Egina town on Aigina island

We enjoyed our time at Souvala on the North coast but felt a little bad about abusing their hospitality so have moved to the main town and harbour on the NW coast for a night before we head onwards. On our first full day on the island we used our push bikes and visited the Paleochora (ancient town) this is where the Aegean’s moved to when the pirate raids were too prolific on the coast. Now all that’s left here are the churches, the houses have been destroyed for the building material. There are an awful lot of churches/chapels and almost all contained icons candles etc, apparently there is a saint for everyday and its a sign of status for a family to build a church/chapel and they are all dedicated to a saint or two. Nowadays these family churches/ chapels are private but historically they were for everyone, and the higher and more obscure the location the greater the prestige. The photos show one side of the hill and a map showing the locations.
After here we cycled first to the Monastery of Nektarios only to be greeted by a sign saying women in trousers and men in shorts were not allowed in! Really we are in the 21 century, we were going to go in anyway but had already visited 15 churches so decided to go for lunch instead. After some restorative food we rode to the Temple of Aria more up. This, the temple at Sounion and the Parthenon form a triangle apparently and on clear days you can see each from each, it wasn’t clear enough when we were there however.
Yesterday we met up with Ashley and Kathy, Australian’s that we had met in Almerimar, their boat Windjammer was in one of the yards here for repairs after an incident in Poros. We were able to return Ashley’s beanie hat to him, he had forgotten it after one of the Sunday walks and Nev had given it to us as Windjammer had left Almerimar before us and we were both going to Greece! I must email him to let him know we did manage to deliver it eventually. We spent a lovely morning and evening with them hearing about their trip and experiences.Leggi altro