I'm writing this on the morning of our last day in Naxos, so I might end up doing another post or two Naxos. I'll start off by saying this is a place that I wish we had stayed longer. We knew we were packing too many places into too little time, but with all of the places so far, I've thought we timed it kind of right. Naxos, whether it's because we are all a little tired of eating out, or because the types of activities it leads to are a little slower, feels like a place where we should slow down and just hang out for a while.
We got here on a morning ferry from Heraklion. The ferry was a little disappointing. Emilie and I have memories of sitting on the roof terrace of the ferry protected from the wind while sipping wine and playing cards. The ferry we are on, and all the SeaJet ferries, are fast ferries that are set up almost like a luxury coach bus. The roof deck is unprotected and therefore super windy, and the inside doesn't have a lot of character. We knew we were on the faster of the ferry options (it's a little more expensive), but with Ruby's motion sickness this made sense. We docked at Santorini and Ios, but not as romantic as I remember. It was still a nice trip. The kids got to watch movies as our deal is they can have screen time when we travel between places. Walking out of the vehicle hold of the ferry is still a unique experience.
In Naxos: Arrival Day
We got a bit of a scare when our AirBNB contact gave us directions by letting us know our apartment is above the Avis dealership. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to be a very prosperous Avis so with the exception of there being a couple of cars parked on the street it hasn't been a big issue. The apartment itself is nice. Two big bedrooms, comfortable beds, a well apportioned kitchen, strong air conditioning, and a massive electrical transformer that partially blocks the view of the sea. I think we are getting what we are paying for, which is lots of space in a great location 5min from the beach, 5min from the town, and 10min from the beach.
After finding the apartment our first mission was lunch. We found a place just 2min from the apartment on the Court Square, and dove into a great meal. Emilie and I may have dove too deep into the wine, as the family then returned to the apartment for a 2hr nap.
After our nap we checked out the town, and got lost a few times in the tiny, winding streets that Naxos is famous for. We found the beach and decided it is good. We also found an outdoor movie theater, which had been on our list of things to do in Greece. Even better (for Graham), it was playing "Thor: Love and Thunder" that night.
We grabbed dinner at a restaurant we had a reservation for, also on the Court Square. Dinner was delicious, and Ruby had another massive Pork Chop, but we were really there for the desert. They were known to have the best Orange Pie on Naxos. It turns out that Orange Pie is more of a cake than a pie, but with vanilla ice cream it is delicious.
The movie was great. It was fun to watch the waxing moon just to the left of the movie screen. We all stayed up too late again
Naxos Day 2: Marble Carving
We started the day with a walk around town. This time we found the castle. It doesn't really seem to be a castle, so maybe it's a translation error. It is the high point of the town, and the views are great. There is also an old church at the top of the town and the kids appreciated that there were floor tiles from the 15th century there. There was also a free archeology museum with knives they had found in Zeus' cave, so we made up cool stories about them.
The highlight of the day was 100% marble carving. We didn't know too much about it as we had booked it on AirBNB then not really looked into it much more. There were a few things that were great.
We got picked up in a beat-up old truck in a town 20min outside of Naxos. Teh four of us piled into the bed of the truck (with pillows) and were driven a couple of kilometers up a dried-up riverbed to a farm/outdoor marble carving studio
We got to pick any marble we wanted to work on. We tried to push the kids to smaller pieces as we need to bring stuff home, but only partially succeeded.
We practiced with different tools for about 1.5hrs, then got to work on our designs for another 1.5hrs. By the end we all had a "finished" piece of sculpture which are the best souvenirs ever
Return trip also in the truck
Super late night wasn't ideal because the next day was our big boat trip, but everyone thought it was a fantastic experience.
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