Naxos Sept 19

Friday morning we rented a car to drive around the island of Naxos. Naxos is one of the largest of the Greek islands. The island is well known for its high quality marble and in fact the whole island is marble. It even looks like they use marble dust and stones to make cement here.

For 25 euro we rented a little Fiat (far preferable to the small crappy chevy we had on Paros). We headed out and up into the mountains. The roads are small but mostly two lanes and wide enough for two cars to pass by easily, but they are mountain roads with lots of turns and hills. Compared to Germany, there are not a lot of towns and the towns are small.

We stopped at a place where an ancient civilization (400BC) quarried marble and carved statues. There is one unfinished statue that is left there (it cracked while being carved) as well as a sanctuary near the quarry. It was pretty interesting and you could still see where they carved the stones out of the hill.

Driving around this part of the island it is hard to miss the huge modern marble quarries that are carved out of the tops of the hills. The walls are sheared flat and waste marble has been dropped down the sides of the mountain like pebbles. As you drive by you understand that some of those ‘pebbles’ are the size of small houses.

Eventually we stopped in a small town for lunch. There are two restaurants there, one was closed. The other was empty except for the older woman who was running it. She spoke very little English, maybe two or three words. We pointed at the menu so she would understand what we wanted. It is not the middle of high season so not everything was available. She took me into the kitchen, opened the oven where a tray of stuff tomatoes and aubergine were cooking. I said, ‘Yes.’ We told her some other things we wanted and we just said yes and she started bring food. This included a
Greek Salad, two stuffed tomatoes, a stuff aubergine and fries. Everything was excellent! I would tell you to go there….but I would not be able to give you directions. On our way out I wished her, ‘kalispera’ or good afternoon. She replied with a large smile and said, ‘bye.’

The drive around Naxos was amazing. You can only take so many pictures of mountains and rocks and such before they all start to look alike. If you make it to the Greek Islands, a stop on Naxos is a must.