Greece - Naxos - May 19 ->

After 11 days in Folegandros (May 9-19), we took the 3 hour ferry ride to Naxos. We were sad to leave as we really loved the little village, which was so idyllic and so old world Greek, while still having very comfortable amenities. I think Joe would have been happy to stay another week but Kaizen was getting a little antsy and wanting to “do” more. Here's our first viewing of Naxos followed by more pics:

An unfinished sculpture.





The Kastro (castle) just steps from our room.

Naxos is larger and more of a town; the island has about 15,000 permanent residents with about 7,000 living in the main Hora. This town is also very cute with many winding cobblestone streets-- supposedly intended to confuse pirates and potential attackers--interspersed with fancy tourist shops, tavernas, a kastro, and the promenade along the waterfront. We found a really nice upmarket restaurant right on the local sandbar beach, where the food is kid-friendly (chicken and fried potatoes being a favorite). In addition, much to Kaizen’s delight there is a foozball table and a pool table and for Soleil a little playground which is part of the outdoor restaurant; perfect for drinking ouzo while watching her play. Add to this, a lovely layout with comfortable tables, cushions and even a daybed for lounging around and we were all happy. Even Joe was thrilled that the friendly staff were willing to make him a blended cucumber juice in spite of acknowledging that in general “Naxos was not quite ready for this”.

I’m really enjoying this trip which is the best of slow travel days perfect for homeschooling time, piano practice and lying about reading interspersed with adventure (though relatively tame adventure compared to times past) seeing new sites, a different way of life and beautiful visions of sea and land and the odd man-made ancient ruin.

Now that he’s away from his computer, Kaizen has returned to his book-a-day diet and keeping him stocked in new books is a challenge given the constant moving. We are by no means traveling light, as we did in our life-before-kid days; just the books and keyboard probably comprise half of our luggage weight. Some things aren’t meant to change though and lately he’s burned through Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Stray, Half Moon Investigations, an Italo Calvino novel, the sequel to The Lightening Thief which he studied in a Mythology class recently and a book of brain puzzles in between reading Dune with Joe and Murder on the Nile with me.