Island-hopping heaven: Taking the ferry for an old-fashioned Greek odyssey
As Vangelis the boatman ferried me towards the tiny Greek island of Kimolos, I knew this was it - I’d found what I had promised myself: unspoilt Greece where you can still lose yourself in time and walk with the ancients.
More than that, my ten days of island-hopping had given me a whole new perspective on this beleaguered but utterly beautiful country.
My first stop was the much visited island of Mykonos, which is something of an Aegean St Tropez. Hire a quad bike and you can find some deserted beaches but that’s not really the point here. Better succumb to its fabulous shopping and its glamorous yet intimate hotels such as the Grace where I was made to feel like family, and beachside bars in the pretty quarter of Little Venice, where the buildings overhang the water in keeping with its Italian namesake.
Twilight charms: The panorama of buzzy Mykonos town lights up like a jewel at night
I loved it, but my adventure really began as I piled onto the ferry alongside locals, backpackers and elderly archaeologists, with that glorious Greek lack of organisation that rolls the years right back. Off we sailed past Delos, where the sun god Apollo was born, past Naxos, where Theseus ditched his lover Ariadne, until we arrived at a vast, natural harbour created over 3,000 years ago by a violent volcanic explosion and tidal wave.
This catastrophe left only a ring of dramatic 1,000ft cliffs now known as Santorini. Up and up we zig-zagged by car to the main town of Thira - and then down and down, on foot this time, to another exquisite Grace hotel perched right above the still-live volcano set in its blue lagoon.
Everyone should see this giddy view once -- and since the arrival of the cheap cruise holiday everyone can. Though Santorini’s thousands of rickety steps seem entirely unsuitable for the elderly and children, I saw game British grandmothers herding four-year-olds up and down 60 degree cobbled slopes, buoyed by the natural electricity that lurks in the air.
All too soon I was taking the ferry to my next stop, Crete, but as I stood on the deck watching the sun fade into Homer’s wine-dark sea I realised I was as happy as I have ever been. If ever I had doubts about seeing Greece the old-fashioned way rather than taking the planes that now serve most islands, they were gone. The boats were spotless, and the crews as helpful as could be.
Mykonos magic: The Grace hotel may be achingly stylish, but it also makes its guests feel like family
On this leg, a Verdi opera was playing over the intercom, on another I watched the French Open tennis. To be afloat on the timeless Aegean, with mod cons too, is simply wonderful.
At the port of Heraklion, Crete’s capital, I took a taxi to Chania, 80 miles to the west with its photogenic,Turkish quarter - pretty well intact despite the ravages of World War II.
A historian could stay here forever. My hotel, the Alcanea, built in the 17th Century by the Venetians, was once the office of the Greek hero Venizelos, who in 1897 kicked the Turks out of the island and united it with Greece - Athens airport is named after him.
But you can also lose yourself in traditional hill villages where beekeepers truck their hives to pastures new at night to make the delicious honey which is on every breakfast table.
However, my favourite island, Kimolos, was yet to come. Less than four hours by boat from Athens, you get there via the better known Milos, where Vangelis was waiting for me with his water taxi Dolphin II.
Twenty minutes later, we were chugging through turquoise waters into the tiny port of Psathi. Kimolos, just 22 square miles with 500 year-round inhabitants, 74 churches, and a few bars, has an intriguing history of piracy but few modern distractions, so you can thoroughly enjoy its medicinal hot springs and blazing chalk white beaches – ‘Kimolos’ comes from the Greek word for chalk.
Multicultural: Chania's Turkish quarter is miraculously still intact
My destination this time was the tiny, whitewashed Windmill hotel, five rooms of sheer heaven with a 360 degree view. I was only lured away when Vangelis proposed an idyllic boat trip to neighbouring Polyaigos, where he grew up in a shepherd’s hut. It is uninhabited but for some salt water drinking goats and a rare cave-dwelling seal. Back in Psathi the day finished at a beach restaurant, eating fish straight out of the sea.
As I departed for Milos on the little car ferry costing just a few euros, I reflected that a holiday shuttling between the two islands would suit every taste. Milos has hire cars, a vibrant nightlife and archaeological sites -- my taxi driver, Michaelis, volunteered that the famous Venus de Milo had been unearthed here by one of his wife’s ancestors.
I had proved that in Greece you are still never very far from history - and nowhere so much as on my final island, Serifos, once home to the mythological one-eyed Cyclops. In the 20th Century it was dependent on a lucrative trade in iron ore, then they closed the mines and overnight 90 per cent of the workforce emigrated to Athens leaving it so poor it has remained virtually undiscovered. You can sit in the tiny square of its fortress capital lingering over a raki, much as they must have done when the only access was by mule.
I stayed in Aria’s self-catering complex converted from shepherds’ dwellings near a ridge so high you look down on the sensational sunsets; the wheeling hawks and some 30 other islands all seemingly floating on a looking glass sea.
High point: Head inland in Serifos and the landscape looks like a sun-drenched Scotland
Families with children may prefer to be closer to the beach, but the thyme-scented heights are perfect for rustic walks where you meet nothing but gigantic butterflies.
As I turned in, all alone but for five billion stars, I confess, city dweller that I am, I was mildly apprehensive, especially when I saw the insects. No need to worry. A little green gecko on the ceiling ate them all - ecological perfection. And with the dawn I realised there was something reassuringly familiar about Serifos – it looks like Scotland with sun.
It was time to return to Athens where a great luxury awaited: one night by the beach in the Astir Palace and then the legendary Grande Bretagne, with a view of the Parthenon from my ******** After all that island hopping I had planned to flop by the swimming pool. Instead I obeyed the siren call of the ancient stones and climbed to the top of the Acropolis with so many other tourists you could imagine the economic crisis solved.
On the islands it was unnoticeable. Tourist numbers are up on last year and since the sea is at its warmest in September - and despite their woes - they are looking forward to a glorious end of summer.
If you take my advice you’ll pack a very small swimsuit and a bottle of suntan lotion and join them.
Easy Jet, easyjet.com, flies daily from London to Athens from £64 return. Doubles at Grace Mykonos (mykonosgrace.com) from £215 b&b; Grace Santorini (santorinigrace.com) from £319 b&b; Alcanea Hotel (alcanea.com) from £60 b&b; Windmill Kimolos Hotel (kimoloshotel.com) from £69 b&b; Aria Villas (ariavillas.gr) from £69 b&b; Westin Astir Palace Beach Resort (astir-palace.com) from £190 B&B; Grande Bretagne from grandebretagne.gr) from £207. For onward ferries, visit greeceferries.com
07-28-2013, 04:01 PM
Island-hopping heaven
رد: Island-hopping heaven
