Rick Steves Athens & The Heart of Greece
Ύδρα
Hydra Day 12
We slept with the windows open, so this morning we got the full symphony of roosters all over the village crowing. Very fun, it 's something you don't normally experience on a tour! An effective wake up call, too; we were up and anxious to see more of Hydra and maybe get a little beach time for Ron.
Our morning started with a little exploration of the history of the island. Hydra's military past surrounds the harbor, with two forts on either side; cannons point out from every nook and cranny, still ready to protect and defend the island from invaders. There's a monument to Admiral Andreas Miaoulis standing proudly at the helm; he was the captain of the Hydriot navy in the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Hydra had a wealth of ships, and the Hydriots transformed them into "fireships," loaded with gunpowder. The "firebrands" (men that sailed these ships) hooked these floating bombs to certain key Ottoman ships in the Aegean Sea and lit the fuse. Kaboom! The Greek victory in the war definitely hinged on these brave Hydriots.
(FYI the embalmed heart of the Admiral rests in a Greek urn at the museum)
It's all so very Greek!
As we make our way around the harbor, the cats are also making their way to the fishing boat that just pulled up, What started out as one soon grew to three then six as the fisherman sorted through his catch, tossing out a fish every few minutes to the hungry cats.
There are quite a few cats on the island, thousands, actually. You can't go anywhere without seeing them roaming freely or taking a catnap on a chair. The island does take an active role in trying to control the population with spaying/neutering, but you know cats, they multiply quickly!
The coastal path that goes west out of Hydra town has a slight incline, but it's an easy walk. We followed the path beyond the windmills (that's as far as we went yesterday), past inviting cafes with beautiful views of the water. There's a bench along the way dedicated to Leonard Cohen, who bought a house here on Hydra in 1960 when he was 25 years old. Just beyond the little harbor at Kaminia we found a decent spot for Ron to swim. Afterwards, we continued on the path, crossing an old single-arched bridge to Vlychos, which had a really awesome beach! But we were hungry now, and ordered a plate of grilled sardines!
I never thought I would say this, but the sardines were actually very good!
The restaurant called for a water taxi when we were ready to leave, about a 10 minute wait and we hopped on board for our ride back to town.
More views of Hydra!
(I've condensed my photos down to these few, but I really should show all of them, Hydra is a paradise!)
(Click on photo to enlarge)
One nice thing about being on a tour is that you have friends wherever you go! We hopped off the water taxi in Hydra town, and ran into this group from our tour, sitting at one of the harbor's seaside cafes.
There's a quaint beauty about Hydra, it's touristy but has kept the feel of a real village. We spent the rest of the day wandering the back streets and playing with the cats.
It will be hard to leave tomorrow; I'd love to come back and spend a week here, you can't help but be seduced by the Greek way of life....
