Tag: Amorgos (page 3 of 5)

The valley above Aegiali

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Aegiali valley on Amorgos

Looking toward the whitewashed houses of Langada village from the opposite side of the vast valley above Aegiali Bay on Amorgos. Click on the photo to view a larger-size image.

 

Ahhh-morgos! A friend planning a short trip to Amorgos contacted me last week, asking for some travel advice and links to my photos so she could take a sneak peak at the scenery she and her travel companion would soon be enjoying first-hand.

While I was scouring my computer for information and photos from our visit to Amorgos in 2009, I discovered a series of panoramic pictures I haven’t posted either here on the blog, or in any of my online albums, because the images are simply too large. When re-sized to fit in the narrow column on the blog, the photos would be almost too small to view. Some would be so tiny, I thought it would be a waste of time to publish them. But then another friend familiar with the technical workings of WordPress blogs showed me a handy-dandy trick for displaying larger images.

 

Photos from our half-day hike around Aegiali valley

I decided to give it a try, so below is a series of photos that we shot during a half-day hike around the valley above Aegiali Bay. (Amorgos is a hiker’s paradise, and the valley walk is just one of many incredibly scenic routes on the island.)

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Greece holiday pic of the day

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Amorgos hiking sign

A hiking path sign on Amorgos indicates how many hours it will take to walk from the northwest port town of Egali to Halara beach,  the Asfontilitis agricultural area, the Holy Monastery of Panagia Chozoviotissa, and the island’s capital, Chora.

 

 

Greece holiday pic of the day

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Chozoviotissa monastery on Amorgos

The Panagia Chozoviotissa monastery on Amorgos is a narrow, fortress-like building constructed against the face of a jagged cliff high above the Aegean Sea

 

 

Greece holiday pic of the day

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Egali beach on Amorgos

A wave breaks at Egali beach on Amorgos

 

Arriving and departing Amorgos at sunrise

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Sunrise at Amorgos Greece

The mountainous Amorgos coastline was in silhouette from a brilliant sunrise when we approached by ferry for our first-ever visit to the island …

 

Sunrise at Amorgos Greece

… and it was once again in silhouette when we departed the island, also at sunrise, several days later. Both photos show views of Cape Koutsogiani, the hulking dark mountain at right. Tiny Monopetra island pokes out of the sea a few hundred meters from the sheer cliff coastline of the Amorgos north coast.

 

Scenery silhouettes: During our island-hopping holiday in 2009, we arrived at Amorgos in very much the same circumstances as we departed several days later — watching the sunrise from the open deck of a ferry.

Our arrival on May 21 2009 is literally burned into my memory, probably because I was nearly blinded by the fiery, searing sun while I tried to take photos as we approached Amorgos on the Blue Star ferry ship, the Naxos.  I’ll never forget arriving at Amorgos for another reason: the horribly early start to our day.

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Goats and sheep on the road and other perils of driving in the Greek Islands

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a sheep on Amorgos

A sheep stands on a bend on the main Amorgos highway near Chora. We also passed many goats on the roads while driving around the island …

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goats on a road in Amorgos

… including these three, who were in a herd of several dozen goats ambling along a stretch of highway between Egali and Chora on Amorgos

 

Highway hazards: One of the features we love best about the Greek Islands is the beautiful beach, sea, mountain and village scenery, and our favourite way to see it is on foot. Some islands, including Amorgos, Folegandros, Paros and Sifnos, boast excellent walking and hiking routes, with networks of well-established footpaths and donkey trails criss-crossing scenic mountain and valley terrain. Santorini has some fantastic footpaths, too, including the famous clifftop trail between Fira and Oia that presents spectacular caldera views every step of the way. And on some islands, including Kos, Milos, Naxos, Patmos and Samos, mountain bike rentals have offered a fun fresh-air option for getting around and seeing the sights.

When it’s not practical or feasible to hike or bike to the places we want to see, we usually rely on local buses — a cheap and easy way to get around islands like Mykonos and Santorini. But since we typically travel in low season, bus service can be infrequent or unreliable, particularly on some of the smaller islands that aren’t as popular with tourists. So we have occasionally rented cars to tour around islands and see places we couldn’t reach by bus.

 

We don’t enjoy driving while on vacation, though, because we like to check out the scenery and take photos — something that’s difficult for a passenger to do (and impossible for the driver) when you’re speeding down an island road or highway. So you could count on just one hand the number of times we have rented cars in Greece (only once on each of Amorgos, Crete, Mykonos and Naxos).

But when we have used rental vehicles to get around, we have quickly discovered some typical road hazards and dangers that first-time drivers in Greece should be aware of before getting behind the wheel and heading off on a road trip.

 

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Greece holiday pic of the day

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kitten in a window in Egali on Amorgos

A kitten peeks from behind a curtain in a window in Egali on Amorgos

 

 

Amazing Amorgos and the bedazzling Big Blue

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vivid blue Aegean Sea

“The Big Blue” is a nickname that befits the breathtaking colours of the Aegean Sea off the east coast of Amorgos, below the Chozoviotissa Monastery …

 

Kalotyri Bay Amorgos

… but there are striking, vivid tones of turquoise and blue all around Amorgos, including Kalotyri Bay on the north coast off Nikouria Island (top) …

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Nikouria Island across Egali Bay on Amorgos

… and Egali Bay, seen here looking southwest toward Nikouria Island

 

Breathtaking blues: I’m always surprised when I read online travel forums and see how many people seem to believe that Santorini is the only island in the Cyclades with spectacular scenery. Santorini is incredibly beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. And while it may be incomparable, it doesn’t hold a monopoly on drop-dead gorgeous landscapes and seascapes. I’ve been impressed by the scenery on Milos and Folegandros, too, and I’ve been absolutely awestruck by Amorgos. Or, as I sometimes like to call it, Ahhhh!morgos.

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