Finally - Kithira!

Sorry for the long silence - but now, at last, I can sit down and write about Greece, where I had a brilliant time!

I went to two places there; the capital, Athens, and the island. And, well,  I can't keep the island's name a secret forever  .... so it's called Kithira. Or Kythera, or Kythira ... it doesn't really matter.  It's off the southern part of the Peloponnese, and you can get there by ferry, or else by plane from Athens, which is what we did.

It was definitely my kind of airport. No stink of fuel, no network of grim roads, just a friendly little place that was surrounded, when we arrived, by acres of spring flowers.

My trip to Athens was paid for by the tourist board of Attika.  I paid my own expenses on Kithira, and I'd chosen a place called Xenonas Fos Ke Choros, a few quiet kilometres from the airport. Set on a hillside, it looks almost minimalist, like something out of a design magazine, but it was warm and snug despite the sometimes-cloudy and windy Spring weather.  It was created by a Dutch couple called Albert and Anita, who left Amsterdam behind, learned Greek and began to live their dream.

We quickly found that they do wonderful breakfasts.

And there were wildly glowing sunsets from our living room towards the sea.

There really isn't much tourism, which was one of the things that made Kithira feel like such a find.   The view below, taken from the 16th century castle in the capital town (which was actually more like a village) shows one of the main "tourist areas." As you see, there are no ugly hotels or big roads. It's all small and low key.

We took a drink at nearby Aghia Pelagia, one of the other "big" tourist areas. Again, one row of charming well kept cafes and bars with nice people.  The owner of this one, called "Sempreviva" after the flowers that grow by the beach

gave us that plate of cookies for nothing because it was Easter. He offered us a free glass of brandy, too.

Milopotamos is another equally low key tourist attraction.   The Venetians left Kithira in 1797, but this Lion of St. Mark has been preserved by the river there - a river which leads into the hills to a series of 24 watermills, all of them abandoned and overgrown now except one.  

That one is called "Philip's Mill" and I was told it had been in the owner's family for three hundred years. It can be reached by an overgrown track

 which weaves to and fro either side of the river

and then follows a narrow culvert along a hillside which eventually arrives at the mill.  The owner doesn't seem to mind people walking around his large garden, which overlooks a valley. The mill itself was shut, and the entire place was deserted, although well maintained.  It felt just a little bit like discovering you'd wandered into "Beauty and the Beast."

My last post mentioned Paleochora, the old capital of Kithira, which was sacked by the pirate Barbarossa in the 16th century.  Its ruins overlook a towering gorge 

and you reach it by walking along a narrow track up and down fairly steep hills.  We didn't see anyone the whole time, but it was interesting scrambling round the old castle and many abandoned churches and chapels. 

Very much at your own risk, although someone had done a bit of elementary stabilisation of the ruins. 

To me, Kithira seemed a traditional sort of island in many ways, but I thought this old lady in nearby Potamos market stood out as being exceptionally old fashioned. I wondered if she might be a nun. 

And I really enjoyed the market. It was just local people selling things they had made, and things from their gardens - the sort of stuff I always hope to get in markets, but rarely do!  Just look at those lettuces ....

I was pretty frustrated to have to leave Kithera, because there was a lot more than I could see in just a few days.    I understand that the island's open spaces are managed in a different way from elsewhere in Greece, which has partly helped to preserve its remote and unspoiled character, so long may it remain that way. 

Because (anyone reading this from a tourist office I wonder?) we don't all like noisy bars, shops and endless restaurants, nor do we necessarily want fancy expensive boring luxury hotels pricing out everyone but the unimaginative rich.   Many of us would like to be in somewhere that is quiet, unpretentious, beautiful, interesting and friendly. I hope there are enough of us to make it worthwhile to keep offering it in places like Kithira.   

So I will be going back -  it's too great not to revisit.   And I'll do a post about Athens next time!

By the way here are a couple of the other reasons I haven't been writing.  One is CLUTTER.

We're keeping a lot of stuff for our kids at the moment, for various reasons. This is a typical corner of our home. Yuk. I'm feeling an irresistible desire to get rid of anything we can, which includes OUR stuff - anything not to feel swamped!   Anyway, we didn't need a Columbia costume from The Rocky Horror Show

or a wind-up 78 rpm gramophone.

In fact, why did we ever have these things in the first place????

Plus there is the lure of the twins. They are becoming so different. He looks to have a fine future as a Sumo wrestler. She's a tiny, pale little elf..I do love being with them!