Day 18 - Paros to Naxos

Espresso freddo: 0

Nothing much to report about this morning.  We had a light breakfast, for the sake of our digestion, and then puttered around the hotel until it was time to check out.  Our hotel was really badly located as there wasn't time to go for a walk into town. 

After checking out, we were driven to the port.  We settled into a cafe and had a light lunch (again for our digestion's sake) before boarding the ferry to Naxos.  

We were met by a woman with a sign with our names but she wasn't our driver.  She seemed to be the tour guide for a coach, but there were no passengers or drivers.  She made multiple phone calls and after about 10 minutes a man with a van showed up.  He was also on the phone.  He loaded our suitcases into the van, waited for us to get in and then drove us to our hotel where he unloaded the suitcases.  He was on the phone the whole time and never spoke to us once.  Very odd.

I really like our hotel here in Chora.  It is central with everything in easy walking distance!  After checking in we went for a walk up to what is called Naxos Castle.  It isn't really a castle but a fortified section of the old town.  It looks impressive from afar but is less impressive when you are in it as you can't see the fortifications (see photo from the interwebs).

There was an archeology museum but it was shut for the day.  I wasn't really sorry as it probably would have been filled with random bits of marble from statues, temples and graveyards like all the other museums we've been to.  One armless and headless statue looks much like another after all.

What they really need to have is to have a museum which shows the history of the town/island.  Something like the first settlements were neolithic and were here.  In the bronze age they expanded to cover all this ground and this many people were believed to live here.  After the collapse of the Mycenean civilisation this happened.  Then this, then that, then the Venetians who built this and so on.

Next stop was the islet of Palatia (now connected with a causeway) where there is the Portara (or giant door).  This is the door to a temple of Apollo.  The rest has collapsed but the door is still there.  It is very impressive.  Even more impressive was there was an app you could download to your phone.  When you aimed your phone at different parts of the site, it would give you a 3D rendering of what the actual temple would have looked like.  It was huge.  The doorway was only about halfway up the facade.

The causeway to the islet has created a sheltered bay where you can go swimming.  We didn't bother, but other people did.  Instead, we just sat and dangled our feet in the water.  That was energetic enough for us.

Next we sat in a cafe and drank juices and watched the world go by, while passing severe judgement on their fashion choices.  A very pleasant afternoon.

We then ambled back to the hotel, stopping at one of the many clothing shops for a little light shopping.  I bought two very pretty dresses (only one of which is purple) that I can't imagine I'll ever wear.  On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised to find they were made for people my height, unlike so many things in Australia.

For dinner we went to the extreme effort of going downstairs to eat in the hotel's restaurant as it is the top rated Italian restaurant in town.  I just had some foccacia and spaghetti with a cherry tomato & basil sauce, topped with a chunk of buffalo mozzarella.  It was all very Good.

Tomorrow we have a guided tour of the island.  Fingers crossed our guide is better than Aris.  It shouldn't be difficult.