Naxos

I usually have a goal when I travel, and what's more that goal is usually completely pointless.  In this case the specific reason I came to Greece was to see Chimaros Tower on the island of Naxos.  I went to see it, and sure enough, there's a tower there. I'm glad *that's* taken care of. I would say that Naxos is fairly ideal as Greek islands go.  There are beautiful beaches, both near the cities and far off in secluded coves.  The main city is large enough to feel like a real city (pop 9000) but there are plenty of small towns.  There's also a lot of farming and grazing land that you can walk across, if that's your thing.  The locals are friendly, the tourists are German, and in general all is laid back and pleasant.

Some Pictures

The alleys of Naxos are too small to get trucks down, so donkeys are used as garbage trucks.  This of course leads to the question of who cleans up after the donkeys.

You'll note that both Brains *and* Spleens were in stock.  Personally I had the Souvlaki.

It's astounding how many of these stalls there were.  Every morning all full of octopi, and by noon they'd be emptied out.  Who's eating all the Calimari?

That's that main town down there.  This was a heck of a climb, as there are only goat paths and game trails leading up this mountain. Also, the mountain has been a grazing area for goats for literally all of recorded history.  There is 5000 *years* of goat poop on that mountain.  My priorities rapidly changed from "don't step in goat poop" to "whatever you do, don't fall down."

Near the top of the hill, I came across this goat skeleton.  No humans ever came up this way, so I assume the goat just lay down and died here one day.  The bones were in pretty good shape (no gnaw marks) so I assume the flies did all of this. Finding this was a real thrill for a city boy like me.  I've seen bones in museums, but the largest skeleton I've ever found in the wild was the remains of a bird that my cat had tucked away. Just for the record, the whole thing about using bones as primitive clubs actually does work.  I took a few swings with one of the leg bones -- nice heft, and sized just right for my hand.  It felt like heavy oak -- a lot more solid than I expected.

This mountaintop marble quarry was at about 3000 ft.  The white rock covering the slope is the waste rock from hundreds of years of digging.

The problem with guidebooks is they spend too much time on churches and not enough telling you about rock moving operations abandoned in the 1970's.  This is the bottom end of an ore bucket hoist that went several miles up the mountain.  I don't know if there was a quarry at the other end and they were bringing rock down, or if they were building something and bringing rock up.  I may have to come back here when/if my Greek becomes passable.

An interesting idea for people who find building rock walls peice by peice a little tiresome.  These rocks were made into cubic bails using chicken wire, then placed using a crane.  I saw several small dams and embankments built this way.

It's mid-September, it's 80 degrees outside, and you're on top of what is essentially a rock sticking out of the Aegean.  Then you pass this sign.

I like the succinctness of this sign on the road to Moutsouna.  It could have read:

WARNING Gusty Winds Narrow Road Steep Drop-offs No Guide-rails

Or perhaps, just

Tighten Sphincter next 10 miles

And this is it, Chimaros tower!  It's officially closed to the public.  Also, the door was locked.

This is my next goal in Greece.  Somebody somewhere has got to be enough of a history buff to have built a full sized Trireme.  I'd love a chance to row one of those oars as part of a crew.