THE ISLAND OF TINOS

We were met at the quay by Charlie Merlin who is the Route manager for the walks on Tinos. He is part Greek and part Austrian and lives in Athens for most of the year but has interests in Tinos during the summer months. He took us to our hotel, the Favie Suzanne, which was a well appointed modern hotel and provided a lovely breakfast each day that we stayed there. As was the case with Naxos we had an extra day before we started out on the walks to let us see the town of Tinos, again called Chora by the locals.

Both Naxos and Tinos are a little off the foreign tourist map, the big draw for them is Mykonos which has visiting cruise ships, the island where we had spent two minutes. You can't even fly into the island of Tinos, they depend entirely on the ferry system that is quite comprehensive.

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click off the photograph returns you to the text.

You should be able to follow where we went from this rather vulgarly coloured map

The island does receive a large influx of Greek pilgrims and more holiday makers, mainly Greek in July and August. The largest church is the Church of the Evangelismos Thetokou (The Annunciation). It was built on the site where an icon of the Virgin Mary was found in January 1833. It was found after a vision seen by the nun Palegi, who predicted where an icon dating from Early Christian times would be found. The church was then built at that location. As a result the town receives a very large number of pilgrims each day and every day.

The Church of the Evangelismos Thetokou

There is a carpet laid on the side of the street leading from the harbour up the hill to the church. The devout pilgrim will crawl on his or her knees the whole way up and into the church. We did see that happening on the steps leading up the the church.

A bronze of a pilgrim climbing towards the church

A detail of the church tower

On the street leading up to the church and another one parallel to it there are many shops aimed at the tourist. Many are food shops who specialize in sugar covered sweets like Turkish Delight. There are also plenty of opportunities for the pilgrims to take away mementos of their visit, icons, paintings. candles etc.

Candles for sale, some of these were six feet long

Plenty of choice for the pilgrim

We made our way up the street to the church and found it was large on the outside but surprisingly small inside and crowded with people. There was a continuous line to stand before the icon - no photography. The church is also known for its Byzantine chanting and while we were there two priests were doing just that. There was some interesting pebble work all over the forecourt.

Pebble designs in the forecourt of the church

The port of Tinos Town with Xobourgo in the background

Xobourgo, a place we would visit and conquer

We met up with Charlie who gave us the briefing for the walks on Tinos. Much shorter than previously since we had already done five days walking. The system was the same and he would deliver our bags for us each walking day. He used a small moped which looked very tricky to us as we had two largish backpacks. We were ready to go early the next morning.

TINOS TOWN TO FALATADOS

We were to start at sea level from the hotel and spent the day basically climbing up to the village of Falatados, a walk of 10.5 km with a rise of 1850 feet and a descent of 550 feet on the way. We started out along the sea front before heading inland.

The first place of interest was the the monastery of Aghia Triadha. The custodian, who was the only inhabitant, kindly let us into the church .

The monastery of Aghia Triadha

We weren't quite that early, sundials don't understand summer time

Inside the monastery church

A special feature on the island of Tinos are the dovecotes. Other islands in the Cycladic group have them but Tinos has them in greater profusion. We saw many on our travels. There are perhaps about 1200 altogether and were and are still important for the farmers. Many, but not all, are in a rather poor state of repair. The doves are raised for their meat and also do service by providing valuable fertilizer for the land. The dovecotes are generally quite massive structures, the lower floors provide storage space for the farmer and the doves occupy the upper floors. The doves were introduced by the Venetians and most of the surviving buildings date from the 18th and 19th Century.

An old dovecote with resident doves on the roof

We then started quite a long climb up an old mule track, very rugged. We reached the church of Aghia Irini where had a well deserved rest stop.

The church of Aghia Irini

Taking a break after the long climb

From where we were sitting we had grand view to the South-West over a terraced hillside.

Looking back down towards the coast over to the islands of Mykonos and Delos

The whole country side was heavily terraced

Since we had been walking on a mule track it seemed appropriate to actually meet one

A well preserved dovecot in the village of Dhio Choria

Looking down to the Port of Tinos Town with the Blue Star Ithaki ferry on its way to Mykonos

The Catholic Church at Dhio Choria.

There is a roughly 50:50 split between Catholic churches and Greek Orthodox churches on the island.

An old threshing circle. We saw many of these all over the island

Our objective for the day, the village of Falatodos

Mules whose work day was over

The Levkes Taverna

We found the taverna that had rooms attached where we were to stay. We ran into a group of German tourists who we had watched leaving the Favie Suzanne hotel that morning and who were now enjoying lunch in the taverna. They were a little surprised to realise that we had walked all the way while they had taken a bus. The taverna was run by two Levkes brothers who looked after us well for the two nights that we were there. They had little English but we got on fine.

A CIRCUIT OF XOBOURGO

The day's journey was one of the longest we did - 15 km with an ascent of 520 feet and a descent of the same 520 feet. It was going to take us to the top of the large rock, Xobourgo and then a circuit all around it so that we finished in Falatados. At the outset we could see our main target ahead of us.

The impressive rock, Xobourgo

At the foot of the rock was the Moni Ieris Kardias, Sacred Heart Monastery which is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Tinos. A bus load of visitors were there before us and we could hear singing from inside the monastery. In the forecourt of the monastery there is a monument to the 327 Tinian Greek Catholics who lost their lives in the Greek wars between 1912 - 1950.

The Monastery of the Sacred Heart

The monument to the Tinian Greek Cathlolics

We climbed to the top of the rock on which had been built an impresssive fortress, much of which remains.

On top of Xobourgo

The cross on the summit

The view from the summit down to Tinos Town

We came back down off the rock and began an anti-clockwise circuit around Xobourgo so that it was in our sight for much of the rest of the day. We began down a rough path to the village of Koumaros. There were often a few obstructions on our walking paths, this day we ran into a bunch of sheep blocking the path.

A decorative dovecote

We passed through the village of Loutra that had two monasteries, a one-time base for a Jesuit monk community and a convent of carpet-weaving Ursuline nuns. This convent became a select girls school and, latterly, a State school.

Our notes said look out for an "impressive" set of stepping stones

More terraces and the local seat of Government in the background

There were many derelict windmills on Tinos. This one was being renovated

Another friendly mule with Xobourgo in the background

Our walk took us through the villages of Chadziradhos, Ktikadohos, Tripotamos and Moundadhos. The route finally took us on what had been the old route from Tinos Town to Faladatos.

FALATODOS TO KOLOMBITHRA

Our third day walking on Tinos took us from Falatados basically downhill to the coastal port of Kolombithra where we would take our rest day. The distance was 10 km with a climb of 685 feet and descent of 1850 feet.

We started out along the route of the day before but then turned North downhill to the village of Volax (population 51). Volax is situated in the area of large round boulders, unique to Tinos.

The landscape around Volax

Typical of some of the better paths we were walking on

We rarely saw any people but we often saw goats

A windbreak out of bamboo

This is a dummy dovecote with dummy doves

Our route took us to the village of Aghapi (meaning love) where we stopped for coffee at a tiny shop in the tiny village square. Only Greek spoken but we managed to buy two cups of coffee, both with milk and one with sugar, and that's not an easy thing to do.

An amazing collection of dovecotes

Having been descending for most of the walk so far we knew it couldn't stay that way and the final leg was a climb up and then down to our endpoint. From the high point we had a grand view over towards the coast.

Kolombithra on the coast

As we came down towards Kolombithra we saw a large valley that had many bamboo windbreaks protecting little plots of land. This area had, until the 1950's, been a major producer of fruit and vegetables for the Athens market.

Bamboo windbreaks on a large scale

The leonine island off the coast at Kolombithra

Our room was in this taverna with lovely views out to sea

The owner of the taverna and the rooms used to be a Financial Controller for Rank-Xerox in Athens, quite a change for her.

REST DAY IN KOLOMBITHRA

We had a lazy morning in Kolombithra, did get into the sea for a short time but the Mediterranean maybe be warm everywhere else but it didn't apply here. There were a few other people on the beach but the season was clearly ending as the locals were taking down a series of Tahitian straw umbrellas on the beach. Our taverna was going to be closing for the year in a couple of days and was running out of a variety of foods on the menu. July and August are the really busy months for the Greeks to visit the islands. Come September the islands go to sleep except for Tinos Town and Naxos City.

At mid-day Charlie arrived with his friend George to take us to our next walking area - Pirgos - at the northern end of the island. Charlie only had his moped on the island and decided that, although he was able to carry our kitbags on it, perhaps two people as well was a bit too much even for him. So friend George, who had a little Fiat Panda was able to help out. George, it turned out, was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and had spent a couple of years in Tahsis, just north of here on Vancouver Island. He had moved to Tinos many years ago and was also involved in his own walking tour business.

The road we took was relatively new and very up and down and full of bends. The map only shows the first part but it really did exist. We reached Pirgos early in the afternoon and had plenty of time to look around. There wouldn't be too much spare time the next day because we would be on the trail again.

Pirgos is the centre of the marble quarry industry and is one of the largest and most beautiful villages on Tinos. It is considered do be an outdoor architectural museum because it is in the centre of the marble quarry industry. A typical example of the bus shelter at the bus station.

The local marble bus shelter

We had a pleasant room in a set of rooms run by the local honey shop owner. It was, as all the rooms we had had, well appointed and comfortable.

Our room for the night was in the lower section of this building

Pirgos has a realtively new and very splendid marble museum. We were granted seniors privileges and free entry to our surprise and we were the only people there for the majority of the time. A young boy popped in for a while. It was a very impressive place. and we learnt a lot about marble and the marble industuy. There was a set of informative videos showing how they cut the marble slabs, dress them and transport them down to the coast for transport elsewhere. There were many static exhibits also showing these processes.

The start of splitting the marble

Wedges crack the marble

A line of wedges in place

Marble has no structure so you can break it along a line in any direction you like. Involve a lot of chipping away and hammering it seemed.

Showing the process from the clay model (back), a plaster replica (left) and the final marble carving

A carving for placing above a door or window

A video showed such a marble carving being made. What was amazing was the speed at which the carver worked. He was never still it seemed and the object appeared before your eyes in no time at all.

The finished item

There were many examples of elaborate marble carvings and sculptures. There was distinction drawn between being a marble carver and a marble sculptor but the difference eluded us.

A marble throne

We were really impressed by this museum

On our way back into the centre of Pirgos we had a good view of the village and its principal church, Ayios Dimitrios

The village of Pirgos

The church of Agios Dimitrios

PIRGOS AND PANORMOS

This turned out to be our last walking day. It took us on a figure of eight walk inland and then down to the coast to the port of Panormos and back to Pirgos. The distance was a more modest 9.5 km with an ascent and a descent of 1500 feet.

We started out down hill into a valley passing an old grain storage facility with a couple of threshing rings.

An old threshing ring

On the way back up from the valley floor we came across an interesting drainage channel made of marble

We passed by some old marble quarry workings.

At the top of the hill we reached the Kyria Xenis Monastery

The monastery had a very impressive marble entrance

On our way back down to the valley floor we came across a not uncommon feature on some of our paths. The shepherds had a great desire to place blockages across the paths to keep the goats and sheep from wandering off too far. The path we were seeking was heavily blocked off with an old bed frame and having negotiated our way around that we came across another even more solid blockage with another bed frame. A form of recycling perhaps.

The path down was an old marble staircase used by the miners getting to work in the quarries above Pirgos. Many of the steps had their initials carved into the steps.

We reached the valley floor where had started off and continued on a easy path (for once) to the port of Panormos.

The port of Panormos

Panormos was our lunch stop and we were not alone. Being Saturday there were quite a lot of people about having lunch. One bus arrived with a large collection of ladies with their Orthodox Greek Clergy and they were busy eating when we arrived. For our meal we chose "small fish" as opposed to "large fish" and "sort of fish". We had seen these arrive at a table near us and they looked like whitebait and they were really pleasant to eat, whole.

A plate of "small fish"

Planatis Island off Panormos

Rochari Bay

Our return route took us around the headland at Panormos to Rochari Bay and the up to the village of Platia and Pirgos. It was the usual rugged path with some sections of marble staircase to help us. Often we were accompanied by a black water pipe taking water from somewhere to somewhere, often seen in quite remote areas.

Up the marble staircase with a water pipe

We saw some amazing rocks

Where we had come from

Note the clouds in the background. We had had cloudless days all the time until this day. It was a portent for some developing problems.

We had returned to Pirgos after the long climb up from Rochari Bay. As we walked back through the village to our room we came across a rather amazing piece of art on a wall, a sculpture head of the wine god Dionysos.

Close up of the head of Dionysos

We had phoned Charlie on our way up from Rochari Bay to arrange for him and George to collect us and take us back to Tinos for the night. They duly arrived and we took off on the road to Tinos along the south west coast. This took us through a region full of old marble quarries and some active ones.

Back in Tinos Town we became aware of a series of problems facing us. The weather had been bad that day for some of the ferries and the Favie Suzanne, where we were to stay, was full of stranded tourists. However, we were OK because the hotel put us into a very pleasant room in Vicenzo Rooms just around the corner. We could still take the lovely breakfast back at Favie Suzanne.

It was Charlie's view that we should consider cutting short our stay on Tinos by one day and get to Athens a day early. We had planned to walk the last walk of the ten and take the ferry the day after to Rafina on the mainland. We would then catch the flights home the next morning. However, there was every possibility we were told that the ferry we were going to take wouldn't run and we wouldn't get to Athens airport to catch the flight home. Better to go a day early when the ferry should run and have an extra night on the mainland, which meant at the airport because there was a probable Metro and bus strike.

So we re-booked to leave a day early on the Penelope A which we knew was just across the water in Mykonos and didn't have to come all the way from the mainland.

We had our last night and next morning the weather wasn't looking very promising. The rain had arrived and the waves were large but the Penelope was an old English Channel ferry, the Sealink Horsa, built in 1972, and made for the job. She arrived on time and we set off for Rafina via the island of Andros.

The port on the island of Andros

The faithful ferry Penelope A in Rafina

We arrived in Rafina and saw two of the high speed ferries which didn't make it to sea that day. Onto the bus and we were soon at the airport. On that journey we saw evidence of another problem that Athens was facing, a garbage strike, The garbage bins along the road were full to overflowing. It was all very sad.

Our walking holiday was over and we had had a marvellous, if exhausting, time.