Our last stop in the island hopping month has been Sifnos. It’s a beautiful island with views out to many of the islands we’ve visited, many natural harbours, white churches and monasteries on every headland and hill, 8th century walls and ruined towers.
We stayed in Chrisopigi where a white monastery sits on a rocky island divided from the mainland by a narrow chasm. The story is that two girls came to visit the church but found pirates inside who were ransacking it. The girls ran away but were chased by the pirates. Suddenly an earthquake broke the rocks apart saving the girls and leaving the pirates on the island. Now there’s a small bridge across the great divide.
There are footpaths right across the island. We just walked around the headland to reach the next harbour,Faro, where George’s bar did great coffees, orange juice and tost (toasted cheese sandwich) where you could sit and watch the fishing boats come in.
But best of all was to sit on the terrace of the hotel. We were the only people here all week so we had full run of the pool and made our own breakfasts, lunches and supper in the kitchen. The view is lovely. Here’s my watercolour of the view.
We had full moon while we were here. It was a huge pink moon which cast light across the sea to the monastery. Magical.
We visited Kastro, a white village hugging a mountain by the sea with its 8th century castle at the top. We sat and drew. My drawing of Alex drawing below. It’s been a glorious lazy week of swimming, reading and talking.
This evening we’re back in Athens and tomorrow we meet up again with the van! So, apart from a week in Corfu yet to come, we’ve now finished island hopping. It’s been great.
Both the Dodecanese and Cyclades seem very dry at first glance but however wild the landscape may be, the villages are always havens of flowers, trees and shade. And once you’ve got your eye in, the more we’ve seen the green and colour in the landscape with beautiful tamarisk and olive trees, wild flowers and colourful bushes. For instance, on Sifnos we found the caper plant which grows out of hard rock but flowers with this exotic blossom. It’s the central stamen which becomes the caper. They grow all over the place and then appear in every salad.
The islands were all once heavily farmed. On this rocky ground there are terraced strip fields everywhere you look, right up to the top of mountainous slopes, each with a retaining wall. The work which must have gone into building these walls, and maintaining them is hard to imagine. Not a photo with much terracing, but a man in his ape with one very happy dog.
We’ve been incredibly lucky to be here before “the season” starts and to travel when it’s been so quiet. All the Greeks we’ve met have been so nice, gentle, kind, and thoughtful but also funny and great talkers. All of them are proud of their own island, and rightly so. Each island has been different and distinctive. Yes, they all have white houses and churches on every headland and mountain top, a lot of steep steps everywhere, and colourful fishing boats in harbour but the atmosphere varies a great deal. We’d definitely like to explore more another time.
Goodbye Cyclades! And here’s the final map of our island hopping.
