Did you ever take a chance and end up in the most wonderful place?
That turns out to be the island of Milos.
So the way it all fell into place was a total accident. I was setting up the trip in January, looking specifically at the Cyclades, in particular the islands right around Naxos. I pretty well had the islands and days figured out when I started to find the name Milos mentioned.
The more I looked, the better it sounded: good beaches, interesting rocks and hot springs, and the place where the Venus de Milo was discovered. Taking a chance, I cut some days off Mykonos, dropped Naxos completely and picked up four days here in Milos.
I should have made it six days.
I think Milos is second to Santorini as a “must see” island, over Mykonos. It is less crowded, still touristy, but very scenic.
We are always looking for that perfect mix: small with few people yet enough traffic to have a variety of places to eat. Nice beaches with beds, umbrellas and drink service, and small private coves to waste a day alone. Beauty and functionality.
Milos is a nice compromise between Koufonissi and Santorini.
We are staying in the little beach village of Pollonia, named for Apollo (Apollonia. Get it?) about nine kilometers from the main city and port. We have the Calypso Apartment of a place called Heliotropio. Our private, two level patio alone is totally worth the cost, as we are sitting right on the bay literally five steps into the water, with table and chairs, beds, BBQ, and bar stools and table for sunrise and sunset. The apartment itself has a full kitchen, living room, bathroom with walk in shower and bedroom. The bedroom and living room open up to the patio area, and we are basically living outdoors here all day and night, pretty much like we do at home. We keep the bedroom cooled with AC so we have one cool place to retreat to.
It is very comfortable.
So that first morning I jumped into the water at 5:30 (even after getting to bed after 3:00 I still just wake up) and then set out looking for coffee as Gail slept in.
I eventually ran across a group of locals, neighbors, who were gathered outside at the one lady’s restaurant. She wasn’t open, they were just talking, but when I stopped to ask about coffee she made me a great, strong Greek coffee just purely out of curiosity. I had to sit and be questioned, but it was totally worth it for the caffeine.
When Gail got up we walked around the bay, past our curving, pine tree backed, golden fine sand beach to the small cluster of cafés and stores that make up the one street of this village. Gail was still feeling sick from the rough ferry ride and being up so late, so she had ice cream and fruit, but since it was already almost 11:00 I had a full on cheese-bacon burger (Held together with a screw. See photos.) and beer.
We stopped by the one grocery store and got some coffee supplies, water and drinks for the room, made a reservation for dinner at Armenaki, and rented a quad for the next day.
Eventually we made our way back to our patio, where we laid around in the sun, wading out into the bay to swim, napping and drinking, and making plans on a map for the next day.
The main ferry routes all go in and out off our bay, between us and the next island over. You can tell when a ferry goes by (if you don’t see it) because the normally calm bay suddenly kicks up with waves.
Pollonia has the island's only commercial winery, Kostantakis. It is about a half kilometer out of town.
They just started producing wines commercially about six years ago, though the young guy running it is the third generation winemaker in the family. His grandfather and father just produced wine for their family and friends. But now he is taking it seriously. So one group of vines are pretty old, but he has planted several more acres about six years ago and they are coming on line. He produced about 10,000 bottles this year (830± cases) but hopes to produce 20,000 bottles in five years.
The wines are named Spilia, which means “cave" in Greek. They have a natural cave on the property which is where Grandpa originally made and stored the wine. They just added a concrete tasting room onto the front of the cave.
Kostantakis produces two whites, two rosé (dry and sweet) a red and a traditional Retsina.
The white blend was pretty good, crisp and sharp, but I didn’t prefer the other white made of 100% Assyrtico (the white grape so popular on the islands, especially Santorini).
The dry rosé was good enough that I bought a bottle to take back to the room, and I didn’t try the sweet rosé. In my opinion, the red wine, which is almost an identical blend to the rosé should be just made into rosé. The red just really doesn’t work, and I think it has to do with the fact that all their wines are put into stainless steel as opposed to barrels.
As I said, they also make a traditional Retsina, which is wine with pine sap. Yes, that is not a typo. It seems in the old days that people were pretty desperate to get any alcohol, and it was too much of a tragedy to dump a batch of bad wine, so they came up with the brilliant idea of adding pine sap to it to hide the “bad” taste.
Well, that must have been really skanky wine to think that pine sap somehow tastes better!?!?!?
For a while people even used pine barrels to age the (bad) wine.
“Huh.” was my comment on that.
I was thinking of my woodpile leaking sap all summer as the wood dries…
Anyway, the Retsina was not as bad as you would imagine, and I think perhaps with the right food it might be drinkable. But it is NOT a sipping wine.
Anyway, I liked the rosé enough to buy one and we had a good time walking out there and back, looking over the cave and vineyard and tasting. They are open daily, 17:00-21:00.
We ate dinner at Armenaki. I got the last table available in the morning when we reserved. I was very interested to eat here, because the owner/chef is a sommelier specializing in Greek wines. If ever I am going to taste a really good wine from Greece, this is my chance. I read about this place in one of the on-line articles linked above. The TripAdvisor reviews are all over the place, and so here is what we had and thought.
They have all sorts of meat and fish dishes. I am on an island and the fish is fresh caught today, so that is what I had.
We started with a salad which was really simple and really great.
For the main, I chose the red mullet with a garlic-oil sauce, very colorful “linguini” vegetables (which were vegetables, really fresh and not over-cooked, cut into strips to look like flat noodles) and absolutely amazing caramelized cherry tomatoes.
I asked him to pair the wine for me. So I had a choice of a rosé or a white. I chose the rosé.
The placemats were a map of Greece, showing every wine producing region in the country. He marked off the island my wine came from. And was it a great rosé. Notes of strawberry, very French style. It was good with the fish, but it absolutely exploded with the caramelized tomatoes. I saved half of my dinner and then asked for the white wine pairing. He brought it, checked off the place on the map (mainland Greece, near Athens) and this crisp, light wine danced with the fish. He said the acid worked better with the garlic oil.
Gail had a white bream with a cream sauce that was fantastic with the “french-fry” style potatoes; crispy outside but soft and tender inside. He paired a white wine from an island just south of Corfu, (see the map in the photos below) and that wine was delicious as well. All in all however, I liked my food and pairing better.
This was a great place to eat.
So we went to several locations, and I was thinking about how to do this in the blog. Here is what I decided. It is all wrapped up here under the Milos page. But I am going to split this post up now, telling about each place then posting the photos right under it. Then the next place and the next set of photos. If one place does not appeal to you, just skip ahead to the next section.
No one place was singularly spectacular, but the sum total of a bunch of really nice places made this a special trip; a special island.
Look at the map. Milos is not a huge island. Nothing is really more than 20 minutes away on the main roads. But, the dirt roads leading out to the isolated east and west beaches are a lot slower going.
We covered 70 kilometers total this one day, and felt like we spent enough time in each area. One mistake was that we hit the two beaches later in the day, so the shade spots, umbrellas and beds were all taken. We ended up coming back to our apartment to swim in the bay.
It was kind of funny getting the quad. The nice young lady asked me if I had ever ridden a quad before. Honest me, I said no.
“Well, you can’t have one. Too dangerous.” she said, and batted her eyelashes at me.
I thought that over a minute.
I am 59 years old, not stupid, have the money and there are other places in town. I went through this list in order with her, and on point number four she nodded and agreed to rent the quad to me.
And I will tell you, if you have never ridden a quad and are thinking of renting one to go around an island, don’t even hesitate in doing it. We had a blast. It was easy to learn, it went everywhere, was easier to park in very small places (meaning we could really drive in to access the places we went, as opposed to parking way out and walking in) and because so many people commute here by moped and quad, I felt it was very safe, traffic wise.
It’s not like we were the only quad on the road full of cars doing 50 KmPH.
OK. You do have to be careful so you don't tip it over. I was pretty conservative on the hills. But overall, we felt stable, and had no problems.
It is not really a beach, though there are some small beaches between the rock fingers. Rather it is a place where snow-white rocks extend into the water.
There is a barely visible shipwreck, and a maze of old mining tunnels down in the base of the cliffs.
We were told by our hostess to get there before 9:00 due to the crowds, so we were there at eight. We climbed down the smooth rocks dropping to the ocean, looking at a narrow finger of water and exploring the mines.
We got the hang of the place within a half hour.
Photos of Sarakiniko
We were hoping to get breakfast here, but the only café was not open at 9:00.
Did I mention this is a small village?
There is a teeny-tiny harbor, with little colorful houses built right into the cliff, down on the water, the lower levels a boat “garage” for easy in - easy out fishing.
It was fun to imagine what the inside of the little houses were like. There was a blue-roofed church, of course, and a bus stop with maybe four daily busses out.
This would NOT be a place to stay with no transportation.
Photos of Mandaraki
Tripiti is just below the the main city of Plaka, looking out over the ocean and down on the seaside village of Klima. There is a huge white, double bell tower church that dominates the town, a maze of streets burrowing though white, square houses, and the hill is topped with eight to ten windmills (or windmill towers being restored).
It is an easy place to walk and see, and looks really pretty from a distance.
And we found a great place for breakfast. You should go if you are ever here. The café is named Remvi Café, and it is perched on the edge of the drop off looking over the channel and down on the village of Klima. We had fresh orange juice with a view! I ordered a crepe filled with bacon, cheese, and mushrooms, and a strong Greek coffee. Gail had a nice fluffy pancake with some sort of honey based syrup, and a cappuccino.
We returned to Tripiti for dinner. Read on to hear about it, but the photos are below.
A short history: This is an early Christian underground cemetery, from about 100 to 500 AD. There are over 300 graves where they think 7.000 christians were buried, making these catacombs one of the oldest and most important monuments of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and of the Christian world as a whole, after the catacombs of Rome.
In addition, they served as hiding places for the locals during pirate raids.
So we didn’t now it, but you have to pay to enter the main catacombs, they only allow ten people in at a time with a guide, and the we would have to wait an hour for our turn.
So we walked back up the slope, me keeping my eyes open, and sure enough we found an “unauthorized catacomb” to climb in, just like we did exploring the valleys in Goreme, Turkey six years ago.
I am good at this adventure stuff.
Our catacomb was medium sized. We stayed in the biggest chambers, but could have crawled back into some more, tighter spaces that would lead to ??? We saw arched tombs, columns, and cool floor-pit graves.
The halls and corridors are carved into volcanic tuff, like in central and southern Italy. You could see the “cave” openings all up and down the valley. We found another opening and we could hear the voices of the tour group somewhere inside, below us.
Photos of Tripiti and the Catacombs
This is a famous fishing village, all colored houses called syrmata built right at sea level. They are two stories high, the bottom was for the boat and the top was like a fisherman’s bachelor pad.
Well, this place has been “discovered” and so people are trying to buy up the residences, turning the bottom “garage” into a residence as well.
I am wondering how that works during high tide, during a storm surge or even when a passing ferry kicks up the waves. I mean the “walkways” are under an inch of water right now, and these places are maybe six inches higher.
So it is pretty in that colorful, crammed together, small house way. And it was really interesting to look in the houses that were open. It was hard to tell which ones are vacation homes, and which are rentals.
You could tell who the original residents were, however, as they are an old and crusty lot, sitting in front of their houses smoking, sipping coffee, talking and wearing shorts or speedos and plunging now and then into the water.
The more “photogenic” side distracts you from the older, less colorful side, but I found that older side more interesting to walk along. There is like a little park area with a couple trees on a wide spot on a concrete pier, and little colorful boats pulled up here and there.
Here is a good tip: if you are driving a car, the parking along the road is horrendous at the bottom, and it’s even harder to turn around to go back up and park.
But… there is a tavern at the bottom with a big parking lot, open only to customers. So go park there, and grab a table and order a sparkling mineral water, or glass of wine, and relax a bit.
And you get the parking in the deal.
Photos of Klima
Well this is a scenic beach you should see, even if you are late like we were and couldn’t get a spot to lay on the sand.
There are little houses down at the water level, old ruins on the hilltop, and a big church.
The sandy beach is a perfect curve between two cliffs, and the blue water is shallow and warm.
There is a beach bar serving simple food and drinks, but nowhere near enough umbrellas or trees for shade. It was really packed and I saw wall-to-wall sunburned people who will really be sorry tomorrow.
We grabbed to chairs in the shade by the bar and I had a beer, while Gail got a “fancy” mixed drink of grapefruit juice (from a bottle) with a shot of tequila, on ice. She said it was perfectly refreshing. We sat and just enjoyed the sound of the waves and people, taking in the view.
Just as we were finishing up, a couple asked if they could join us at the table. And that is how we met up with Richard and Jeff, from Texas.
We had a nice hour drinking and talking. They travel a lot and are island hopping as well. Jeff took the photo of us on the quad, and we shared some travel info and ideas. Richard has a photo blog here if you enjoy looking at photos of the islands.
Gail enjoyed having someone other than me to talk to for a while, and Richard clued me in to visiting Firiplaka Beach next.
They are traveling Milos by bus, taxi, and the kindness of strangers. I told them about our quad rental, and what a time saver it was.
In the same amount of time we had been around, they had been to Sarakiniko and here.
Gail and I like to take the public transportation, but sometimes it just makes sense to rent something, especially if your time is a little tight.
Anyway, we had a great visit. Insha’allah we might meet up again in the states.
Firopotamos Fotos
We passed the long sandy strip of the Thermal Beach, with hot springs smelling of sulfur behind it, and looked down on the long strip of Achivadolimni Beach.
Turning south at the junctions we finally hit the dirt road out to Firiplaka Beach, known for the colorful rocks and stunning setting.
It was a choice of four or five beaches here, and Richard recommended Firiplaka over the others, so we took his word for it.
It was a good recommendation.
This was when it was really great to have a quad instead of a car. The narrow dirt track was parked up, and it was a nightmare as we passed several two or three car jams, one driver trying to exit while another tried to enter or turn around. We just zoomed up and over and around them, parking way down in a little spot too small for a car.
The view over the beach, tucked down in at the base of colorful rock cliffs, is stunning. There are rock stacks offshore, and with the blue blue water it is just beautiful.
You walk down a ramp to water. The beach is out of sight around the corner, and you are at the bottom of a small cliff. There are rocks and some shoreline and you just walk around the edge until suddenly the beach opens up in front of you.
The colors in the rocks are from all the minerals on Milos. This is a volcanic island, with hot springs still active, and there is a lot of mining activity here. So the colors really pop here at this beach.
But...
Did I mention it was packed?
We found two empty seats at the bar, facing out to the water, so ordered two drinks and nursed them, taking in the scene.
This beach would probably be great at 8:00 in the morning in late September.
Still it was very pretty and so we enjoyed the scene as best we could.
Fotos of Firiplaka
Gail had rolls of aubergine in the oven with tomato sauce and cheese. They were fantastic! I don’t even really like eggplant, yet here I was eating them. The taste was really savory, and the bottom of the rolls were cooked to a crisp.
Amazing.
I wanted a rooster in wine (like a French coq a vin) but they didn’t have it, so the waitress (god bless her) suggested the veal in red sauce with purée of smoked aubergine.
Oh.
My.
God.
Perfect chunks of meat, tender and flavorful, dipped in the smokey eggplant purée. Paired with the red house wine (a Cabernet/Merlot blend) it was out of this world.
Gail had the crisp white wine, we had a liter and a half of sparkling water, and bread. It didn’t matter that the view over the sea was beautiful, I would have sat indoors in a windowless room for this food.
I had a crispy, not honey-soaked baklava and espresso for dessert, and Gail had cold yogurt with lemon.
We topped the tank with gas (€7 for the day) and returned the quad.
What a great little road trip day.
Our last day Gail slept in, while I swam early and sat on the deck watching the sunlight come on across the bay.
Around 11:30 we had a fair breakfast at The Deck. I got a chicken burger with golden crisp potatoes, and Gail had scrambled eggs with basil.
We swam in the bay, sat around in the sun enjoying our beach then our deck, drinking and listening to music, snacking and reading, and the day passed like the warm breezes.
We ate our last dinner at Armyra, known for their fish. They have a few tables down right on the beach, but we snagged a great table way back, up, up on their roof, on the deck overlooking the entire bay. The roof is sort of hidden, but I think the tables are the best, especially if you are right up front on the edge of the deck.
The food was just OK, (a really nice ceviche, and grouper pasta with caviar, but fair zucchini balls and cheese pie) the wine was not that good.
Still, it was a relaxing dinner watching the sunlight fade and the lights of the harbor come on.
It has been a good couple days on Milos.