  You use your personal priorities to develop your itinerary.  Price is always a factor in planning.  But the forgotten P is pace.

Vacations are to be enjoyed.  If you ignore pace, stress can impair your vacation.  I believe it is why many couples have fights on vacation.  This is a long lead up to our taking a chill day after our excursion.

We enjoyed the view from our terrace.  Our hotel rents sun beds, although for guests there are portable loungers that can be used on the terrace or in the sand.  I noticed someone offering massages to those in the sun beds.  I called her over, and had her give us each a massage in our room.  Heaven!

The roads are good on Naxos, but it is the largest Cyclades island.  So instead of renting a car we took a bus tour with Naxos Transfer,  The price was about 30 dollars each. An advantage to staying at St. Georges beach is it was just a short walk into town to the pickup spot.   

The first stop was the temple of Demeter.

I take my liquor seriously.  When Jack Daniels lowered their proof from 90 to 86, I boycotted the brand. My longest boycott, now going on 35 years.  Fortunately, I have long since discovered a wide variety of much better bourbons.  Still I miss ordering Jack Black, soda back.

Our next stop was Chalki, a beautiful village which houses the Citron distillery.  The liquor has not changed other than an expansion of the product line.  In addition to the original yellow orange liqueur, there is now a less sweet green, and an even drier clear.  The bottle, however, has changed.

The bottle used to be beautifully sculpted glass that was the pride of any liquor cabinet.  Now the green looks like a cheap bottle of de kuyper creme de mint.  Aesthetics matter.   No, I am not boycotting citron.  But I did not buy a souvenir bottle, as I have in the past.  Also, I took pictures of the town, but not of the distillery.

Whereas Greek men hover in a cafe for their daily chat, women usually congregate in front of their residence, or in this case, in front of their store.

As we drove towards Apeiranthos, we passed the village of Filoti.

Another picture from the back of the bus, on the road to Apeiranthos.

Apeiranthos is perhaps the most charming village in Naxos.  We stopped for coffee and a quick look around.  But for being on a tour, we would have spent more time.

The penultimate stop was the fishing village of Apollonas where we took lunch, and a few hearty souls braved the waters. I had yogurt and honey because my stomach was a little off from the unnamed restaurant we went to instead of Nostimon Hellas.  But thick Greek yogurt with local honey is well worth ordering no matter what state your stomach is in.

 Our final stop was an olive oil press.  The building looked like a church.

Once again gyros and drinks on the terrace for our final night.   We took one last view from our room, and then it was off to the airport for our flight to Athens.

This concludes our visit to the Cyclades.  Thanks for your readership.  

In a few days I will blog on the search for the real Greece.  The post will include anecdotes about what makes Greece special.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, it will be worthless.  Just a bit of prose.

Visiting the Cyclades: Syros

 

If you measure authenticity by the ratio of residents to tourists, then Syros would be near the top of your list.  As the capital of the Cyclades it has a permanent population of over 20,000.  It flies under tourist radar. We encountered only a few foreign tourists during out stay.  The majority of the population is in Ermoupoli, the port and capital.  So were we.

After reading the strong review in Matt Barrett's excellent blog, https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/syros/hotels.htm, we decided to stay at Hotel Hermes. 

As you can see, looking out the front door, it is right on the port.  What you cannot see is at the back is a private pebble beach.  With 71 rooms, the hotel is the largest on Syros, and probably in all of the cyclades.  Being a full service hotel it has a 24 hour desk, which served us well as our ferry arrived well after midnight.  The beds are comfortable and the rooms are spacious.  Breakfast is included in the 81 dollar per night rate.

Our room had an ocean view with a large terrace with views of the port and of the raging ocean, as shown by two pictures taken by my wife

Breakfast was revelatory.  Virtually all of the hotel guests were dressed for business, not pleasure.  That is the secret of Syros.  Although tourists are welcome, the restaurants and shops are geared towards Greeks, whether visiting business people, or more importantly. local repeat customers.  For that reason, prices are lower, and quality higher than at tourist meccas like Mykonos.

Although it can be a delight to have a drink, or a bite at the port, many of the best restaurants are in the backstreets.

One of our favorite restaurants was Seminario.  I had the slow cooked lamb, and Roslyn was as ever, tempted by a crab salad.

Syros reached the peak of its wealth in the 19th and early 20th century which is reflected in its neo- classical architecture. The port is a prime example.

The architecture is even better represented by the main square.

The original capital of Syros was Ano Syros, which means upper Syros. and upper it is.

We took a taxi up to the top, from which I took the picture above.  Like the Kastro on Sifnos, this is a steep medieval city, built on a hill for military purposes.  Unfortunately, the steps were a bit steep for me.  For reports on the hotels, restaurants and shops you will have to look elsewhere,

Roslyn explored more than I. 

But neither of us made it up the final steep stairs to St. George, a seventeenth century church.  All I got was a picture of the windmill

Although not famous for its beaches, Syros does not disappoint.  For our anniversary we took a taxi to Kini for some time at the beach followed by dinner at the well regarded, Allou Yialou.  Milos set us up to appreciate the lower transportation costs on the other islands.  The taxi fare was only 10 euros.

We rented sun beds for the day at 5 euros each.

By evening the wind had picked up a bit so we had dinner behind the plastic sheeting.

Roslyn had crab salad, we shared the calamari and I tried the local sausage.  In Greece, by law, french fries are always communal.

Syros is on the beaten path.  The path is just not beaten by tourists.  You should go.

Our next stop was Naxos.  Spoiler alert:  We loved it.

Signals

In my home town of Los Angeles, people use their turn signals far too little, and virtue signal far too often.   Instead of embracing common sense, they pander to a minute minority.

At a play I recently attended, the playbill listed the name of each actor, the name of the character in the play and of course, the past roles played in the theatre, and on the big and small screen.   But after the role, and before past performances, it listed the actor's preferred pronouns.

Now if I am having someone over for dinner, I might want to know her preferred drink and any dietary restrictions, whether medically or personally imposed.  Conceivably I would want to know how she wants to be addressed.

Viewing a theatrical performance, the sexual fluidity of an actor is not information I need.  Failure to state preferred pronouns has no possible prejudicial impact.  This is just blatant virtue signaling.

Neon virtue comes at a price.  Recently the Supreme Court restricted abortion rights, limited environmental protection, and expanded the right to  carry concealed weapons.  Democratic positions poll well, but Democrats do not.

Virtue signaling strikes working class voters in swing states, at best, as silly, and at worst as patronizing and out of touch with them.  The most caustic example is "LatinX" a term lovingly embraced by AOC as gender neutral and sexually fluid.  Unfortunately, as polling affirms, Latinos hate the term.  Not surprisingly, Hispanics are no longer a solidly Democratic voting bloc.

Democrats should clearly signal to voters that the issues that we are turning to are healthcare, crime, education and the economy.