{"id":1940,"date":"2014-07-12T07:26:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T06:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=1940"},"modified":"2014-07-12T07:34:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-12T06:34:35","slug":"naxos-soujourn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=1940","title":{"rendered":"Naxos Soujourn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Naxos Port has a hands on harbour master, Nikos. \u00a0We knew we could leave Mercier at Naxos and take a ferry over to Santorini. \u00a0We departed Mykonos on Tuesday with a diminishing meltemi in three and a half hours sailing we were in front of the Portara Gateway from the unfinished Temple of Apollo and sailing into Naxos Town.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1942\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1942\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040072-640x480.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1942\" src=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040072-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"We made it to Naxos\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040072-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040072-640x480-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040072-640x480-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1942\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We made it to Naxos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We walked up to the Venetian Castle and then wandered through the winding alleys of the medieval quarter called the Bourg. It was before the end of siesta, so you could easily imagine that the pirates had come and taken everyone away. \u00a0The only residents we saw were some very sleepy cats.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday evening \u00a0found us at the Potara Gateway on the islet of Palatia, looking at the sunset with the other tourists, but when the sun went down, they departed. \u00a0Merro pulled out of his trusty Squadie bag, a bottle of Mercier Champage and we sat on\u00a0the ruins and toasted absent friends.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1944\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1944\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040171-640x480.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1944\" src=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040171-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Geoff and James at the unfinished Temple of Apollo\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040171-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040171-640x480-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040171-640x480-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geoff and James at the unfinished Temple of Apollo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Thursday we toured the island of Naxos in a little rent a car. \u00a0First north to the sleepy beach village of Apollon, through very windy roads in a verdant\u00a0landscape of olive groves and fruit trees.<\/p>\n<p>You wouldn&#8217;t think Davo was a sentimental bloke, but he gets almost misty eyed at the sight of the gum trees he is seeing on these Greek islands. \u00a0The dry barren islands of the Cyclades really are a perfect second home for these gum trees.We had a wonderful lunch under the shade trees in the hilltop village of Apeiranthos with cool breezes and wonderful food.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1945\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1945\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040193-640x480.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1945\" src=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040193-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Naxos countryside\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040193-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040193-640x480-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040193-640x480-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naxos countryside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We ended the day without cameras at the beautiful Plaka beach south of Naxos town and had outdoor showers and cocktails at a resort there. \u00a0Naxos is a beautiful island, maybe we will all get to return.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1946\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1946\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040159-640x328.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1946\" src=\"http:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040159-640x328.jpg\" alt=\"Potara Gateway\" width=\"640\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040159-640x328.jpg 640w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040159-640x328-300x153.jpg 300w, https:\/\/merrington.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/P1040159-640x328-500x256.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Potara Gateway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Naxos Port has a hands on harbour master, Nikos. \u00a0We knew we could leave Mercier at Naxos and take a ferry over to Santorini. \u00a0We departed Mykonos on Tuesday with a diminishing meltemi in three and a half hours sailing we were in front of the Portara Gateway from the unfinished Temple of Apollo and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=1940\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Naxos Soujourn<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,48,7,22,41,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","category-antiquities","category-dreams","category-friendship","category-greek-islands","category-history","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-vi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1948,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions\/1948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}