Tag: Greece

Today this area of the Aegean Sea had twenty mile an hour winds. I’m glad we weren’t taking a ferry! We decided to take a hike in Paras Park. We went out to the lighthouse. It was a great hike. At times it was sheltered from the wind and at times it was blowing a gale!

We had such a great dinner at Karina Restaurant last night that we decided to go back again tonight. We told Karina that our fish last night was so good we wondered what she would recommend tonight. She told us what was fresh and we chose the mussels and the fried cod. They were devine!

And look at the bill €45 for mussels, fish, a bottle of sparkling water, a half liter of rose wine, a small lemon curd desert and an aperitif! And in Europe you don’t tip!

This kind of food, service and ambiance is why we travel. Karina told us that tomorrow night they will close for the winter.

Our ferry this morning was scheduled to leave at 9:30. So we had to get up and get going. We returned our rental car and got to the ferry with no problem. The ferry ride to the island of Paros only took up about an hour.

Once we arrived in Paros and got our rent a car it was too early to check in to our hotel so we drove out to the north end of the island and found a deserted beach where we could park and read for a bit.

We are staying at a lovely place with an ocean view. The owner of our hotel recommended a place nearby for dinner, Karina. it was fabulous we had excellent fresh fish. The ambience was wonderful. We sat on the veranda and enjoyed the food, the music and the cool night sir.

This morning we took it easy and relaxed on the patio of our room. I spent most of my time editing our video of our trip from Naples to Bari, Italy and then across the Adriatic to Dubrovnik, Croatia. You can see it here.

Around noon we headed out to explore the southwest part of Naxos. we stopped at several beautiful beaches. At one there were several people kitesurfing.

Further down the coast we hiked down to a deserted beach and Duke went swimming.

We drove back to our hotel taking the inland route. The scenery was very different from what we saw yesterday. It seemed more desert like. About six we hiked from our hotel to the point next to the harbor. It has a giant gate on it. The gate is all that is left of a temple that was being built here in the sixth century BC.

From there we walked down to the restaurant area of the harbor and had salads and delicious gyro plates for an early dinner

Today we took a two hour ferry ride from the island of Santorini to the island of Naxos. The ferry left at 3:30. But first we did a bit of exploring on the east side of Santorini. We stopped at a beach front restaurant for drinks and to enjoy the view.

Next we drove up a steep switch backed road to the point where the trail to ancient ruins of Thera starts We didn’t have time to climb to the top but we did get some pictures of the views of both sides of the island. On the way down we recorded a video of Duke’s thoughts on Santorini and the Panda we were driving.

After getting gas, driving to the ferry dock and returning our car we had beers next to the dock and enjoyed watching all the activity.

On Nexos we rented a car and checked into our hotel. After a short rest we walked back down to the port and had a great dinner at Meze Meze.

We also had mussel risotto and grilled octopus but forgot to take pictures. For desert they gave us complimentary yogurt with candied carrots. It was excellent. It is good thing that we had a walk back to our hotel because we were each very full

This morning we checked out of the fabulous Hōm Hotel in Oia on the north end of Santorini. We explored the island and drove out to the south end of the island. Santorini is not much larger than Skiathos or Sifnos. It’s about 30 square miles and long and thin. We walked around the light house and enjoyed the views across the caldera.

Tonight we are staying at another fabulous place, the North Santorini Luxury Spa Hotel. After checking in we went for a swim in our own private pool!