Naxos day 3 (09/03/2009)

On Thursday we spent most of the day at the beach near our hotel, Agios Prokopios. This is a pretty long beach and can get crowded, but our hotel was near the northern end, which is much less crowded. It was another great day for being at the beach (maybe even better than Wednesday because it was less windy). We had lunch at a taverna on a hill overlooking the entire beach, which was beautiful.

In the early evening we rode our scooters into Chora, the main town on Naxos. We had done this the night before, too, except we forgot to bring the camera, so on this evening we spent a lot of time going back to places we'd already seen to take photos while it was still light out. Not that this was any hardship! The Venetian Kastro in Chora is probably one of my favorite places on Earth. So many winding passageways and historic ruins combined with contemporary living spaces. Plus, there are lots of cats! We emerged from the Kastro in time to take in the sunset at the Portara, which is the symbol of Naxos -- the ruins of a giant unfinished temple to Apollo at the end of a short causeway.

We finished the day with a nighttime ride back to our hotel. I was apprehensive about riding our scooters in the dark, but it turned out to be a really exhilarating experience (not to mention chilly!).



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 3!