Kos

My apologies for the long time between blog posts. We've been so busy!

We arrived at Kos and walked the 300 metres to our hotel. We love how things are so close on the islands! Our room on the main road was perfect but we were really shocked at how busy and touristy Kos was. After the places we'd been it seemed like a big city!

The main harbour was a bit further up and it was here that the most tourist activity was concentrated. It was pretty full on - and this is the quiet season! Gorgeous boats lined the harbour waiting to take tourists out to neighbouring islands or beaches on day trips. There was everything from these beautiful boats to tacky pirate ships and mermaid boats!

Nearby was Asklepieion, a grand series of temples and buildings founded in the 3rd century BC. Hippocrates, the famous physician and founder of the modern principles of medical practice, was born in Kos and a medical school here continued his teachings. People came from far and wide to be healed. Over time it also became a place of worship devoted to the god of healing. Weirdly, long after Hippocrates had died, he became a cult hero and sacrifices were made in his honour. I'm not sure he would have approved of that!

I hired a bike here and John and I rode the 3kms uphill to the site. It was a good workout for me (and a piece of cake for John) but an advantage was that we found a fantastic Turkish cafe on the way. We ate here many times. We learned that there are many Turks here. The Turkish coast is very close to Kos. We can see the land clearly during the day and at night the light twinkle beautifully on our horizon.

We saw this sign nearby. Someone has a sense of humour.

On one of John's bike rides he met a man and his girlfriend. She was a musician and was playing in a resort one night. We had a hire car for a couple of days so we headed to the resort. She didn't start playing until late so we thought we'd go somewhere to watch the sunset first. We had heard about a mountain village called Zia that was supposed to be a good place to watch it from so we headed there. OMG - this pretty little village was like Disneyland! There were so many tourists that we didn't even get out of the car. We headed towards the coast and stopped at a cafe on a beach strip that was full of cafes. This area of the island is full of resorts. We tried to watch the sunset but the wind was so strong on this side of the island that we watched it from inside a bar instead of on the beach. 

It was hard to feel the relaxed vibe with this wind!

We made our way to the resort. It was so flash! We had a nice but overpriced dinner then watched the music which was a nice change.

The next day we started touring the island. First stop was an abandoned village which was cool. We then headed to an Pyli Castle which was perched on a hill. There was a man at the bottom of the track to the castle in traditional garb, something we hadn't seen anywhere else. He was helpful with our questions so, a euro later, he was more than happy to pose for a photo.

The castle was great! It was hot but we scrambled to the top and had fun exploring.

The castle was surrounded by the ruins of Old Pyli which were cool. 

Every now and then we'd find random pieces of carved marble just lying around.

The views from the top of the castle were superb.

On the way down we bumped into a Belgian guy that we had met on the ferry to Kos. Someone had turned one of the abandoned houses in Old Pyli into a cafe so we had a chat with him there while we overlooked the castle. It was an amazing place.

We made our way south, trying unsuccessfully to avoid the resorts. I had read about a beach where you could swim to a nearby island so we checked it out. To our utter amazement, we walked onto the beach and right beside us, on a small rocky outcrop sticking out from the beach, was an ancient ruin! It was spectacular! Columns and steps rose up right beside the blue water. Neither of us had seen anything like it.

Much to our horror though, the ruin was completely surrounded by resorts. Sunbeds were strung out along the beach and the huge resorts hovered in the background.

People climbed all over the ruins which isn't too much of a problem as most of it is stone, however there were exposed mosaics which had nothing to protect them from either people or the sand and sea-spray. We had such mixed feelings about this place. We could only imagine what it must have been like before the resorts were built. It would have been so special!

While driving along a dirt road we kept seeing signs to a church. We thought it must be an interesting church to have so many signs so we started to follow them. We wound down and down a steep rough track, confident that it must be ok to drive on as it goes to the church. We got to a point though where we felt we couldn't risk going any further. It was only when we turned around that we saw the church above us on a side road. It was missing that last crucial sign! Meanwhile, we were in a tiny little car with a very steep, rough climb above us. We really weren't sure if the car could do it but we had to try. We made it, but with our hearts in our mouths for most of the way!

Back in Kos town, there were so many ruins that it was hard to see them all. Like most Greek islands, Kos has been occupied by many other nations over its vast history. I checked out a restored Roman villa but it wasn't too exciting. They had pictures of the place before the renovation and the main courtyard looked better then than it does now with its bare dirt and pond full of stagnant water. This courtyard was supposed be full of flowers in its day. There were some amazing mosaic floors though. 

The town of Kos is built over so many layers of other cities. Some parts are open to the public and we can just wander through them. I had one large area mostly to myself one day and it was wonderful. 

The old main road:

I soon learned that whenever we see gravel with mesh under it, it means they're protecting mosaics.

If even I worked this out then so have many others and there was often a corner pulled back to reveal what's under the gravel.

We haven't seen many flowers around but these ones growing over broken columns were beautiful.

We found a duck mosaic for you Dave!

We had five days here and that was enough to see most of the main sights. Kos wasn't really our kind of place - it was way too touristy for us. It was interesting though and I fully understand that many people want to come here for sunshine and beach with a bit of sightseeing thrown in. For that, it's perfect.

Tune in next time for an island that's definitely our kind of island though!

Heather and John