Excursions…

Whilst on Naxos we decided to do two excursions:

• The first was a tour around the island on a beauiful boat called Iason - but I think it might be pronounced Jason. 
• The second was a historic tour of the island by coach with commentary.

The boat tour cost us 45 euros each, including a BBQ lunch and refreshments. To get there we had to jump on a bus, which cost 1.60 euros per person each way. The bus departs from outside the little bakery where you can buy your bus tickets to the port of Agia Anna. The boat tour lasts from 10am to 5pm. It’s a long day, but very worth the money. We thoroughly enjoyed jumping off the ship and exploring the southern coast of Naxos and lots of tiny hidden beaches.

The coach tour was booked with Naxos Tours, and cost 30 euros per person. Our a tour guide provided a running commentary throughout the trip, expertly switching between English and German. We’d booked the trip with our lovely tour guide Dimitri. It took us to the village of Apiranthos, a stunning little place set high in the mountains with views over the whole of Naxos. We stopped there for lunch having learned that Naxos and the neighbouring islands were renowned throughout history for being huge producers of marble and the makers of Kouros statues. Back when the island was ruled by Venetians, it was a pretty prosperous place.

Naxos is one of the largest Cycladic islands and is also known for exporting potatoes and local cheese. During the tour we got to see the twin churches, Greek Orthodox and Catholic, nestled side by side. We visited a local pottery workshop, an artists studio, a museum-piece olive press, and one of the oldest churches on the island - Agios Mamas, with its fantastically preserved religious paintings. We also had the pleasure of visiting an old and very traditional distillery of citron liquer, in the village of Halki. After this we stopped off at Dolce Vita cafe for a Freddo Cappucino and piece of homemade blueberry cheesecake in the shade. The photograph of the elderly shopkeeper in the doorway, was taken just down the road from there too.

Naxos is an island rich in history and relatively unspoilt when it comes to tourism. By that I mean British tourists. It’s quite nice to be the only ones speaking English for once.

Next week for #TBT I’ll be posting about our time on the island of Paros. Again, a completely different experience to the ones we’d had on Naxos and Mykonos, but equally as enjoyable.

Photography © Lucie Kerley