Some Island Exploring

Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Sami, Greece
Monday morning, we got in our trusty Fiat Panda, a nice little car but with not guts, and headed towards Fiskardo, near the northern tip of the island and one of the few places that survived the 1953 earthquake relatively unscathed.  But we had some stops to make along the way.  The first was at Myrtos Beach, a spectacular spot nestled in a cove between steep cliffs and accessed by a seemingly endless series of switchbacks as the road snakes its way down the cliff face.  I'm just really glad that there weren't many tour buses on the road at this time of year!  Being so late in the season, and early in the day, the beach was not very crowded.  The beach chairs and umbrellas had all been put away for the season, too.  The views, both on the beach and looking down at it from above, are truly breathtaking.  It was a bit too early for swimming for us so, after soaking in the views for a while, we headed for our next stop, Asos. 
The road along the top of the cliffs between Myrtos and Asos is quite impressive and full of great views, which I was trying to ignore--it is a very long way down and there were a few tour buses and big trucks, but fortunately the road is actually quite new and wide (for here!).  Heading down into the very picturesque little village of Asos is along another long series of switchbacks.  The inner harbour has water like glass, as there is only a very small channel out to the outer harbour, which itself is extremely sheltered.  There is a Venetian castle, or at least the ruins of one, up a 170 metre high hill on the peninsula next to the village, which I am sure was strategically very important when it was built.  We had a nice lunch in one of the tavernas by the harbour as we admired the views, and then decided to make the hike up to see the castle--it is only accessible by foot.  It took about 45 minutes each way and we spent about a half hour exploring at the top.  My heartrate was really up by the time we got back down!  But the reward at the bottom was a lovely dip in the clear, calm waters at the little beach at the edge of town.  By the time we had dried off, the alure of seeing some of the original Venetian architecture in Fiskardo was waning, so we decided to head back to Sami.
When we got home, we got a message that our wine tour was on for Tuesday.  We got up Tuesday morning and met Julia, our guide, at the end of our street at 10am for our tour.  There was just one other couple on the tour with us.  Julia was tremendous.  She is a farmer, growing grapes and olives.  Her family has been farming in the Omala valley for hundreds of years.  She first took us to one of her family properties, where they have an olive orchard adjacent to a vineyard.  Their properties, like most of the families' properties in the area, are scattered around the valley in small parcels.  She then took us to her parents house, where her father still makes a small amount of wine for personal use.  The family no longer operate a winery but are part of a large cooperative winery, where they sell their grapes. There we had a traditional snack of "tomatoes and cheese", the wonderful local tomatoes with feta cheese, fresh oregano and generous quantities of their own olive oil, all mashed together and soaked up with wonderful local bread, with some olives on the side.  And of course, some of their wine.  Then we headed over to the co-op winery Orealios Gaea, for a wine tasting, which Julia handled herself, unlike the "flights" of wine that were coming out on trays for the walk-in tasting clientele.  She brought out the 7 wines that we tasted a couple of bottles at a time and poured them for us each, giving us their stories as she went.  Overall, it was a really great tour, giving us a great insight into life in the Omala valley.  When we got back to Sami, it was sunny and hot and we decided to head over to Antisamos beach, but by the time we got there, it had clouded over quite a bit.  We waited for a while--it was still very pleasant--and finally the sun came out and I went in for a dip.  Then back over the hills to Sami for dinner and a rest-up for our travel day on Wednesday.
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