The airport in Athens is about twenty miles out of town. Thankfully, they have a good metro system and a train that goes all the way to the terminals. I hopped on a little plane and was off to explore some of those famous Greek islands, starting with the Cyclades. I’ve already been to a few Greek islands on this trip, but the remainder of my Greek adventure will be all island hopping.

Naxos

Greece has a total of around 6000 islands, though only 227 of them are inhabited. When this trip is over I will have seen 11 of them. The Cyclades Islands are right in the middle between Pelopponese and Turkey, and the biggest of those is Naxos. The narrow streets of Naxos are crammed with white washed buildings and cats EVERYWHERE.

The port town, sometimes known as Naxos Port and sometimes known as Chora, is a super convenient base. I started at their tiny little archeology museum. They had a ton of those Cycladic marble figures that I like so much.

Just at the edge of town on a little promontory is the ancient Temple of Apollo. I’m assuming it had help at some point, but the only part standing is the giant doorway. The wind has also decided to kick it up to full blast making it quite a bit colder. This is the first time it’s felt like winter on this trip.

I rented a car for a few days to explore the rest of the island. There’s actually a lot to see on Naxos. Out towards the fertile middle of the island among lots and lots of farms is the ancient Temple of Demeter. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and fertility, so it makes sense that she’d have a temple out here. It’s been heavily restored, but it’s a cool site.

A little closer to town is the ancient Temple of Dionysus in Yria. There’s very little of this one left. It was a quick stop.

Believe it or not, Naxos has some pretty incredible mountains. Time for some hiking. First I drove along the coast to the far east side of the island where I encountered some locals.

On the east coast near the village of Apollonas is an ancient marble quarry. Naxos is famous for its marble, both now and in ancient times. There you can find an ancient abandoned statue. They would start the carving at the quarry, then transport it to be finished at its final destination. They call this one a Kouros, which is a common nude male statue made for temples and tombs, but it’s actually believed to be a god based on the small details that were started. It was either going to be Dionysus for the Temple at Yria or Apollo for the temple on the nearby island of Delos.

There are a few theories as to why it was abandoned, but the most likely scenario is that it was left here in 490BC when the Persians invaded and enslaved the entire population of Naxos. It’s a very cool and unusual site though.

Now it’s time to head up to those mountains. High up near the village of Keramoti at a four way crossroad was a pretty amazing view. I parked my car in Keramoti and started my first hike.

There are a LOT of goats on this island, holy crap! Anyway, my hike took me through a really beautiful canyon to the Routsouna’s Waterfall. I wasn’t sure if there would be water or not, but the hike was so beautiful I didn’t care. Turns out, there was water. Not a lot of water, but a little bit. The sound of the falls was more impressive than the sight.

My big excursion was to climb Mt Zas, also known as Mt Zeus. In the pic below it’s that mountain furthest out. This is where Zeus apparently grew up as a child.

This was an awesome hike. I was the only person on that mountain this day, just me and the wild goats I ran into. No bells on these guys. And they were really shy. They ran away as soon as they spotted me coming.

Finally I made it to the top. It’s only 3290ft, but I think that’s pretty impressive considering it’s on a relatively small island. It sure felt higher than that. It was very cold and VERY windy up there. This is not only the highest peak on Naxos, but the highest peak in the Cyclades. And the views were tremendous! I could see 360° around Naxos and so many islands off in the distance. Just awesome!

Back at the trailhead and across the street was the path to the Fotodoti Monastery. It’s only a couple of miles round trip, why not? There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the construction of this place. It’s said that it was built by a princess after surviving some rough seas because she saw the sunlight shining up here. And it was probably built in the 12th century AD, though there are conflicting stories there too.

There is another ancient marble quarry in the middle of the island with its own abandoned kouros statues. These are both from the 6th century BC and both are thought to have been abandoned when the legs broke during transport. They’re really fascinating! I also met an overly curious goat and a cat that tried to adopt me. I wish I could take her home with me.

Here’s one of the modern marble quarries. Like I said, Naxos is famous for its marble.

Of course, no Greek island is complete without its ancient churches, like the Panagia Drosiani. I’m not sure when it was built, but the frescoes inside date to the 6th century. They’re thought to be some of the oldest frescoes in the Balkans. I got lucky and arrived at the exact same time as the priest. He was apparently just coming real quick to drop off some things, so I got to see the inside.

I wasn’t as lucky with the 11th century Church of St George Diasoritis. This one was locked up tight, but it was still a pretty church to gawk at.

My next hike was a visit to Tsikalariou Castle. It’s Naxos Islands 13th century Venetian Castle on top of that hill. I wasn’t expecting ancient churches along the way too, but I’ll take it. Thanks to the sign, I knew this first one was San Andreas. And miraculously, it was open. I don’t know anything about it, but the paintings inside were a nice surprise.

The other church right at the base of the hill didn’t have a sign and it was locked, so I guess it will have to remain a mystery.

Getting to the very top seemed a bit treacherous, so I only made it up so far, but this was a great find. The wind is still blowing like crazy out here in the Aegean Sea.

I met some more curious goats on the way down. They are very skittish, any sudden movements and they’re gone. I got to touch a couple of noses though.

Naxos turned out to be an awesome stop, but now it’s time to sail on over to the next island of Paros. It’s just a quick one hour ferry ride.

Paros

There’s not really a whole lot to do on Paros and it seems a bit more rough around the edges. I’m here only for one night and mainly just because I’m a hostage to the ferry schedules. That doesn’t mean I’m going to sit around all day twiddling my thumbs though. Paros does have a pretty good archeology museum. This mosaic floor was found buried here depicting the labors of Hercules, even if only two of them are visible now.

For an Island where all the temples are pretty much destroyed, they have a lot of really cool statues. Above is the remains of a bull getting mauled by a lion and the head of Asclepius. I was particularly impressed with the Nike statue and the Gorgon, identified as Medusa, though I didn’t think Medusa had wings.

The Panagia Ekatontapyliani, which means “church with a hundred gates”, does not have a hundred gates. They’re not sure where that name came from, but this place is really old, built in 326AD.

There’s supposedly a really good Byzantine museum here, but it was closed, even though all the signage on the door said it was supposed to be open. Grrrrrr! I did use my super duper Holy Crap Adventures skills to gain access to the ancient baptistry though. Sorry, I’m not at liberty to discuss company secrets here.

Just down the street from there is the ancient cemetery. It was first used in the 8th century BC when the cremated remains of 140 local soldiers were buried here in clay jars after some big battle (no other details were provided), seen below.

Paros did have a Temple of Athena that was washed into the sea when the cliff it was built on collapsed in ancient times. Much later a Frankish “castle” was built using the pieces from that temple. It’s really more of just a tower, but they can call it a “castle” if they want to.

The next morning I was on another ferry to the next island I’ll be visiting, Milos. I didn’t realize the ferry stopped at several other islands along the way though, so I got to sneak a peak at a few other port towns along the way.

Milos

Finally I arrived in Milos’ port town of Adamantas in the late afternoon, got checked into my little hotel across the street from the port, and grabbed dinner at the one and only restaurant open in town. This island really slows down in the winter. Two of the big things I came here to see, the Archeology Museum and the Catacombs turned out to be closed. I even checked to make sure they would be open before coming here, but they both had paper signs over the official hours saying they were closed. Lame! The Archeology Museum is now only open every Sunday, while my time in Milos is Wednesday to Saturday.

Milos is most famous as the location where the Venus de Milo was found and then STOLEN by the French. The original is currently in the Louvre in Paris. There’s a plaster copy here in the museum that’s CLOSED, so I guess I’ll just have to settle for this other sad copy on the side of the road, seen above, or I can also look back at my pics of the original from 17 years ago.

Due to all the pilfering and stealing of antiquities that went on in the 19th century, they can’t be sure exactly where Venus de Milo was found, but it’s believed that she was at the 2nd century BC Theatre of Milos.

Milos is kind of a horseshoe shaped island. The theatre is at one end and that’s the other end across the bay. What a view!

Just above the theatre, and above the town of Plaka, is the Plaka Castle, which is really just a small church up on top of the hill. The view was amazing though. In the pic below, from the left, that’s Antimilos, the twins Akrathi and Arkadi in the middle, to the right is Kimolos and Poliegos, and way off in the distance just to the left of Kimolos you can barely make out Sifnos. I could also see Serifos from here, but it doesn’t really show up in the picture.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hiking from the fishing village of Mandrakia along the northern coast, which is covered by beautiful, white, swirling rocks. What an absolutely beautiful location!

From town, and specifically from my balcony, I could see the highest peak in Milos on the other side calling my name. So if course I climbed it.

Milos had a lot of goats too, especially on this remote other side of the island. It was only about seven miles from town, but it felt like I was a million miles from everything.

The summit of Profitis Ilias is covered in cell towers, but the views did not disappoint! You can really see the horseshoe shape from here as well as the neighboring islands.

While I was up at the summit I spotted a ferry coming in and checked the time. Yup, that’s the same ferry from Paros that I came in on a couple of days ago. You can also see Adamantas with the big ferry parked in front, and Plaka to the left of it in the next pic.

Here’s a shot from the small beach at the bottom of the horseshoe. I’ve had some really beautiful days here in the Cyclades, especially after that wind stopped.

My last excursion in Milos took me out past Profitis Ilias to the far southwest corner of the island, to an area called Kleftiko. In the summer it overflows with boats, kayakers, and swimmers. It must be a mess! But today, I had it all to myself. Awesome!

The hiking here in Milos turned out to be better than I expected. And looking at the clear blue water, a part of me wished I had brought some swim trunks, even if it is a little cold. I bet those arches and tunnels are super fun to swim through.

And on the way back I enjoyed seeing the rest of the coast. This island is really beautiful!

Back in town, I got some food at my one open restaurant again. At least it’s a good restaurant with lots of options. Tomorrow, I’ll board another ferry and say goodbye to the Cyclades Islands. There’s still more island hopping to be done though, I’m not finished just yet…