We had a lazy start to the day. We have a tour booked for 5’ish.
We set out after 10am for a walk around our local village and down to the beach. We walked through the village and along in front of all the beach front restaurants. It’s very easy to see this place would be packed in peak season by the number of restaurants and beach sun chairs.
We walked along the beach for as far as we could. Not long into the walk I saw an area in the water where it looked like there might be a spring emptying into the sea, I started taking photos and showed Deb, then she pointed out that the dark things on the sea bed under the bubbles were moving!! Damn, it was a scuba school!
Back onto the road and through the next little village of Palatia Beach and onto the jetty. A fishing boat pulled in just as we arrived. They have a small catch, maybe 20 small boxes.
We made our way back mostly along the beach to our starting village. Along the way Deb remembered that sea polished glass was a thing on Naxos beaches. Deb found a couple of pieces, all I got was polished rocks.
It was about 11:45am so we called into a bakery and got a piece of chicken pie each for lunch.
We had a relaxing afternoon, not really doing anything much.
We were picked up for our afternoon Food, People and Heritage Tour of Naxos by our driver Averkios, in a late model Range Rover. (It has a screen for a rear view mirror) and were dropped off into the capable hands of our fabulous guide Appa.
We started with a wine tasting in a small farm produce shop, Arseniko, there we tried 4 different cheeses, 2 cows milk cheeses ( a fresh one and an aged one) followed by two hard aged goats cheeses. My favourites were the hard cheeses, but they were all excellent. We each had a glass of white wine with the cheese. The wine and the cheeses were all made by the family who owned the shop.
From there we walked from new Naxos to old Naxos and inside the castle. The old town consists of elements of Naxos’s history, The Bourgos – where the Greeks lived during the Venetian occupation of Naxos, and the Kastro, or castle, built by the Venetians in the 1200’s. Both the Bourgos quarter of the city in front and around the castle and the castle have access ways (you could never call them streets or alleys) built to form a labyrinth. The maze of the labyrinth and the use of low arched passage ways and variable level heights for floors in buildings were to make it difficult for any invading army to breach the castle. Today those same passages are full of quirky shops, cafes and restaurants.
We stopped and had a break at the rooftop bar in what was an old girls school. We shared a piece of Orange Pie made from filo dough and topped with marmalade and drenched with a syrup made with Citron juice and sugar, and served with cocoa and powdered orange zest. To go with it we had a shot of Kitron, made from the fruit and leaves of the Citron tree. The cake was delicious and the Kitron warming.
We then walked further into the castle getting more of a history of the times. Naxos was never fully occupied by the Ottoman Empire, instead, the Turks allowed the Venetians to continue to occupy Naxos and use it as a trading centre as long as they paid them an agreed tax. Above many of the doorways in residences within the castle are crests defining which nations representative live there. Many nations kept political posts within the castle to strengthen their trade relationships with the Venetians.
We passed by the Catholic Cathedral of Naxos, a building of many architectural styles and had dinner at Metaxu mas Taverna. Appa ordered for us, we had a glass of wine and a Greek Salad with a goats cottage cheese style feta, beef and eggplant. Zucchini Balls., along with crusty bread and olive paste. All of it was delicious, I particularly liked the Greek Salad. We had very interesting chats with Appa, her main job is a teacher at the local junior high school where she teaches ancient Greek history, among other things.
We then walked down to the waterfront area and out to the Temple of Apollo on the southerly point of the harbour. The sun was setting fast and we arrived just as the full ball of the sun disappeared, but we still got great photos. The Temple of Apollo, or Portara (the great doorway) was constructed in the 6th century BC, but was never completed. Today only a 6m tall x 3.5 wide arch survives. Many of the original stones used in its construction have been used in other builds within the city.
And that was the end of our tour. We met our driver, Averkios, at the wharf said goodbye to Appa. On the way back Averkios pointed out the only set of traffic lights on the island, at a point where the road crosses the airport runway, and then we were at our hotel in no time.
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