The two G Adventure boats in the harbour decided to join forces for a day tour around the island, and hired 5 cars. Started with coffee of course, picked up the cars, then headed off towards the south of the island to Demeter’s Temple, an ancient temple built around 500B.C. devoted to the God of farming and soil fertility, which was of course partially knocked down and rebuilt into a church by the Greek Orthodox folk, and then partially knocked down and rebuilt into a mosque by the Ottomans, and then restored to a church, and finally restored to a temple (well as much as it could be) by the university from about 1994. It’s the same story shared by most ancient constructions.
Next on to Munmelo where there is a distillery that turns the juice of the local citrus fruit into 30% liquor, and the skin into marmalade. They had spent yesterday distilling, and you could tell. Around the corner to a cafe for morning tea.
Further north to Zeus’ Cave. About a half hour walk up a steep and rocky path till you get the entrance to a cave where, as legend has it, Zeus spent his childhood growing up while hiding from his Titan father, who wanted to kill him. Would have been a prudent move as, a few years later, Zeus turned the tables, killed his father and became King of the Gods. Not a very exciting cave, as they go, but just the kind of remote spot you would hide away in while planning a civil war between all the Gods.
Lunch – finally. The Platsa Taverna in Koronos. No menu. No prices. Just eat what you’re told to or you won’t get your desert. But it wasn’t a hardship. Let’s see if I can remember it all. Started with bread, dip, and bowls of Greek salad. Then the plates of Greek potatoes arrived, known to everybody else on the planet as chips. Then it was bowls of peas and carrots, with bowls of green beans with artichokes to accompany them. Just when you thought it was over, out came the plates of lamb in lemon sauce. Finally, when you’d lost the will to live, they brought out Greek Vanilla Slices for everybody.
The restaurant is down 150 steps in the middle of a nondescript village in the middle of the island of Naxos, where no tourists go, but it accidentally became famous in a travel magazine, and now the terrace is full every day, and tourists hire cars to get there. The mama of the family only speaks one word of English – ‘Bravo’ – which is probably the only Italian word she knows too, or maybe it’s the only non-Greek word she knows. Anyway. It was ‘Bravo’ when we arrived down the stairs, ‘Bravo’ when she brought the dishes, ‘Bravo’ when she saw our empty plates, ‘Bravo’ when we said we liked the food, and ‘Bravo’ when we paid the bill and left.
It was after 3:30 by the time we rolled back up the stairs to the car, but there was more to come. Next was the (probably) oldest church in Greece, the Panagia Drosiani, built around the 4th century A.D., and for once it appeared that it’s been a church for all of it’s life.
To top it all off, we visited the Engares Olive Press museum, which is still a working business, with tons of samples to try. OK, that was dinner sorted for Brendan. A visit to the supermarket while we still had the car, then back to the boat as the sun was setting.
Munmelo Distillery
Zeus’ Cave
Zeus’ View
3 Point Turn Gone Wrong
They’re Everywhere
Platsa Taverna – Koronos
Lunch
Panagia Drosiani
Engares Olive Press
Brendan and Rachel