Island Thumbnails

KYTHOS It's a local island with the best grilled octypus Neil has ever tasted and very friendly people.It helps when the restaurant is right on the shore and your feet are in the sand while you eat.It was too windy the day we were there to enjoy the beach.
KEA Many wealthy Athenians are buying property here. We stayed in a very nice BnB with great views over the sea that make for a lengthy breakfast and a leisurely read.Tony loved chatting to our driver/guide who showed us the island and even took us to meet his elderly parents on their little farm.
HYDRA No cars here; only donkeys for transport. The harbour is pretty but the island is a bit touristy. You need to visit with a local; we did with Tony and Antoinette on a previous visit and discovered great dining spots just a few streets away from the hub-bub.
SPETSES Getting around is best on a scooter. This island is popular with yachties and has a great fishing harbour.
SANTORINI We stayed in Fira, in a wondeful apartment with an awesome view of the ocean and the caldera. The sunsets here and in Ia are magnificent. What spoils Santorini are the thousands of day trippers off the cruise ships traipsing around.The Santorini wines are good and we visited a winery to taste the unique Assytiko varietal.We found a few great eating places filled with locals not tourists and spent a lot of time in the Highlander Bar watching World Cup Rugby very early in the morning and US Open Tennis very late at night.
IOS This is the party island for the 18 to 25's. We decided we had to visit and check it out seeing as we never got to visit as young backpackers. The summer party season is very short, so we only caught the tail end of it; which is probably just as well.
NAXOS A nice family island with good beaches.
PAXOS Another great island with good beaches and a great waterfront area. We loved the food and really enjoyed the grilled pork neck roll stuffed with red peppers and feta cheese. We also found a great cocktail bar where the owner had a brilliant and eclectic taste in music.Even the evenings are hot, so sitting at an outdoor bar in a vine covered square is a real treat.

Greece

We crossed back into Greece from Turkey on 14 August and travelled along the east coast. There are some nice beaches around the Sithonian Peninsula and at Mt.Olympos.We then joined Antoinette and Tony at Varkisa for a few days and did a short trip to the islands of Kythos and Kea with them. At Sounio, the Temple of Poseidon looming over the sea, is well worth a visit. After that, we then went to Athens for a few days of strolling around the city. The new Acropolis Museum is really superb. Then it was on to the Peloponnese; an area with wonderful coastal areas, amazing mountains and so jam packed with ancient ruins and sites you could never visit them all!We only chose a few sites to visit including Corinth and Olympia. We found a great beach side campsite at Tolo Beach near Nafpoli and stayed a week. We liked this part of the Greek coast the best and enjoyed cycling into town each day. We found a wonderful fish restaurant with a great view and whiled away a few afternoons and evenings sipping house wine and reading, while watching the sun go down.We did another island trip to Hydra and Spetses. Further on, Gythos and the Messinian Peninsula are also wonderful coastal spots.The weather in Greece at this time of year is very, very hot but we loved it and enjoyed the fact that there is just no rain at all, ever!
We headed back to Athens and parked Homer at the campsite for 10 days so we could do a bit of island hopping to Santorini, Naxos, Paxos and Ios. Back in Athens, we met up with Sharon and Steve for a site seeing walk around the city and a gyro dinner. The next day we headed to Patras and onto the ferry bound for Ancona, Italy.