Naxos - Now Island #6

After a lovely breakfast we joined the queue for our ferry and chatted to a family of 3 from Newcastle. 11.20, our departure time came and a Blue Star Ferry arrived, Sue was all for boarding that, but it was Blue Star 1 and our tickets were for Blue Star Naxos. Ours was delayed, but about 30 minutes later we were off. The sea was flat calm and the ferry really comfortable, so a great voyage. Arrival in Naxos was a replay of Paros, three large ferries all disembarking simultaneously people, motorbikes, cars and lorries. If it hadn’t been for five police offices all constantly blowing their whistle's, no one would have known what to do.

We walked with the masses and our bags out of the port to try and find Irene, from whom we’d rented a car. About 50 or so, car rental representatives must have been at the mouth of the port, awaiting their respective hirers. I checked my phone, which showed a WhatsApp video of a Citroen registration plate, from Irene. Looking down at the registration of the car I was stood next to, showed the same reg.. A smiling young lady stood next to the car and noticing my interest said “Trevor”. You couldn’t make it up. Five minutes later we were off, but not after taking all the teeth off the reserve gear by trying to jam it in twice without using the clutch. Hopefully, Irene was out of earshot by now!

We crawled away from the port through rental cars, motorbikes, lorries and whistling police. After a few minutes we stopped to plug the phone in, activate Apple Play and set the coordinates for our accommodation.

The first 12 minutes or so were normal driving, although this is a relative term when driving in Greece. As we headed into Agkidia, our village the roads started narrowing, the inclines steepened and the potholes deepened. In the final stage of this journey, I thought I had to make an impossible right turn, but Google Maps actually wanted a just about double left turn. There was a sense of shear relief , from both Sue and I when we saw a lady waving at us from a balcony a bit further up the mountain, which meant we had arrived.

Everything until now aside, our apartment is stunning.

We have two balconies with fantastic views towards Paros Island and Naxos Port. We have a hot tub on one balcony and everything is modern and beautiful. The wall above our bed features a full sized picture of some Ancient Greek Godess, with staring eyes.

We sent a picture of it to Caroline, who instantly freaked out. Good job Caroline hadn’t rented this AirBnB, because she would have spent her week here sleeping in the car!

After being shown around, Sue suggested we go to the local supermarket to get supplies”. My enthusiasm for taking to the streets of Naxos again, so soon, was minimal, but we achieved this and got back safely to unwind.

We have a local taverna, just 300m from our apartment, and headed there to have an evening meal. It was extremely good, fried zucchini and Aubergine, pitta bread and tzatziki to start and stuffed tomatoes, peppers and prawn saganaki for mains. Close to one of the best meals we’ve had and really cheap.

We decide to go to the beach for our first day and found a beautiful volcanic rocky cove with golden sand in the middle. The water was crystal clear and turquoise blue.

Our host had recommended Melanes, which wasn’t far from our village, so on the way back we visited it. It’s pretty high in the mountain here, so narrow, hairy roads and no passing space. We stopped at the top of the village and wandered around trying to find the points of interest, which we both agreed we were failing to do. We spoke to Greek lady who spoke good English and asked it we wanted drinks or a meal. We said we just wanted to see the main features of the village, to which she looked very puzzled. There’s the oldest church on the Island but you would need to drive down there 300m then head back on yourself. Following these instructions got us down a very narrow street with no through roads in every direction. A Greek boy of about 10, explained in fluent Greek where to go and looked like he was going to hit the car with his stick to help us on our way. We passed the building site for a new church before throwing in the towel turning and going all the way back. Getting to our apartment now seemed like a breeze compared with exploring Melanes!

Tomorrow the plan is to rise early and walk into the port to see the old town and the unfinished temple to

Apollo dating back to 600 years BC. of which only the impressive entry arch known as the Portara, still exists.