Today we spent a great day exploring Naxos.

First, we ate breakfast at our rental (which is included in the stay). The wonderful property manager, Stefanos, serves the breakfast and does a great job making you feel relaxed and taken care of. He brought out a beautiful bread basket with pastries, fresh fruit, Greek yogurt with honey, muesli, and Quince marmalade, plus scrambled eggs. It was all wonderful and a great start to a long day.

After breakfast, we headed out to explore the island. Our first stop was Demetres Temple. I believe it was built in 560 bc (or around that) as a temple to a God for fertile land.

Next, we stopped at a handmade pottery/ ceramics shop. They had beautiful vases, flower pots, mugs etc. We bought a few things and watched the potter make a vase. Of course, James suggested that we order him a pottery wheel from Amazon when we get back. I’m sure the results will be about the same

After that, we stopped at a town called Chalki. We stopped at a distillery that makes an alcohol called Citron out of the leaves of a fruit plant.

We also stopped in a shop and sampled some Greek candies and honey.

After that, we headed to lunch at Poterou. It was a strange time (around 2-2:30). The place was empty with just an older Greek gentleman in there. He said that he could make us a Greek salad with some Tzatziki. Perfect. It hit the spot. James pretty much just ate a loaf of bread, but whatever. At the end, he brought out a complimentary dessert. It was a candied fruit (like a lemon rind) in a sweet syrup. I don’t know what it was, but we all loved it.

After lunch, we visited another town called Apiranthos. This is referred to as the marble town because all the walkways are made of marble stones.

Our next stop was Kouros. Here, there is an artifact statue. According to James, he was be excited to see this.

On our way back down the mountain, we saw a marble quarry. It’s hard to see in the picture, but I can’t imagine how many counter top slabs were cut out of this mountain.

Lastly, it was time for dinner. We ate at Georgis. It is a charming restaurant where husband and wife are the chef and waitor. It was delicious and we left totally stuffed. They even made James some fresh squeezed lemonade.

Back to the rental where James jumped in the pool for a little while then took a bath.

I think we are going to take it a little slower tomorrow and spend the first part of the day hanging at the beach.

We spent the rest of the time in Santorini relaxing and enjoying the beautiful views. James and I did some souvenir shopping and Justin took some long walks to take pictures. Overall, we had a wonderful time and none if us were ready to leave. My favorite part was sitting on the upper deck in the morning drinking coffee and enjoying the incredible scenery. There was also some great people watching.

James loved the little loft that he slept in. It was his special nook.

On the last evening, Justin took out his tripod, and we attempted to take some family pictures of the three of us. We MAYBE got a couple good ones. We spent most of the time laughing.

We took a ferry from Santorini to Naxos. It was alot like hearding cattle to get everyone on the boat, but it was mostly organized chaos and an uneventful trip. It was about an hour and a half ride. James got something to eat, which he enjoyed.

Our car rental meet us at the Port, and we drive to the Villa Paradise where we are staying in Naxos. It is absolutely beautiful. Naxos is known for its beaches and there are plenty of them.

Stefanos, the property manager checked us in and showed us to our room. The only small issue was lugging my huge suitcase up the many steps. Stefanos (who is somewhere in the 50-60 year range) threw that suitcase on his shoulder and powered up the stairs. Wow.

The villa is gorgeous with 3 bedrooms, an infinity pool, AND a washing machine (no dryer).

We got something to eat (over ordered as usual) and hit the supermarket for the essentials: water, wine, and coffee.

Looking forward to exploring this island!

International travel with James…… it’s been a while. But, when Justin pitched the idea of Greece, I thought it would be a great trip to bring him on. He is much older and MUCH easier than he was when we went to Spain/ France in October 2016. He carries his own suitcase and tends to his own things (mostly).

On the way there, we went from Dallas to London to Santorini. I’m sure Justin will give alot more detail on the trip/ flight planning, but I’m glad our “points fairy” could figure out a way to get us first class/ business class status. It just makes life easier and more comfortable. I know that we are very lucky.

There was a Harry Potter store in the London airport, so, obviously, we had to visit that.

It was an uneventful trip to Santorini. James and I probably slept a solid 3 hours of the 9 hour flight. It’s about 4 hours from London to Santorini, and James slept most of them, so not much to report there.

Justin arranged with the vacation rental for a driver to pick us up from the airport. We got to the rental without any trouble

We are very centrally located in the Oia area of Santorini. Directly outside our vacation rental seems to be a hot spot for selfies. Lots of good people watching.

We forced ourselves to stay awake with some walking around and an early dinner in order to avoid major jet lag issues. And, mostly, we were successful. James slept until 11 am the next day.

The following day, we were excited to get up and start exploring. We headed to the Ammoubi area which included a very steep downhill walk to the coast. Each view was more beautiful than the next.

After walking around a bit by the coast, we got lunch at a restaurant by the water. We probably over ordered, but there is so much to try! We got Taramasala (fish roe dip), grilled feta, octopus, mussels, and Greek salad (along with some other things). Everything was so delicious and so fresh.

So, after lunch we decided to take a taxi to Thira and attempt to walk back to Oia. Justin presented this as a 1.5-2 hour walk. Supposedly, this is a great thing to do with kids in Greece. Well, not my kid.

After about an hour of walking (largely uphill), Justin checked and we had only made it about a quarter of the way. That’s when the group started to fall apart. The idea of taking the bus back was presented, and after alot of internal struggle and a few tears, we decided to go to the bus station. Long story short, the bus didn’t work out, but we got a cab and made it back.

We hung out for a little while then it was off to dinner. We ate at Elinikon. We didn’t have reservations, but they squeezed us in early and said we had to be out by 7:20. No problem. We had some delicious hummus, stuffed grape leaves, calamari, and other things. Everything was delicious. I’m so proud of James for trying lots of new foods today. We were done in plenty of time and they even sent us off with a taste of sweet Greek wine.

We passed on dessert at the restaurant in favor of gelato at a nearby shop.

After that, James had his heart set on going to a souvenir shop to buy something that caught his eye yesterday.

Overall, a very successful first full day!

I’m not sure how much I’m going to blog. Probably not every day, but maybe every other day. Looking forward to exploring this beautiful country.