Monday, June 4: We're up by 7:30 and ready to go by 8:45, having packed last night. We've really enjoyed our time in Tinos, but we're looking forward to our next stop--Naxos. Sharon shows us the shortcut to the port so we'll have an easier time with our roller luggage. The boat arrives right on time and we settle in for the relatively short (hour and 40 minute) trip. The boat stops at Myknonos on the way and we can see the hotel we stayed in a month ago, as we pull into the port. In Naxos, We are met by Marc, who drives us to the Naxos Golden Beach apartments. We have rented a two bedroom apartment for our 5 night stay in Naxos. The place is pretty much what we expected: two large rooms, one of which has a small kitchenette in the corner. The bathroom looks immense, after the one we had in Tinos. There is a balcony that spans both rooms with a table and chairs. We have a view of the water and the islands to the west. It looks like we could witness some pretty spectacular sunsets, if the clouds are right.

By the time we settle in, it's lunch time. We came in at the north end of town and our apartment is at the south end. We'll have to learn how to get in and out and we have little difficulty with the former. We find a nice little taverna on the waterfront for lunch. The lady who owns the place has flowers from her garden on all the tables. She is quite proud of them as she should be. Naxos town (called Chora) starts at the waterfront and rises slightly up the hill. The old kastro (castle) is at the top. Between the kastro and the waterfront are nothing but tavernas, travel agencies, rent-a-car/bike companies, and retail shops. There are so many of them, it exceeds "touristy" and beomes "quaint"--almost "chic". Rick knows he is in for a lot of walking and window shopping.... Toward the pier where we arrived, we turn right into "The Old Market". It is here that Rick realizes he's been to Naxos before--on his last trip to Greece in the early '90s. He was here for less than a day and the entire experience had been buried in his memory until now. The other tip off, is the "Portara" or doorway to the Temple of Apollo--the remains of an ancient temple and the only real "site" on the island. He remembers that one, too.

While we're taking photos of the Portara, we notice another couple doing the same. Since the woman seems to be the photographer of the two, we ask if she would mind taking our photo here. She readily agrees and of course, the first thing you ask someone is where they're from. Wendy and Greg are from Sydney, Australia, which sets off a lengthy discussion of our travels there last year, how much we love the country and how welcoming we found the people. They are on Naxos just for the day, having taken the ferry over from Paros. It becomes obvious that we should continue our conversation and get to know each other over a couple of beers. We walk back to the waterfront and sit down in the first cafe we come to. We spend the next couple of hours with two of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet--but then, that's the Aussies for you. When Rick mentions that we followed the Beaconsfield mine disaster in Tasmania last year, Greg tells us that he's been a miner for 34 years and gives us a little insight into what it's like. The time passes far too quickly, and soon it's time for them to catch their ferry back to Paros. We exchange email addresses and "threaten" each other with visits some time in the future. We are only sorry that we couldn't have spent more time with them.

The drinks have made us sleepy, so we return to the apartment for a nap until dinner. We've spotted a place called Apolafsis that looks inviting and we arrive there for dinner around 9pm. Our table is on a balcony overlooking the waterfront. Looking down we can watch people strolling along the pedestrian street and also the owners of the tavernas overseeing their operations. At one, there's a very old man, dressed in a dark blue suit sitting with his wife. Friends stop to say hello and the old man seems very happy. Just behind him sits a man who is a "dead ringer" for the actor who plays Frankie Pentangeli in the Godfather II. (The one who wants to "hit" the Rosado brothers, but Michael Corleone won't let him and who eventually is brought to testify against Michael.) This guy justs sits there twirling his worry beads and watching the street. Occasinally he leaves, but is back in a few minutes. We can only imagaine what he's up to. Every restaurant in Naxos has fish--a nice change from everywhere else we've been--and at reasonable prices. Rory has grilled sea bass, Rick has his swordfish fix. The food is great; we will later learn it's one of the best tavernas in town.

Tuesday, June 5: We have no plans for today. In fact, we may decide to do virtually nothing while we're in Naxos. It's that kind of place; and there really isn't much to see here, although we may rent some kind of vehicle for a day before we leave. By the time we're up and out it's after 10am. We'll wander through the old market and follow the stone paths up to the kastro (castle), which is really more old walls than it is a site. It's very cloudy this morning and while we're walking it starts to rain a little bit; but not enough to drive us indoors--assuming we could find anyplace to wait it out. There's a white marble church and bell tower at the top, as well as the archeological museum. Today is Tuesday and admission to the museum is free--at that price, we have to check it out. The exhibit of classical pottery and figurines is extensive. Window shopping and a leisurely lunch will follow; the rain has stopped. At around 3pm we return to the apartment. Rory heads for the beach; Rick sits in the adjacent cafe reading and nursing an Amstel. Before long, he's nodding off and returns to the apartment for a nap.

We're getting more used to the way the days are divided in Greece. Businesses (read shops) open between 9:30 and 10am and stay open till about 2:30 when they close for siesta. They open again between 5:30 and 6pm and stay open until after 11pm. We've begun to eat dinner later and later. Tonight we won't sit down until after 9pm. Again, we're seated above the waterfront and Rory notices that we're actually next door to the taverna we ate at last night. She looks down and there's "Frankie"! We spend a lot of time joking and imagining the nefarious deeds he must be planning for his "capos" to carry out. Frankie is really giving his worry beads a workout, even shifting them from his left hand to his right. (Normally the men keep them in one hand or the other.) He must have something major on his mind! Behind us is a column which effectively blocks us from view of the rest of the restaurant. Unfortunately it also blocks us from the wait staff; it's a long time before anyone takes our order, longer still until we get our food, and a while until we can get the bill. We don't leave until after 11pm. At least the food was really good and we did enjoy spying on Frankie.

Wednesday, June 6: We have several immediate orders of business to conduct this morning. First, we call Swift Car Rental to see if they might have a Smart for rent in Crete instead of the car we've reserved. We're disappointed to learn that they don't. Second, we need an ATM fix, then, newly funded, we stop at one of the ticket agencies on the waterfront to buy ferry tickets. We still need them for our trips from Paros to Crete on June 13th and from Crete to Pireaus on June 20th. Nikos is behind the desk and informs us that the ferry from Paros to Crete is sold out--but a phone call directly to the ferry line, results in two seats becoming available. Seats from Crete to Pireaus present no such problems, and, since we are going on a morning boat, there is a discount and we will be riding in VIP status. Nikos is extremely helpful and has a good sense of humor. When Rick pays for the tickets, he's initially 10 cents short and digs in his pocket for the extra coin. Nikos says "too late" and won't accept it. We have a good laugh over this. OK, one thing left: find an internet cafe to send a note to John at Athens Studios to arrange pick up at Pireaus port and transfer to the apartment in Athens on the 20th.

That accomplished, and since it's a nice sunny day, we decide we need to rent some sort of vehicle and explore Naxos at least a little bit. Mike's Bikes is just up the street from our apartment. Mike is very helpful and suggests we try (what we would call) a dune buggy, rather than renting two scooters. For 20E, we get a brand new one for the day. Mike shows us how they work. They have an automatic transmission, at least as far as moving forward is concerned. Going in reverse, requires the buggy to be totally stopped, then there's a lever that is shifted backwards. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it and we're off. In less than a kilometer we get the impression that maybe this is a mistake. It's great fun, but at any speed over about 15km/hr, you get the wind in your face--no windscreen; no visored helmet. It's gotten cloudy and Rory will be chilly the whole time we're out. We're armed with a map and as we pass Mike's for the second time (before finding the right road out of town), we're thinking maybe we should admit that this wasn't the best idea, and turn the buggy right back in. Instead we grin like idiots and wave happily at Mike (can't hurt his feelings, you know) as we pass by and soon we're heading out of town, over the mountain toward Halki and Filoti. The former is supposedly famous for the production of a liquer called kitron made from a lemon-like fruit. Halki is about 16km from Chora (Naxos town). Beyond that is Filoti (2 more km), equally unimpressive as Halki was. At least there are a couple of picturesque churches here. We see a sign for the Zas Cave, but the road ends before we find it. A couple of people we meet tell us it's a 30 minute climb up and 30 minutes back and there isn't much of interest to see. We don't go. By now, we are thinking a return to the apartment and a walk into town for lunch is sounding pretty darn good. We've got about 20km to drive, and Rick constantly checks to see how much farther we have to go. Along the way, we get behind a bus and a truck, both spewing diesel fumes. The truck adds insult to injury by occasionally spraying us with (we hope it was) water. We do manage to pass both--which is a pretty remarkable sight, considering the relative size of the vehicles. We're glad to park the buggy in front of the apartment and be done with it. Rick has to untangle himself both from the harness and the vehicle itself--his legs are really too long for this. Rory slowly climbs out with every bone and muscle screaming from the jarring she's taken from the poorly paved roads and trying to sit far enough over so as not to interfere with Rick's elbows as he manuevers the buggy with the miniscule steering wheel. Lunch and some heavy drinking is in order!!

After lunch, Rory cajoles Rick to come to the beach with her. He lasts about a half hour (Rick is not a beach fan--hates getting sand in his shoes and on his feet) and returns to the apartment to read. Rory lasts about 2 hours. The combination of the morning jarring, the sun and some wine on the beach has pretty much done her in--she goes to sleep and never makes it up for dinner.

Thursday, June 7: Naxos has turned into several days of kick-back time. We did wander around, Rory spent some more time at the beach and at about 6:30pm, we walked into town to see the sunset from the Portara. We expected the site to be somewhat crowded and were pleasantly surprised to find only about 20 people there, like us, waiting for a good photo. As at Sounion, just being there was enough--even though the sunset was fairly ordinary by, say, Florida standards. On the way back through town, we passed our boy "Frankie", who, it turns out, owns the chatchke shop across from his sitting post. Up close, he doesn't look as much like the actor as we first thought.

Dinner was the highlight of our day. Since we'd had a big lunch, we decided that pizza might be a good choice for dinner. About midway between our apartment and the little circle at the top of the hill (across from Mike's Bikes) we'd seen a place called "Trattoria da Susanna" advertising itself as a pizzeria and Italian restaurant. The place is pretty typical of Greek tavernas, except the tablecloths are red and white check and there isn't any traditional Greek food on the menu. We ordered a salad to share and a small pizza topped with mushrooms and artichokes plus a litre of house red wine. Everything was wonderful--the salad almost more than we could finish, which explained the slightly higher than average price. The pizza was the best we've had (with the possible exception of real New York style). If you're ever in Naxos, we highly recommend you try Trattoria da Susanna!

Friday, June 8: We did almost nothing today that anyone would care to read about. Rory got in some beach time and managed to get a bit burned on her back. After some last minute shopping (prices on Naxos are the best we've seen in Greece) and dinner, we're back to the apartment to get packed up for our trip to Paros tomorrow.