Our mission: to rent scooters and zip around the island. The island is small, about 8 miles at its largest point (from NW to SE.) There is one major temple on the island, the Temple of Aphaia, and a couple other places of interest. So as soon as we jumped off the boat, we headed to a rental place. That is, after a short encounter with a very affectionate dog (call her "Aphrodite").
"So, you know how to ride these," the guy at the rental place said. "Oh, yeah. Sure..." (Well, I didn't even know how to turn it on!!) The scooters were a dubious lot--showing signs of several crashes, Brad's lacked a mirror on one side, and none of my gauges worked. Ditto the horn. But for 15 euros for an entire fun-filled day how could you complain?
Aphaia is a little-known local divinity who is sometimes equated with Athena. For you temple buffs, it is a hexastyle peripteral Doric temple of about 500-480 BC. The temple is fairly well preserved as these buildings go. We paid our 4 euros and spent about an hour at the site, including the small museum. For me the most interesting thing was the drainage that channelled water from the roof of the temple to a nearby cistern. The view from the west side of the hill is phenomenal–you can see the Peloponnesus, the Isthmus of Corinth, and the Piraeus.From the temple we rode south and stopped for lunch at a tiny fish taverna near Portes. I was so pleased to have gotten away from the touristy areas! We managed to order lunch in our meagre Greek (choosing our meal from a drawer of fish in the kitchen–I have no no idea what kind of fish it was, but it was fresh!).
Our host cooks our fresh fish on his grill
The Fish Tavern "Sophia"
After a satisfying and very inexpensive lunch, the infamous Scooter Gang saddled up again and set off in search of the Elusive Temple of Zeus Hellenaios. We left the main paved road at a marker reading simply "Archaeological Site" and travelled up along a steep, severely rocky and rutty dirt road, nearly wiping out a couple of times. Then we parked the bikes and walked up to to the site. There were extensive ruins, but no signage, and a little chapel, which was deserted.
I stuck my camera into a window and got a blind shot of the interior, which you could not otherwise see. We scrambled over the ruins and planned our later excavations of the site with a labor force of Fresno students.
Inside of the chapel
The planning of the "excavations"
As we were getting ready to return to the main road, we heard in the silence the clanging of bells--an entire flock of goats was crossing the path.
Brad and I got as close as we dared without startling them and snapped a picture. The goatherd and his dogs ignored us.
After a satisfying and very inexpensive lunch, the infamous Scooter Gang saddled up again and set off in search of the Elusive Temple of Zeus Hellenaios. We left the main paved road at a marker reading simply "Archaeological Site" and travelled up along a steep, severely rocky and rutty dirt road, nearly wiping out a couple of times. Then we parked the bikes and walked up to to the site. There were extensive ruins, but no signage, and a little chapel, which was deserted.
I stuck my camera into a window and got a blind shot of the interior, which you could not otherwise see. We scrambled over the ruins and planned our later excavations of the site with a labor force of Fresno students.Inside of the chapel
The planning of the "excavations"As we were getting ready to return to the main road, we heard in the silence the clanging of bells--an entire flock of goats was crossing the path.
Brad and I got as close as we dared without startling them and snapped a picture. The goatherd and his dogs ignored us.
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