We anchored inside the breakwater, below the ancient arch of the Temple of Apollo, which has been greeting visitors to Naxos for 2,500 years. The whitewashed buildings of town are nestled all around the grey-brown Venetian Kastro (castle) overlooking the harbor. We spent the afternoon walking up and down the narrow streets, not as nice as some of the other island "horas," but still worth a visit.
Next morning we rented a car to explore the island, the largest of the Cyclades. The roads are steep and windy, and crazy drivers (not Burger, of course!) hardly slow down while passing in narrow streets. My white knuckles took awhile to recover their normal color! We lunched in the village of Halki, in the shade of a wine arbor brimming with clusters of green grapes. Then we visited the kitron distillery, a tourist attraction. Kitron is a Greek liquour made from the leaves of the citron tree. It wasn't bad, but we decided we prefer Cointreau.
Thus refreshed we drove on, admiring the scenery with views of monasteries on mountaintops and ancient marble quarries, where layers of huge slabs of white marble have been cut out of the mountainside. We stopped in the village of Apiranthos, known for its Cycladic and Venetian architecture, for iced coffee (ice cream for Burger). Then we visited Melanos and hiked a short, thankfully shaded trail to an unfinished statue, abandoned where it lay in the 7th century BC, due to a broken leg.
Our car rental agent urged us not to miss the beaches on the south end of the island, so late afternoon we drove down to the end of the road at Alyko. And we're glad we did, as it was unlike any of the hard-packed brown pebbly beaches we've seen elsewhere in the Cyclades. Instead, there were lovely sand dunes covered in green shrubbery and inviting coves. Not many people, as the beach-goers congregate at the crowded beach towns further north. We hiked around but didn't want to deal with wet bathing suits and sand in the car, so we didn't swim. Not really beach fans, we prefer to bathe off the boat instead. Which felt wonderful, after the long hot day. What could be more romantic than dining in the cockpit, in view of the illuminated Arch?
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