A dirt road leads to an impressive white church in the Naxos countryside, roughly midway between Agia Anna and Arsenios. We saw the chapel while cycling along the west coast of Naxos two weeks ago.
Category: Cyclades islands (Page 25 of 66)
Dark stormclouds hover overhead as rain falls on Mykonos and nearby islands. I shot this photo from the swimming pool deck at Hotel Tagoo on the morning of May 18 2012. Many Greek islands and parts of mainland Greece have been experiencing similar stormy weather conditions this week.
Be prepared: If you’re planning to travel to Greece in May or early June next year, be sure to pack an umbrella or waterproof windbreaker in your suitcase — there’s a good chance you might need to use them for a day or two.
Occasional bad weather used to be something you could expect to encounter in early spring — especially while travelling during April or the first two weeks of May in the Cyclades, Dodecanese, East Aegean and Sporades island groups. But once the middle of May had passed, rainstorms and completely overcast skies would be rare — visitors typically could expect one day after another of warm, dry and mainly sunny weather until the fall.
Climate patterns seem to have changed in recent years, however, and travellers have been encountering sporadic stormy conditions later in May and into early June too, as bad weather across much of Greece this week has shown.
We didn’t need rainwear or umbrellas until 2010
On our trips to Athens and various Greek islands between 2004 and 2009, we didn’t encounter any major rainstorms or other inclement weather bad enough to put a damper on a day of sightseeing, hiking or beach activities. We would pack travel umbrellas in our suitcases, but never have to take them out. In fact, we recall only three instances of rain — all in early May 2006, the time of month when unsettled weather still could be expected.
That year, there was some overnight rain on May 11 and 12 while we were visiting Mykonos, but the clouds cleared by the time we got up for breakfast. One week later (on May 18) we were at Maragas beach on Naxos when a late afternoon thunderstorm suddenly blew in from the west. Rain began to sprinkle so we hurried over to the Gorgona Taverna at Agia Anna beach, where we had an early dinner while waiting for the precipitation to stop. Within 90 minutes the sun came back out and gave us a beautiful sunset that evening.
After the storm: Thunderclouds begin to break up over Paros island (top) and Naxos following a late afternoon downpour on May 18 2006. We shot this photo from Agia Anna beach on Naxos.
Of course, the weather wasn’t perfect the rest of the time during our first five Greek holidays. We did encounter a few days when it was extremely cloudy, like on June 8 2005, when we arrived at Santorini to find the island shrouded in thick, low-hanging clouds that obscured sunset views and lingered into the next morning before dissipating. We also experienced several exceptionally windy days, as well as some very chilly mornings and nights that forced us to wear sweaters and jackets to keep warm. But there wasn’t any horribly bad weather, and the adverse conditions didn’t stop us from fully enjoying the islands.
When we arrived at Santorini on June 8 2005, the island was surrounded by thick clouds that obscured caldera and sunset views that evening. There was no rain, but the clouds hung around until morning. We shot this photo from our terrace at the Phenix Hotel in Imerovigli during a brief break in the clouds.
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This video, which was posted online by YouTube member neasantorinis, shows astounding aerial views of Santorini as well as the adjacent volcano island of Nea Kameni. Click the arrow to play the video, and enjoy your flight!
The view from the southern end of Plaka beach on Naxos. This beautiful long strand of light-brown sand and dunes is the perfect place to avoid crowds, since the beach extends for approximately 4 kilometers and offers plenty of space for peace, solitude and privacy. People were few and far between on the beach yesterday (May 21), so they probably felt as though they had the entire shoreline all to themselves.
A view of Naxos Town during sunset on October 12 2013
Return trip: When a friend was asked why she travels to Greece every year, she replied: “Because you can never get enough of a really good thing.”
That’s exactly why we’re making a return trip to Naxos tomorrow — the island that we named our Destination of the Year for 2013 is calling us back to experience more of “a really good thing.”
This will be our sixth visit to Naxos so far, and we’re thrilled to be going back. We can’t wait to see some familiar faces and favourite places, and we’re looking forward to exploring parts of the island we haven’t yet seen (there are plenty, and we probably won’t even get to them all).
Want to see why we love Naxos so much? Click here to check out our Naxos photo collection on the MyGreeceTravelBlog Flickr page. The collection includes a whopping 37 albums from our October 2013 holiday, 8 from our visit in May 2013, 6 sets showing the hotels we have stayed at, and several more individual albums.
I hope you enjoy viewing the pics as much as we enjoyed taking them!
Koronos is built on the horseshoe-shaped slopes of a mountainside 30 km east of Naxos Town. The village descends hundreds of feet into the valley, and most homes are accessible only on foot.
Stair masters: I have three very specific and vivid memories of our brief visit to the Naxos mountain village of Koronos last October: a taverna tout, a man with a gun, and stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.
I’ll tell you the stories about the restaurant promoter and the guy with the gun some other time. For now I’ll stick to the stairs to keep with a common theme I’ve been posting about this week — walking around mountain villages on Naxos.
In my May 15 post I published a videoclip from our visit to Filoti, while my May 13 report included film of our walkabout in Apeiranthos. We had to climb a lot of stairs in both villages, but the workouts we got there were nothing compared to the stairclimbing challenge that awaited us in Koronos.
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Popular tavernas are located far down the hillside
This village is built in a horseshoe shape on a mountainside, and descends deep into the valley. Koronos has several cafes and restaurants that are popular with tourists — including Taverna Platsa Matina & Stavros (which friends and other travellers have urged us to visit) and Taverna Dalas. The “downside” to both of these places, no pun intended, is their location on lower levels of the village. To reach them, you must walk down dozens of stairs. That’s the easy part. Getting back up to your car or the bus stop after a meal or drink will require a lot more effort as you can probably imagine.
Below are several photos showing just a few of the many sets of stairs we encountered while walking around Koronos. Those are followed by three videos. I shot the first clip while walking along a lane that wasn’t as far down the valley as the two tavernas. I filmed the next video while walking up one “street” that was basically a long, steep staircase. Dan took the third video of me walking up the steps while I was filming my climb.
We’re physically active and do a lot of walking and stair climbing whenever we’re in Greece, but I felt more winded than I expected by the end of that uphill hike. I would not want to walk all those stairs after a big meal and a few glasses of wine!
View of Koronos from the side of the highway where the Naxos bus dropped us off. This sloped road leads only part way into the village, perhaps 30 to 50 meters. Then the fun stair climbing begins!
A tourist strolls down the road leading into Koronos. One series after another of thigh-burning stair climbs awaits him.
This was the first set of steps we walked down. We climbed back up a short time later after we finished exploring the left-hand side of the village.
A streak of sunlight illuminates a set of steps
Yet another flight of steps in Koronos
Several flights of steps were under renovation on the day we visited Koronos. Workers had closed off two lanes while they laid stones in place. Work on this particular staircase wasn’t complete, but it had been reopened to traffic.
Looking down a long, curving set of steps. This was the last staircase we climbed on our way to the Koronos bus stop to catch our ride back to Naxos Town.
These buildings were surrounded by stairs on two sides
I filmed this clip while walking along one of the streets in Koronos
I shot this clip while climbing a long flight of stairs. I counted 102 steps during the minute and 20 seconds it took me to walk up.
Dan filmed me going up the stairs while I was filming my climb. You don’t need to go to a gym to get exercise on Naxos … just visit a mountain village like Koronos and you’re guaranteed a rigorous cardio workout!
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