More Magic

Tuesday Oct 11,2011

Though it was no longer howling like a Nor-westerner bringing early winter, the morning still bode a windy day and the sea still had small white caps. A day for exploring Zakynthos town. The town is 12 kilometers away with a narrow windy spiderweb of roads that wend their way through olive orchards, little towns and a myriad of summer houses, most of them now shuttered and waiting for tourist heaven 2012. Unsure if we would even end up where we wanted to be we asked our hosts about the best way to get to town, Luckily Pavlina our hostess, was leaving for town in twenty minutes and was glad to take us along She dropped us at the road leading up to the old acropolis where, like most old towns, there is a walled fortress. This one had few buildings and mostly just foundations left inside but it was very interesting. The Turks had destroyed it in 1479 and then granted it to Venice a few years later. The walls now standing had been constructed in 1646 under the Venetian rule. In the enclosed area there are foundations of at least 6 churches, two standing gunpowder stores and the prison. Its narrow stone beds, barred windows, and mud floors were less than 1 star accommodations. The view of the town was spectacular. The buildings have a very Venetian look to them and the town had a colourful, tidy appearance from the hilltop view. It was interesting to walk down the stone path into town past 3 and 4 story immaculate Mediterranean style homes and then just a ways further past tiny little huts, still lived in, with lace curtains in the windows and cars parked on the stone walkway close to the house. This kind of disparity is everywhere in Greece. We wandered the shops, grabbed a few vegetables at the market, and explored the waterfront and main square where we ate the lunch we had packed, so we could use up some of our left over thanksgiving chicken. The weather was warm and we wondered if it was better back at Psarou Beach. We found a taxi driver that could get us back. He did not speak English but he recognized the name Porta del Mar. It was a dizzy roller coaster ride back at taxi driver speed. We were pleased to feel the sun warm and see the palms fairly still. We sat in the sun and read for a while and I felt warm enough that I was ready for the real thing. Time to don beach wear and fill the last check box on my list of have-to-dos...swim in the sea. Like everything else on this trip it exceeded expectations. When we got down the the beach the breeze seemed cool and I wasn't sure about getting wet but the sea was a brilliant blue with white cap waves rolling in to shore and I just had to try it. I could not believe how warm the water was! It was like the first 6 inches of water at Wasa on a hot day but all the water was that warm. I loved jumping into the waves and had to urge Dad to hurry up and come out. Tonight after supper we walked down to the beach again and had the icing on the cake as the full moon reflected on the water and the lull on the lapping ocean brought a magic end to another amazing day.