Naxos, Greece

Boreas must have been angry the day we landed in Naxos. The stiff wind from the north was biting as it battered the almost empty shoreline. The small tavernas that lined the first beach we visited after dropping our bags were either starved for customers, or shut completely. We walked along the shore and watched the waves batter the rocks until we found a place that was open, and had ourselves a drink.

After our drink we continued on along the waterfront where most of the shops and restaurants were actually open. We spent a couple of hours wandering around, bought a few minor groceries and went back to the hotel. Later, we walked to a nearby restaurant and sat in the courtyard, where the wind still blew, but we were tucked into a sheltered corner, and were brought some blankets to fight off the chill. Was this Greece?

The next day was a bit the same, maybe a bit less wind and a touch warmer. A few days after we landed we rented a small car to tour the island with, and the wind died and the temperature climbed enough for a bit of a beach day. We found a place along the west coast of Naxos where all but one beach bar was closed and got a couple of beach beds, lounged, had a swim, drank a beer, and ate a gyro. This was Greece.

We spent the few days before our departure navigating the winding roads, visiting some of the small villages, sampling orange cake, and exploring ancient ruins.

The large unfinished marble statue in the photo above is located in an open air quarry in the mountains just above the village of Apollonas. We made the drive to see the statue, but stayed for the town. We sat at one of the cafes that lined the small protected beach and had coffee and an orange cake, then went to the beach and had a swim.

While in Naxos, we noticed a field with a running track and decided we would go there to get some exercise, the 10,000 plus steps a day wasn’t cutting it. We got our workout clothes on, filled our water bottles and walked five minutes to the track. When we got there we found that it was actually fenced off and currently a construction site. I thought “well, we tried” but Carmen was determined to get in, also there was already a guy running the track, and had been for some time. We walked the perimeter and saw no way in, until the guy running pointed to the best location to hop the wall. So we did, and then so did three teens, and by the time we left there were about half a dozen people using the facility which was the case every time we walked by.

Our time in Naxos was great. You could definitely feel that the end of the tourist season was here. Shops and restaurants were closing down for the winter, and the places that were still open had more empty tables than full, and bored shopkeepers sitting on their phones. As we drove round Naxos we saw lot after lot of stowed rental cars numbering in the hundreds, and we could only imagine what his place might have been like just a couple of months earlier. Travelling off peak has its trade offs, on one hand you have zero crowds, no need to make reservations, and no need to get to places to beat the rush. On the other hand, the options are limited, the temperature is cooler and more unpredictable.

The day we left, we were able to drop our car off at the small airport, barely made it through security (they ran my backpack and its contents through the X-ray machine about six times looking for an e-cigarette, that turned out to be my beard trimmer), boarded our plane and began our journey to Corfu.