Wasn't Skaro the home planet of the Daleks?

Itinerary

• Making movies
• Climb Skaros rock
• Ferry to Naxos
• Get lost in Naxos

 

 

Future Spielbergs?

Spent a bit of time in the morning playing with kids and iPads. We (they) made a few short videos as below. Quite a lot of fun really. We put them in the blogs as short vids embedded as YouTube links

 

Don't yell at the kids or they will retaliate

 

 

 

 

Don't overfill your spa

 

 

 

Don't annoy your brother

 

 

 

Skaros rock

A Mesa a little way along the path toward Fira from where we were staying. It used to be the old Venetian stronghold. It was a stronghold with a castle and many noble houses as it was relatively easy to defend, but not, it turns out, against earthquakes. The area was abandoned in the late 1600s.

It currently looks this

 

 

But used to look like this

 

 

 

It was a fun climb. Lots of caves to explore and high, steep, unfenced paths for the kids to stand close to the edge to (not just close, daddy catnip tigon close). It was very gusty and I had visions of Drew sailing off into the Harbour as some kinda Roald Dahl salutary tale. Parenthetically, this reminds me of the one armed man stories in Arrested development, the funniest show almost nobody watched.

 

 

 

F

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the far side of Skaro there was an underground cavern chock a block full of Dalek infantry massing for the next attack on earth. Luckily this was Dalek generation 1 and they hadn't mastered stairs. OK so not true, but the planet Skaro was the home of the Daleks (mutant cyborg Kaleds in a pepper pot). The mutants looked for all the world like a little angry octopus. Maybe Terry Nation, who first wrote about them had been on a recent trip to Greece?

What there really was on the far side of Skaro was an old Venetian church. Drew, very much into this sort of thing (as most 8 yr olds are) thought the curves of the church roof were excellent for jumping on.

 

 

 

 

Darling, perhaps you would stop jumping on the sacred rooftop? Darling, perhaps you needn't encourage him by taking photos of him jumping.

 

We power walked back from Fira after a quick, expensive tourist snack to get a cab and make it to the ferry on time.

Quick goodbye to our hotel and the lovely staff before we got into the cab. I think we will remember Heliotopos as much for the warmth and care of Yiota the manager as for the place itself. Pretty sure she cared more about us then we did for ourselves. She would be ready with fresh orange juice and some suggested itineraries when we arrived each morning for breakfast. Zozo and Drew say she also makes a mean scrambled egg. She was great with the kids, spoke multiple languages and was cross because her husband didn't like her to read at night because the light disturbed him.

We would have made it to the old port with at least 10 minutes(ish) to spare, but hadn't needed to rush because due to wind and weather conditions, the ferry was running an hour late. Just enough time for some really expensive and very ordinary pasta as well as a vicious dog fight that distressed the kids no end before we got on board.

The number of people getting off the ferry was huge. Looks like we just missed the start of the tourist season. By contrast, when we got off at Naxos 2 hours later, it seemed as though it was just us, although as it turns out, there was at least one other Greek girl who was also disembarking. Even with her help we managed to get pretty lost walking to our hotel. In the end we walked a good few kms (the hotel is about 500 metres).

 

Naxos port

 

 

Paros in the background

 

 

On the Naxos promenade with our new tour guide. She took us half way, gave us directions then left us to get totally lost

 

 

Trading island info for an Aussie souvenir pen

 

 

After much walking we see the sign - Spiros hotel.

 

 

On our room's balcony

 

 

 

 

I have childhood memories of "spiro's cafe". Pretty sure they are real memories. Would date from South African days so I would have been pretty little. I do remember getting haircuts though. My dad would take my brother and I to Pino the (I guess) Italian barber. Pino used to do a damn fine short back and sides. He also had Pirelli and playboy calendars on the walls which I think my brother and I liked looking at for the cars in the background. We were probably quite perplexed as to why girls in bathers (South Africans call them swimming costumes) were draping themselves on cars.

 

Tomorrow - hire a car and hit the roads of rural Naxos.