June 2019 Distance: 6300km Vehicle: VW Caddy
Just like we did in 2018, this year we decided to go to Leonidio to climb, Lefkas to kite, and lots of sightseeing in between. It all started on a Friday the 17th of May 2019. As always, we make full use of every free second we can get. After leaving from this God-ofresaken place called office on a Friday evening we went straight home, packed the car, including, passports, kites, climbing equipment etc. and set off on our next adventure. We drove straght to Lugano where we spent the night on a private beach near the lake with free camping and a toilet (here). The next day we had ca. 500km for Ancona, where we would catch the ferry to Patras. On the way we passed from Padua for a quick espresso. The ferry trip is never interesting so I'm not going to bore you. We reached Patras on Sunday lunchtime and headed to Argos where we visited Tiryns, a site which we had missed out on the preceding year. After that we visited Nafplio, enjoyed a Greek meal and slept at Karathona beach, 5km South-East of Nafplio. Before going to sleep, having learnt from the previous year that in Greece you cannot sleep in the van with closed windows, we instsalled our newly self-made mosquito nets on the windows (patent pending!). (asdf picture) In the morning there were around 15 mosquitos on the net from the outside trying to get in and suck our blood, but not this time you little repulsive creatures, this time the homo-sapien had won.
Mon 27th May: we spent the next four days climbing in Leonidio. We went to the following crags: Savaton, Xada, Jupiter, Savaton again.
Fr 31 May: we said a sad good-bye to Leonidio and headed to Neapoli. On the way the yellow-submarine cut through a path of turtles and goats. We did our best to place the turtle away from danger and posted in on all major social-media wesbistes to make sure God saw it, and increase our chanses of Him saving us a little place in heaven in the afterlife (hey, we did our best).
Fr 31 May: we said a sad good-bye to Leonidio and headed to Neapoli. On the way the yellow-submarine cut through a path of turtles and goats. We did our best to place the turtle away from danger and posted in on all major social-media wesbistes to make sure God saw it, and increase our chanses of Him saving us a little place in heaven in the afterlife (hey, we did our best).
From Neapoli we cought the ferry at 14:30 to Kythira. In Kythira we visited Kalami beach, on the West coast of the island. This required a long drive through a very narrow and deserted road, and a ca. 1 hour hike through a steep path. This is where we went skinny-dipping as we were the only people on the beach. To clean up all the salt we went to Fonissa waterfall and jumped in the icy-cold waters. This is not allowed but who cares, we were two desperate dirt-bags trying to get a free wash. On the same day the ferry would leave Kythira and head to Kissamo, Crete. Our only fear was not to have the bad luck we had the previous year, where the ferry broke down (see: Trips Done/2018). We were hoping that this bad luck of hours would not repeat itself this year, and we were lucky. Our prayers did not go to waste. History did not repeat itself (this time) and we reached Chania, Crete the next day.
Sat 1st June: it was now June. From Kissamos we had a quick stopover in picteresque Chania and then headed to Heraklion.
yellow-submarine & stick dude
Spyros was very happy to greet us with open arms in Hearklion, Crete and inspect our yellow-submarine. Despite the fact that he is a busy family man, we definitely hope that he can one day join us on one of our future trips (when the kids move oute I guess...).
Mon 3rd June: we said our good-byes to our dear friends in Crete and caught a ferry from Heraklion to Piraeus.
kite surfing at Schinias
Wed 5 June: after carrying our kite equipment from Zurich all the way to Athens, we finally had some windy days and tested our euipment on Schinias beach, located 30km North of Athens.
Thu 6th June: we caught a ferry from Athens at 22:00 to... well this was a surprise. I told Alexa that we are heading to a place, but she was not allowed to check her maps on her phone, she whould guess. I tried to conceal everything that would give away our surprise destination. As I embarked the ferry a guy asked me where we were heading, I mumbled the name of the place to him, which Alexa didn't seem to hear. He gave me a card with the name of the destination "Xios" which I thought would give it away. To my good luck it did not, I placed in sideways on the dashboard, it slid down a crack, and you coud only see the first letter "X" which did not give away the destination. Along the way there were some anounchements in Greek, Italian, French and English, mentioninug our surprise destination, where Alexa took no note of. We reached the mystery place the next day at 4am, it was pitch dark, we disembarked the ferry, drove 500m, and doze off on the nearest quiet street at port Chios. The next day I realised that we had parked outside the mayor's house which stated in big letters "Municipality of Xioy" and I finally asked "so, do you know where we are" to oblivious Alexa, which she still had no clue... simply because we were on the island of Chios, which is spelled in Greek Xios, which in genitive (which is how the sign was written) "Xioy" = "of Chios" which to the non native speaker doesn't mean anything. The secret was finally revealed that we were on the island of Chios. The next day we were greated with the old town of Chios, its venetian walls, old buildings and turkish baths.
Chios old town
Fr 7th June: one of the highlights on Chios is its monastery.
Mea Moni monastery, Chios
A site not to be missed is the monastery of Chios, called Nea Moni, located in the middle of the island in the mountains.
Anavatos village, Chios
further south lies the abandonded village of Anavatos, the name meaning "the place that cannot be trotted".
Mesta village, Chios
Pyrgi village, Chios
not to be missed is the seconds highlight of the island, after the Nea Moni, is the village of Pyrgi, also known as the "painted village".
After this came the not to be missed Masticha museum. Masticha is the most famous export of Chios island, also known as the "tears of Chios". A taste of masticha alcohol in not to be omitted on one's bucket list. For the non-alcoholics I would recommend Masticha-water, a good alternative.
Mills of Chios
Having almost completed a full circumnavigation of Chios island, we found ourselves back in Chios town. A short drive North one would find the famous mills. One cannot claim he has been to Chios without having seen the mills.
Lagkada village, Chios
A few more kilometers North and we found ourselves in Lagada village. It was now taverna time.
embarking the ferry in Chois
Our tour of Chios was now complete. It was time to say farwell Chios, and farewell Greece (for now). I secretly took our passports to the ticket office for "surprise nr 2" of the trip, again without arising any suspicion to Alexa. We then embarked a small ferry that took us to the other side, Alexa thinking that we were heading towards Athens. The ferry took us to Cesme, Turkey, a land mass one can depict from anywhere while standing on any east coast of Chios.
(Picture right) the yellow-submarine is seen here embarking (in reverse).
(Pictures below) the yellow submarine on the ferry from Greece to Turkey.
Ephesus library
After some useless paperwork, stamps, burocracy, the authorities x-rayed the car to check for hidden drugs (thank god they didn't find my stash) we were on Turkish roads. First stop Selcuk, second the Temple of Artemis (3rd wonder of the ancient world), third the library of Ephesus.
Apollo Temple, Didim, Turkey
next stop was the Apollo Temple at the town of Didyma. One can only grasp the cast scale of this site when compared to the height of a person.
Aphrodisias ,Turkey
From Ephesus we now headed East towards the town of Denizli. On the way one can enjoy the magnificent site of Aphrodisias. We had drove pedal-to-the-metal to get there just an hour before it closed it doors. This was just enough time to walk through the whole ancient city. We then headed to Pamukkale.
Pamukkale
Hierapolis, Pamukkale
Sultanhani camping
After Pamukkale we drove East. A stone-throw away (just 500km) we reached the village of Sultanhani. Here we greeted an old friend and owner of the camping place, the same place I stayed in 2015 (see TripsDone/015). He indroduced us to his daughter, who looks exactly like him (without the beard of course).
Coordinates of the camping here: 38.2492, 33.5479
Uchisar Cappadocia
Another 130km to the East and we found ourselves at the most Eastern part of our thip this year, Cappadocia. A place full of Asian tourists weilding selfie-sticks and the rocks look like penises (true story).
First came the village of Uchisar.
view from Uchisar castle, Cappadocia
Cappadocia is famous for its hot-air balloon flights. One who does not want to leave Kappadocia 200 Euros poorer, should fear no more. From the Uchisar castle one can be rewarded with the panoramic view to the right.
Derinkuyu underground city
A quick visit to the underground city of Derinkuyu to cool down (very hot outside, like air-con in the cave) and off we were to Göreme. Derinkuyu, together with Kaymakli and Ozkonak are a few of an estimated ca. 300 underground cities, serving as a hiding place for Christians fleeing the persecution of Muslim-Arabs in the middle ages.
Istanbul bridge
After Kappadokia it was time to head North. No visit to Turkey is complete witout seeing Istanbul. 700km NW of us lied Istanbul. We started late in the evening and drove till late into the night. We realised that most petrol stations on the way did not just serve petrol, but you could feast a wedding of 100 people. Huge restaurants with great delicacies lined up every services stop along the way. We devoured some turkish delicacies, slept in a parking lot late at night, and the next morning the yellow-submarine was in Istanbul.
Istanbul
In Istanbul one must see the Agia Sophia, Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Topkapi palace, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, Istiklal street, Galata tower, Dolmabahce palace, Ortakoy Mosque etc. the list does not end.
Köfte Airlines
Our tour of Turkey was coming to an end. Afte a lot of walking it was time to head West and back to Greece. On the way we could't help noticing a restaurant in a old airoplane, location here: 40.9916, 27.6136.
Kompsatou Bridge
A few stamps at the border and we were back in Greece. After a quick visit to Alexandroupoli, Komotini, Kompsatou bridge (left 41.141, 25.21), Kavala, we found ourselves at the ancient city of Filippoi. A quick visit to the picturesque Eikosofinitsa Monastery and then we headed to the old city of Amphipolis.
Arch of Galerius, Thessaloniki
An hour's drive westwards and the yellow-submarine had finally made it to Thessaloniki.
Lefkas island, Greece
The last stretch of road before the end of our trip was unfortunately upon us. We passed through the picteresque village of Metsovo, then visited the famous Arta bridge, and then finally reached Lefkas island. Here we spent the next two days kite-surfing in the strong thermal winds, before heading to Igoumenitsa, where we boarded the ferry that took us to Ancona. After a 700km drive direction North, we were back home and totally depressed realising that this awesome 3-week holiday was once again over and the next day we would have to show up at work...
picture left: Lefkas at sunset. The car got stuck in the sand. Got it out thanks to a few helpful hands at a bar next door, nevertheless the picture was totally worth it.
