Last day on Naxos

Tomorrow we leave what has been our home for the past month. Off to new adventures. Other beautiful places – and no doubt busier.

Having missed the souvenir shops and the Venetian museum yesterday, we decided to try again today. This time the souvenir shops were open, and possibly due to the warm temperatures (+23ºC, clear sky and no wind) they were pretty busy. We were looking for something for S to spend some birthday moneys on before we left. It’s hard to explain that a Transformer is not a souvenir, though no doubt he would remember that the toy store was in the main square, beside the Scirocco restaurant (as he pointed out this fact multiple times!). In the end, he found some wooden Greek letters that spell out his name, for his bedroom door. Kids just don’t need mugs or caps or wall spoons or shot glasses. Beach towels may have been a good idea, but I foolishly brought our Disneyland souvenir towels, so we can’t even dump them to make room for new souvenirs! We were looking for a watch since S has started to successfully tell time on my analog watch – but we didn’t find one.

Here’s the toy store where we got the Greek letters. The store is full of colourful, handmade wood toys. The name of the store is ee-liaks-tEEtha (I still struggle with the delta letter – I had previously thought that it was a “d” sound, but now know that it is a voiced “th” as in “the”).

We walked up the hill again to the Kastro castle. For me, this was the 3rd consecutive day making the hike without anyone answering the doorbell at the museum. We’re getting to know our way around here reasonably well. I was beginning to wonder if the museum had closed for the ‘winter’. In the picture of the main town on our island, the Kastro starts at the taller, dark grey building on the right and continues to the backside of the Catholic church on the left (you can see the blue dome and the bell tower). 

The dark grey building on the right now houses the Venetian museum. After nobody showed up upon the doorbell ring, we slowly turnaround. At that exact minute, a man came stumbling up the steeper steps carrying easels and posterboards. He was a bit calloused as I asked him if he spoke English (in Greek) and he replied with a gruff, long sentence in Greek – in the end, he did speak English and he was quite friendly and kind to us. They had been photo-documenting the museum for the past week, so we could browse, but there were no interpreters there to guide us around. 

The museum building was (as of 1207 AD) the home of the Della Rocca family. They apparently showed up by boat in 1207, claimed the relatively uninhabited island as theirs and demanded that the locals build a castle for them or face death. Being familiar with the Roman ways, the Venetians to have decided to build their castle immediately above the road that the Romans used to take marble from the quarry to the sea over 2000 years ago. An 8-foot long section of this road is all that has been preserved and goes right through their basement! The locals claim that the ship by which the Apostle Paul travelled from Corinth back to Turkey would have stopped here to restock for a week or so. This appears to be supported by the early evidence of Christianity on the island. If this is true, then it is possible that he walked this very Roman road – something to pause and think about.

Anyways, the museum was set up like a home in Fort Edmonton. They tried to use objects that were appropriately to the era, and arranged like a home. Ironically, B and I felt very at home there! They had an upright piano, a couch and chairs, a table, etc. and the kids noticed that our home was more like this one than like the typical Greek home. The view of the harbour area was amazing from their windows. 

Speaking of good views, since there was no wind today, we decided to see if there was any evidence of the underwater walls known as the Grotta. I climbed the high hill beside the area and saw nothing but a bunch of water and lines. ??? These may be walls, or perhaps well organized schools of fish, or old nets or ??? I thought that it would be nice to snorkel there, but it never happened.

Here’s the rest of the family waiting for me in the car. That Jetta is going to seem sooooo big when we get home.

We also spent some time at the beach. It was more crowded than usual, perhaps 15 people other than us were there. I snorkeled and finally used up the disposable underwater camera film – it really is annoying to have to wait to get film developed. I’ll do that when we’re in Athens. 

We spent the evening packing our backpacks. It’s getting tougher to lift my pack! Especially with the rock collection and my snorkel equipment. Fortunately, I didn’t have room for the 2 litres of honey, so B had to take it. Hopefully it doesn’t spill everywhere! That would be a gooey mess!

Tomorrow, we catch the southbound ferry at 12:55 pm (+/- an hour or so) to Santorini. The weather forecast is +25ºC with light winds and no clouds.

Hey – does anyone know if it snowed in Edmonton yet??   :)

Not sure if we’ll have internet on Santorini, so don’t hold your breath for a blog entry until Nov 2.