Today we had a wonderful time exploring Naxos. As we were driving into the mountains northeast of the town of Naxos we saw a sign for a roadside historical site. When they built the road they uncovered part of an 11 km long clay pipe aqueduct built at the end of the 6th century BC. It connected springs at Flerio where we were headed to Naxos.
Next we stopped at the starting point of the aqueduct, a spring where there are also remains of an ancient quarry and sanctuary. We saw early Greek statues called Kouros in the Athens Archaeological Museum. Apparently in the ancient quarry they used to roughly cut out the rock for the statue and then ship it to its destination for finishing. We saw a statue in progress that appears to have been broken when they were transporting it.
From the mountain side we had hiked up to see the ancient quarry we could see more modern marble quarries across the valley.
Further down the road at a mountain pass with a church we stopped for a snack.
We drove to the north end of the island to the tiny village of Apollonas and enjoyed Greek coffees overlooking the harbor.
On our way back to Naxos we stopped at one of the many little beaches we passed. Ambrami beach was almost deserted. the rocks on the beach were so pretty that I could have spent an hour or more collecting the most beautiful.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the grocery store for wine and snacks then enjoyed them outside our room while we watched the sunset.
For dinner we went back to Meze² where we ate last night. As we were looking for a table the owner said wait ten minutes while I pick up my daughter from English class and I’ll fix you something special. We did and he did. It was perfect.
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