Day 19 - Naxos

Espresso Freddo: 0

Today we had a private tour of the island, which turned out to be much better than the one we had of Paros.  We had a driver and a tour guide.  The guide, Nikos, was all of 19 and had the energy of a golden retriever puppy.  I suspect he had ADHD as he rarely stopped talking and bounced from subject to subject.  On the plus side he knew a lot so his conversation/monologues were interesting and entertaining.  He was really rather sweet.

One thing we learnt from him is that the classic blue and white buildings on the islands isn't classic after all.  Whitewashing the buildings first started in the 1930s as a way of disinfecting them during a cholera outbreak.  It became law to paint all houses blue and white during the military junta rule in the 1960s.  Before then, they were just the colour of the natural stone.  All the better to blend into the local environment to make it harder to spot by raiders from the sea.

Our first stop on the tour was the temple of Demeter.  It had been converted into a church during the Byzantine era and since then had gradually fallen into ruin.  They've recently started restoring it and moved the chapel to one side, while rebuilding one corner of the temple so you could get an idea of what the whole thing must have looked like.   It was a clever way to preserve two separate historic buildings on the same site.

 

After this we went to a pottery workshop and were shown some traditional pottery dishes, including a clever one for siphoning out wine from a barrel.  I resisted the urge to buy one (when would I ever had use for it?) but did buy a small dish for serving olives and the like.  I hope I can get it home safely.

Our next stop was a citron distillery, where a very bored woman gave use 3 samples of citron liqueur.  These were disappointing as they are made by flavouring the base spirit with the leaves of the citron plant rather than the fruit.  I was expecting something a little like limoncello but it was more like a rather grassy gin.  We didn't find it difficult not to buy anything here.

We then went to the pretty village of Chalki for a restorative coffee.  Our stop here was longer than planned as we had to wait for Nikos to stop talking long enough to eat his cake before we could go on.  Also, ours was the last tour he was guiding for this season.  He is going home to Athens tomorrow.  At every stop, everyone knew him and they all wanted to say good-bye to him, especially the middle-aged women.  He was clearly their pet.

At the cafe in Chalki there weren't begging restaurant cats.  Instead there was a restaurant duck.

We also briefly stopped to look in a church here.  It had some sadly faded frescoes that must have been incredible when they were first painted.

Then it was on to the Vallindras Olive Oil Mill and Electric Utility Company. Markos Vallindras brought the first diesel generator to Naxos. He first used it to power his olive oil mill but later used it to provide electricity to house in the village. So his village had electric power 80 years before the rest of the island!

We got to taste a variety of olive oils and olives here and had a short tour describing how olive oil used to be made. Neither the oils nor the tour were as good as the one we had early but it still was a pleasant experience.

At this point it was 2pm, which is lunch time by Greek standards, so we headed t the village of Apiranthos for lunch.  Again, everyone knew Nikos here.  I had pork rosto which was a slice of pork slow cooked in herbs and a tomato-based sauce (traditional) and serve with spaghetti (not so traditional).  The meat was very tender and quite tasty so the meal was Decent.

After lunch we ambled around the village and stopped at a shop selling local goods.  The husband has a forge in the basement where he makes knives.  The wife, among other things, makes a liqueur which she offers to all customers.  I would have bought a bottle but she doesn't make it in commercially.  Instead, I settled for some earrings made with Naxian marble and coral.  Nikos was given a knife and an invitation to come back in the off-season to learn how to make knives himself.

We then went for a drive to see the modern marble quarries - just from the road.  Then it was the last stop of the day which was to see two kouros in some ancient quarries.  These are tall (5 metres+) freestanding statues of young, male nudes which were apparently popular in ancient Greece.   Quarries would rough out the form of these statues before transporting them to their final location and finishing them there.  This was to avoid wasting time perfecting something that might get broken in transport.  The two we saw had broken when they were being moved and had just been left behind.  

One was quite close to the car park but the other was 600m away, uphill.  We went to both.  Nikos was impressed we could manage the walk.  Mary did it in sandals, which impressed me.

This was the end of the tour.  I think we were all exhausted, including our driver who had to manage a minivan on tight, winding roads.  So it was to back to the hotel with cheerful good-byes (our hefty tips helped).

For dinner we just went to a crepe place near the hotel.  Mary had pancakes but I had a "savory" crepe with ham, cheese and tomato.  It was Disappointing as the "crepe" was a good quarter of an inch thick (!) and vaguely sweet.  I suspect they use the same batter for the savory and sweet crepes and the pancakes.

Off to Santorini tomorrow.  The last of our island visits.