Our trip from Rethymno on Crete to Naxos

We rose at 5 AM in our Rethymno apartment for our drive to Heraklion, to catch the 8 AM ferry to Naxos.  The original schedule had called for a slightly more manageable 8:40 departure, but when we went to the ticket office to get our tickets printed based on the original reservation, we learned about the time change.  We had scoped out where we would need to drop the bags and drop the cars on our trip to Heraklion a few days before, and had figured the timing accordingly. 

Happily, we encountered virtually no traffic on the lovely national road along the coast from Rethymno -- we did not get stuck behind any slow-moving trucks on the mountain grades or hairpin turns-- and  the office for our Hertz rental cars opened at 7 AM, not the 7:30 opening time for Enterprise, with whom we had made our original reservation.  Still, knowing we would have to drop the bags (that’s heavy bags for all of us, plus a two-seater stroller in a bag), plus two car seats in their own bags) and some adults at the ferry port, then drive to the car drop location and make contact with the Hertz office to be checked out, and THEN walk back to the ferry location and get the bags on board the ferry, I was plenty nervous about having only a small margin for error.  We decided to leave the stroller out of its bag to facilitate moving the children from the bag drop to the ferry.  A good choice for the most part.

In the end, we arrived at the port  in plenty of time, and Hertz was very efficient in waiting for us at the car drop location and letting us go on our way.  But.... the tickets had to be changed – the ferry boat was no longer going to Naxos by way of Santorini, but only to Santorini, where we would arrive at 10:20 and change boats for a noon departure for Naxos.  OK, I figured, so maybe there is silver lining – we would get 90 minutes on beautiful Santorini in between the ferries.  In the end, we made it onto the ferry with only 20 minutes to spare.  Just a bit too close for comfort.

The ferry was huge inside, big enough to carry cars, which drove on first and parked

The ferry departed; we passed the end of the Heraklion jetty,

passed other nearby islands

and then we were out in the open Aegean Sea until we started passing bare volcanic islands within the caldera created when a volcano blew and formed the island of Santorini

On arrival at Santorini, the silver lining of 90 minutes seeing Santorini disappeared.  I had seen many photos of pretty blue and white house running down steep slopes and assumed that they ran down to the sea – but the reality was that Santorini is an island with high cliffs towering over the seas

and our port was no more than a ferry slip, with rental car places, and ticket offices, from which a single clogged road ran up to the cliff tops and the various pretty cliff-top towns.  The ferry does not get to stay in the skip for long; we were hurried off so that the ferry could get out of the way for others, a hectic enterprise.  So we were going to be stuck in the little port area, choosing between two different cafes with boring menus whose only good feature was the ability to sit in the shade with our piles of luggage.  We ordered food for the children, but then turned it into takeaway when delivery was delayed and we were worried about catching our ferry

There were no signs announcing what loading areas were for what ferries, and it was hard to hear announcements; we kept asking where we should be, and eventually we got in right line where we waited, sweltering in the sun, for one ferry to arrive and depart, and then for our ferry to arrive and discharge its passengers

then we were rushed onto boat, a bit of a stampeded in which someoe trying to move too much luggage could get overwhelmed, then rushed to our luggage deposited in the right sectors based on where we would be unloading.  And unlike the first ferry, there were no ramps up to the sitting areas.  The stroller had to go up by elevator, to which the crew pointed us.  But at last we made it to our seat, and the ferry left for Naxos.  Aboug an hour later,, we passed the island of Paros in our left as we pulled into the dock on Naxos, in its main city of Chora.  When we arrived, it was another super-rush to get all passengers off so that the ferry could leave immediately.

The manager of the apartment building with whom I had made our reservation arrangements had assured me that they would meet our boat and take us to apartment, but he did not show up.  Nor had been given me his phone number to call if there was a screwup.  Luckily, after waiting on the dock we found someone who knew how to reach him; maybe a half-hour later, he came eventually with car inadequate to carry all of us.  He assigned Nancy and me a taxi, which also carries some of the others’ luggage. 

Finally, we made it to our apartment; someone from the reception office (located several blocks away) was waiting for us.  She let us in, and gave us one key for all of us.  At our request, a second was promised when the housekeeper came the following day (housekeeper??? we had no idea we would get housekeeping services).  She also gave us a rough map of Chora, the main town on Naxos (also the name for main towns on several other islands), and told us where we would have to come to use a credit card machine to pay the balance on our reservation.  There was no address, just as there were no street names on the corner near our apartment, and no address on the building. She just told us how to find it on Google maps, and she told us where me might look for a fast meal for the hungry children (and hungry adults).  (In the end, the key came by messenger that evening, and they agreed by telephone to run the card paperwork without my being there).

It was a smallish apartment; bare in many respects; no microwave; no shampoo was provided, and the soaps were the tiny bars you get in a Days Inn or Super 8, the really cheap U.S. motels.  There were only two minisplit units in the whole apartment, one in the living/dining room and in one of the bedrooms, each of which was so small that there was little room to walk around the beds   IT was the least luxurious place we would stay on the vacation; but it would be fine, except....

As we headed out to find food, I found disconcerting the lack of street signs and street numbers disoriented, but Nafisa helped us get our bearings.  She said that, growing up in Stone Town on Zanzibar, which was similarly unsigned, she had learned to get her bearings in other ways, and really, by the following day, I had a good sense of how to get around.  (I also found a bookstore where I picked up an inexpensive and far more detailed map of both Chora and the entire island.  Apparently, unlike Athens and Crete, in the Cyclades, if you want a good street map you buy it.  Totally fair insted of getting handouts.) Over the course of the next few days, I was impressed by how easily she and Sam found their way around the small town without a map.

We had late  lunch / early dinner  at Nikos on Paparighopopoulou Street, a location recommended by the reception person where, she said, there were a few places making good, traditional food.  The food was not bad: I had chicken tigardia and  ariadne salad.

We looked a little bit around the immediate neighborhood

This mural marked the street where we had to turn from on of the car-traffic bearing streets back into the dwelling areas to reach our apartment

and this plant marked a key turn on the street leading up to our apartment

and went back to look at the waterfront area

and up at the Venetian castle rising above the main town (the older walls showing upper left in this photo)

Nancy and I went supermarket shopping to get breakfasts and other basics for the next few days. 

Then, we all went to sleep before dark. It had been a very long day