Final Day on Samos

Transportation is dicey in the Greek Islands.  You just never know when ferry service will be canceled or when an airline strike will cut you off from the rest of the world.  When we got to Samos, we found out the scheduled start for the hydrofoil to Patmos (where John wrote the Book of Revelation) was delayed until June.  That was a disappointment, but we knew getting to Patmos wasn't a sure thing.  This afternoon we got word that our flight to Rhodes via Athens for tomorrow afternoon was cancelled due to a strike.  Now we're leaving our hotel at 5:30 a.m. and the 3 hour one-stop flight has stretched to 12 hours.  We've learned to roll with the punches, though, and will make the most of the ten hour layover in Athens.

Today we explored the north side of Samos Island.  The weather could not have been more ideal for walking beaches and scaling heights in the island's interior.  Not far from Vathi is an old fishing village named Kokkari.  It's been mostly taken over ​ the tourist industry, but it was almost completely silent today.  The tourist season hasn't started in earnest yet, and the economy in Greece has really taken a bite out of tourism.  We watched boats bobbing in the harbor and visited a stately Eastern Orthodox Church with stunning icons.  The town stretches for a mile or so along the beach and has amazing views of Samos's mountain range.

A bit further west, we parked the car and followed a dirt path down a steep incline to Tsamadou Beach.  There was no sand, but that didn't stop us from spreading our beach towels on the rocky shore.  After soaking up the sun for an hour or so, I got up my courage and plunged into the ultramarine sea.  It wasn't as cold as I expected!  Unfortunately, Leroy could not be coaxed away from his towel.  Our next island is a bit south, so maybe he'll find the water more to his liking there!

Our final stop before returning to Vathi was the mountaintop village of Manolates.  The sign by the main road said it was four kilometers to the south.  If the sign is correct, it was the longest 4K I've ever experienced.  A narrow lane with countless steep, hairpin turns led us through a dark forest to a spectacular vista above the Aegean Sea.  A charming hodgepodge of stuccoed, tiled cottages arranged around a whitewashed church comprises the village.  We wandered around for a while before descending to the sea while holding our breath again on the guardrail-less road.

Time to pack up and get some sleep before our early wake-up call!