Bob and Ann in Greece 2008

Please visit May 7 slideshow

The Catholic Monastery at the Hike's Start


The Trail and the View

Dark skies, strong winds and rain drops greeted us this morning. Election buzz on CNN was most annoying and then an uninspired breakfast made worse by absence of coffee made the situation even bleaker. When a manager came to turn on the coffee machine so the beverage became available the pall lifted, wind changed, blue sky soon appeared and we began anticipating our hike today.

Ann's impression of the island's stark landscape surrounding our huge almost empty hotel and the many smartly white painted houses with sea blue trim was instantly modified as we headed inland by bus past the green and lush valleys with charming white villages studding the hillsides. Our hike today was from Falatados to Volax and Agapi. We left the bus high on a hill and, from a Catholic Monastery, climbed 250 feet up to the top of a peak covered by rocky ruins of the fortress built to defend the the island from various enemies. The spectacular 360 degree views were enjoyed fleetingly as we were nearly blown from the peak by the strong winds.

The Coffee Bar


Carolyn and the Kids

We descended the peak saying many bon jours to a group of French tourists coming up. Then we started slowly down an ancient path. Our first stop was at a serve yourself coffee bar where we enjoyed squares of an almond nuggat pastry and Greek coffee made by the Harrises. Given free time we explored the winding rock paths through the village and then resumed our descent through more rock terraced pastures until we came to the next village, Volax, where tall Harris found several workshops of basket weavers who obliged us with demonstrations of their skills. Here we ate a fine al fresco taverna lunch, the prosciutto like ham slices highlighting the usual delicious veggie dishes. Two youngsters belonging to the taverna's owners arrived home from school while we ate and were a hit with our kid starved crowd, especially Carolyn whose talent for cavorting with the kids was a wonderful surprise.

Dove Cote

As we continued down hill we passed many dovecotes in the fields where the islanders still raise doves to eat. They also use the excellent fertilizer the doves produce. One of the unique decorative features of much of the architecture that we saw is the niche patterns copied from the ancient island dovecotes. Sheep and goats studded rocky hillsides and sometimes met us on our trails. Harris had to push aside one goat and hold onto it while we passed. He also removed a dead or very stunned viper from the trail before we could step near it.

The Last Village

We finished our enchanting hike in a church courtyard overlooking another small village, Agapi, where we watched for our bus to wind up the hill to take us back to our hotel. We learned that the many churches we saw belonged to either Eastern Orthodox worshippers if the bell tower faced the East or Catholics if the towers faced West. Apparently the island population is divided equally between each denomination. We returned to the hotel by about 3:00 for free time until dinner.

We bussed into the town for dinner, first visiting its most important Greek Orthodox church, Church of the Panagia, with its outrageous icon decorated with silver, diamonds and pearls. A service was in progress when we got there so we heard a little of the liturgy. Traditionally, they passed out bread to the parishioners as they left. It was flavored like Christmas spice bread.

Our dinner in a small cave-like taverna was our normal multi-course meal. This time it was topped off with fresh sauteed fish. It was very yummy.

The map of our route is below. To see it in Google Earth, follow this link.