Milos and Kimolos

Milos

Monday morning we took the dinghy ashore and went to find a car rental. Many car rentals are taking their car to Athen for the winter so it is not that easy to find a car out of season. But finally we managed that and could take aroundtrip on the island of Milos. We went first east to Pollonia on the east coast.

We were just walking around, and ended up at this church. It was a lot of cats in this small town.

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And we walked to the other part of the town where we could come inside to this beautiful church

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We had only a short stop in Pollonia, almost everything was closed and no people around. Our next stop was at Papafragas Caves.

I believe it`s easier to get nice photos if you are coming here by boat, and then you can swim inside here. It is also possible to walk down but there was a fence, maybe out of the season…

Sarakiniko Beach

The view from the road to Sarakiniko beach, the main attraction on Milos

Waves driven by north winds shape the greyish-white volcanic rock into amazing shapes, and the area is often compared to a moonscape. The local people often refer to the scenic landscape of Sarakiniko as Lunar. The bone-white beach derives its unusual characteristics from the erosion of the volcanic rock by wind and wave. Sarakiniko is one of the most photographed landscapes in the Aegean.

This is an amazing place, you have to go there once in a life! And of course since it is now October it is less people here than in July/August.

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Still in October it was people swimming here.

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When we came back to the parking a cat met us and he wanted a lot of cuddle. We have said that we don`t want any cat in the boat….

But this cat sent us a pritty good application… and he jumped into our camerabag and wanted to come with us. I felt so said when we left…

Mandrakia

The guy at the car rental suggested we had to go to Mandrakia, and we did.

This is a really cozy small village with a lot of colours

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It was only one restaurant, Medusa, and there was a lot of people so we decided to stop here for lunch

Not a big lunch but very good!

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We didn`t eat this…

The catacombs of Milos

After Mandrakia we went further on to the Catacombs

I have never been in a place like this. Normally they used to have groups in 15 people, but because it was outside the season we had the guide to ourselves.

The Catacombs of Milos, in Milos Island, dating from the 1st – 5th century, are among the three most important of the 74 discovered worldwide, together with the catacombs of Rome and the Holy Land. It is possible that the Catacombs of Milos are older than the ones of Rome.

Perhaps only a small part of a sizable necropolis at the foothills of the village of Trypiti, the Catacombs of Milos were used by the early christians first as a burial site and later also as a place of worship and a refuge after persecution by the Romans became widespread. The Catacombs of Milos are considered to be the most important early Christian monument of worship in all of Greece.

Excavations commenced in 1843 by professor Ludwig Ross, 3 years after the discovery of the monument, but after it had been already ransacked by tomb raiders. Thus far, 3 sections have been unearthed, spanning a total length of 183 meters in several passages. It is estimated that upward of 2,000 christians were buried in the 291 arcosolia and floor tombs used as family graves containing 5-7 dead each. Currently, access to the monument is limited to the main chamber of section B, the Chamber of the Presbyters (Elders) as well as the main chamber of section A, plus a small section of the northwest passage.

An amazing place to visit! But we could have done it without the guide. We asked him questions and his answers were wrong…

From the same parking we could walk to see ancient theater of Milos.

The site of this theatre was recognised for the first time in 1735 by a passing traveller, the Jesuit monk Nicolas Sarrabat. He located three rows of marble seats by opening holes in the circumference of the koilon.

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Klima Beach

From the acient theatre it is a short distance down to Klima Beach which we saw from the boat when we came in to Milos yesterday. So we had to go there. It is a long row with seahouses/boathouses along the sea, and a restaurant in the middle. Nothing more than that. But it is a lovely place with all the colours.

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After Klima Beach we went to Plaka, the old town in Milos. Very very quiet. We walked up to the castle and back.

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A beautiful church on the top of the hill and an amazing view

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I am so glad we went on this aroundtrip monday, because in Tuesday morning a cruiseship came in…

Astor had to climb to the mast to fix the lines for the lazyjacks before leaving Milos

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We headed on for the neighbour island Kimolos, but instead of sailing the shortest distance, we sailed south on the westcoast and then east around Milos. First we had a stop at Sikia cave, anchored and took the dinghy inside

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I guess it is not like this in the summer. When we arrived we were alone, after a while two sailboats and one small boat arrived.

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We had a short lunchstop before we sailed to Kimolos. It was not much wind so it took a while.

Kimolos, Rema Beach

We arrived Rema bay almost at sunset. Only one boat was anchoring there so it was a lot of space.

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The bay is also famous for the elephant

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We took the dinghy ashore to walk up to Chora, the old town. A short, nice walk in the morning sun

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This place was also very quiet, only a bakery and a supermarket was open.

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When we came back to the boat we hoisted the anchor and sailed to Sifnos. This trip at Milos and Kimolos was only two days, but because it was so many photos I will split this week into two posts. On Sifnos we hiked three days and were celebrating the Oxi-day, so it will be a lot to tell 🙂