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Ferries waiting for passengers
Rafina. Our ferry is the blue one. Ok, so which one? There are a lot of Greek islands. How do you pick one out? The most popular these days seem to be Santorini and Mykonos. Egina is the closest to Piraeus. Kalymnos is where a lot of our friends come from, but it is a long way across the Aegean. Kastellorizo is supposed to be beautiful and we have a by-marriage link to it. Lesbos is under a lot of pressure at the moment so perhaps it would be best to leave it alone. Tinos, Andros, Naxos and Mykonos are part of the Cyclades and all get strong recommendations. So does Crete. So do the Dodacanese. Prioritisation is required again. We don't have the time or money to see them all and an island hopping cruise tour doesn't appeal.
The only sensible way to make the decision is to look at what we want. First we wanted a place where we could kick back and do nothing much at all. Read books, play music, eat reasonable food and perhaps enjoy a drink every now and then. Ideally, there would be enjoyable things to walk along, around or past, reasonably close by. Action was not on the agenda.
Sailboarding, sailing, shopping, clubbing weren't what we were looking for.
The decision came down to 5 days on Tinos followed by 4 on Naxos to provide a mix of experience and give us a chance to see a couple of islands.
Both islands are part of the Cyclades group, which assists in managing ferry trips. Ferries for the Cyclades leave from Rafina. We were able to drop our rental car off at the Athens Airport, hop on a free airport shuttle down to a hotel at Rafina (picked because it is 200m from the ferry and also has the free airport shuttle) and board a ferry next morning and to do the reverse when we came back from the islands.
When we were developing our plans for a stay on an island in the Aegean we probably paid more attention to the tourist brochures and the stories of idyllic sunny weather than we did to the writings of Homer a couple of thousand years ago. As I recall he had quite a bit to say about storms and winds on the Aegean as his heroes moved around this part of the world We were reminded of all
of that the night before we left Rafina. Wind all night at what seemed to be substantial force, waves crashing over the breakwaters and the port - and the cars parked along the street there. The weather report was for 'breezes' of up to 40 knots. Things looked just a bit bouncy out there.
Turned out that this is all normal. Not worth a thought or a comment.
We had bought the ferry tickets online and had organised it so that we wouldn't be doing anything too long and no overnights. At this time of the season, it probably wasn't necessary to do so but later in the season it would be advisable to book ahead to ensure that you make it to where you are going at the time you pick. We travelled by Golden Star to Tinos for no better reason than that it left Rafina when we wanted to go and could be booked online on the site that we were on. It was fine and the sea wasn't really that rough, although waves were breaking over the bow of the ferry fairly regularly and it was nice to have the insurance of some motion-sickness
Pilgrims way
This street goes down to the old port and is lined with shops selling religious artifacts. Note the carpet runner on the right hand side. tablets in the backpack.
The place we had booked on Tinos was on a beach, not in a village as such, although there were quite a number of houses about. The village high on the hill above the beach was Kardiani and we were a few kms down the mountain. Kardiani is 13 km from the Xhora (also variously spelt Hora or Chora), or main town, of the island. There is a bus service to all of the villages but we had decided to rent a car. Cost was 25 Euros a day but, when we drove the few kms down the mountain from the village, where a bus would have stopped, into our accommodation we were convinced that it was a good idea, especially when we looked back up.
The people here apparently used to live in villages close to the water but, during the Venetian times – from 1250 or so to 1715 – piracy was rife and villages gradually moved up the hills. Tourism is moving activity down again but the villages remain up there.
The apartment we had rented was very comfortable and had what we needed – two rooms, cooking
Kardiani village
Taken from another mountainside. The drive into the village from the main road is quite interesting. facilities and comfortable furniture. We could look out on the water and keep an eye on the passing parade of ferries, sail boats and the occasional cruise ship.
Two tavernas provided food and drink if we were too lazy to cook, and we were most nights. We didn't find a mini-mart in the nearest village so had to drive into the Chora to find food. Not too hard a task.
Tinos is most famous for its religious significance. There is a church at the top of the hill overlooking the old port at the Hora. Pilgrims apparently make the trek directly up the hill from the port. Not really that far except that those who are most devout crawl the whole way. The town has helpfully laid a strip of carpet at the side of the road to help protect the knees and hands of the faithful.
The Marble Museum is at the Western end of the island in the village of Pyrgos (one of the many places called Pyrgos in Greece - the name means 'tower', we were told). There is a lot to know about marble and, in an interesting and well presented series of
Banjo practice
Inside our apartment. This little banjo has worked well so far. displays, this museum will provide you with enough information to win the average quiz show. And, just to demonstrate the depth of our research into Tinos before we arrived, it turns out that those diggings we had spotted as we drove around the island are actually marble quarries/mines and those strange channels running down the mountains weren't drains. They were the channels that were used to lower blocks of marble down to the shore. The Museum is well worth a visit and has the honour of being the first place we visited on this trip that has offered free entry to seniors who aren't from the EU.
Driving around the island doesn't take very long. You will do it easily in a day, stopping for meals and photos, and could probably cover every road in 2 days. The Eastern end is the most productive but the Western end has the town of Panormos. This is a seaside town down the hill from Pyrgos. It is an operating fishing village, has a sandy beach and struck us as a potentially good place to stay.
Tinos is also known for its many dovecotes. These buildings dot the islands. The top
Our verandah
Kardiani Beach of the building is used to house doves, or pigeons, that come and go as they will. The deposits provided by the doves is used as fertiliser and the pigeons were used as food. These were developed for aristocrats during Venetian times and are not really an important activity these days, if you judge it by the number of abandoned and falling-down dovecotes.
The most impressive feature of the island for us was the terracing. Most of the island lis veined by terraces and in many areas they rise from the shore to the top of the hills and mountains that run roughly east west. Rocks are not in short supply and they have been used, as required, for the walls of the terraces. Some of these terraces are providing arable land of less than a metre wide. The amount of work required to build them is mind-blowing. Maybe they're almost enough inspiration to build some on the block at home. Almost … maybe we'd need a lot more rocks.
We enjoyed Tinos. A relaxed and easy place to stay for a while.
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Pete
non-member comment
You were right to avoid Kastellorizo - it's tiny, not much happening at all (unless you count all the Greek Australians living there) and best done as a day trip from Turkey given proximity. As for those stone bits over the windows, they're lintels.