Visiting the interior of Naxos

Fourth Century Church of Panagia Drosiani, Naxos

  Our group was firmly committed to spending part of our Greek vacation on one of the Aegean Islands.  I chose Naxos for this final part of our Greek vacation for two reasons: first, it was within a reasonable ride from the sacred island of Delos, which was high on my must-see list for this trip, and because it seemed to have the greatest variety of potential sight-seeing, to be more than just a tourist and beach-going island.  Today and the next day were to provide our chance to explore beyond the town of Chora: today the interior of Naxos, and tomorrow a ferry ride to Delos. 

We made our arrangements for both (as well as for our airport drop off on our final day). with the Zas tourist agency, which had a couple of offices along the Chora waterfront.  We hired both a driver and a guide, and woman named Mina, for our tour of the island.  I would say that our tour guide was OK, but only OK.  She seemed to know what she was talking about, and she was animated with a deep pride in her island.  She was a bit repetitive, and she had plainly her own ideas about what we should see.  She was I think a bit taken aback by the fact that I had prepared for our visit by researching the possible sights of Naxos, as well as by the extent of my knowledge about ancient Greece.  She was somewhat  willing to take direction to head to some of the sights about which I had read on preparation for our trip.  Not enough direction, perhaps.

On the way out of and back to Chora, we passed these terraced hillsides

Sightseeing in Naxos Town (Chora)

We woke up this morning planning a family walk into the Kastro, the Venetian castle area that tops the hill at the center of old-town Chora (from looking at guidebooks, it appears that the main town on a number of different Aegean Island is named Chora.  I gather that this is a practice followed when the official name of the town is the same as the island -- it  enables them to distinguish between the name of the town and the name of the island).  We had our usual Greek breakfast—yogurt (Greek-style yogurt, of course, but creamier and without the somewhat sharp bite that Greek yogurt often has in the United States) with granola and fruit.  Then, we were on our way. 

The free map that our apartment host had provided to us was barely adequate to the task, so I picked up a much better map for 3 euros, showing detail including street names in Chora (and apart from our own neighborhood, the streets were signed, to some extent, in some other parts of the old city below with Kastro (the Bourgos) and within the Kastro itself.

We passed by these churches

and then we were into the narrow lanes of the Bourgos, trying to find our way to one of the two gates into the Kastro.

Travel to Naxos

This is a holding page for an eventual post, transferred from my temporary blog, about the trip from Crete to Naxos

Several more posts about travel in Greece are linked here

For a reason that could not figure out at the time, I was locked out of my regular Google account while we were traveling.  Rather than taking the time to understand and fix the problem, I created a second travel blog at paulalanlevy2.blogspot.com.

Twelve posts about our time in Athens, Delphi, and Crete appear there.  If I can do so, I have in mind to import them here.  But for now, here are links to those posts

The Athens Acropolis

 Exploring the Ancient Agora

A Visit to Ancient Sites in the Peloponnese

The Acropolis Museum in Athens

Some Highs and Lows of Travel in Athens

Benaki Museum in Athens, and Excavation under the Acropolis Museun

A Road Trip to Delphi and Housos Loukas

Heraklion Arrival and Relaxing in Rethymno

A Hike in the Patsos Gorge of Agios Antonios

The Palace of Knossos and Visiting Heraklion

Last Two Days in Rethymno, Including the Fortezza and Archeological Museum

Our Trip From Rethymno on Crete to Naxos

A walk around tourist Athens

We spent our first full day in Athens walking around the maim tourist neighborhoods of Plaka, Anafiotias and Monastiriaki, following a audio guide narrated by Rick Steves.  We began with a lazy morning, catching up on sleep, adjusting to a new time zone seven hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, breakfasting on yogurt with granola.  We did not emerge from our apartment until nearly noon.  It looked cloudy and threatening rain, but buoyed by a weather forecast that put the chances of rain as no more than 10% or 20%, we took no rain gear.

We began by checking out a small Russian Orthodox church just across Fililennon Street from the street where our apartment, the Ekklisia Agia Triada Rosiki

Our first day in Athens

Having spent an entire semester studying classical Greece as part of my first year Humanities program at Reed College, Greece has long been on my bucket list of places to see during my lifetime, and this summer we are gathering with our family in Greece, planning to spend roughly a week in each of Athens, Crete and Naxos.  We arrived in Athens this afternoon after a flight in on Scandinavian Airlines by way of Copenhagen.  We have taken a three bedroom apartment near Syntagma Square; after unpacking and winding down for am hour or so, we set out to get our first taste of the city.

We strolled out along Mitropoleos, pausing for an ice cream near the Syntagma Square and getting directions for a grocery store where we could stock up for the next few days’ breakfasts.  Proceeding back in the direction of the Acropolis, we came upon the 19th Century Athens Cathedral

Athens Cathedral with Acropolis in rear

Athens Cathedral

Square in front of Athens Cathedral

Five days on the beaches of Guanacaste Province

this is a holding page