Lovely day exploring Tinos town

 

Wednesday (May 8th) was a mixed bag really. Steve, Libby and I got up and headed into town on the 8am bus. It was a 20 seater, perfect size really as only one other passenger joined along the route. Also very cheap. When we were waiting at the bus stop all the cats came for a visit, we find areas where they are fed by people with either cat biscuits spread along a seat or low wall, or masses of bowls with food in them. 

The cafe we chose for breakfast didn't open until 9am so we wandered around - and I stupidly, walking along as a typical tourist not looking at the ground I tripped over this low post thing and went sprawling. My right knee took the bulk of the hit and surprisingly isn't as swollen or bruised as I'd expected, especially for the pain it's causing me today. 

Left - top left beside the bus stop is a tiny house. First yoga studio we've seen is in Tinos. Bottom right one of the tiny narrow alleyways. Bottom left buildings near the harbour in town. 

Once you get away from the main road along the side of the harbour the Tinos town or Chora town as it's also known, is beautiful. Out in the countryside all of the buildings are white, some have coloured shutters but all you see is white buildings. In the town centre they have embraced colour, it's fabulous. 

We walked to our cafe at 8:55am and nobody was there so continued our stroll, when we returned soon after all of the cafes' had opened and there was music and talking after such a ghost town prior. We had chosen a gorgeous book store cafe which is tiny and 3 stories high with the top story an Attic accessed via a spiral staircase. Steve and I selected breakfast bowls from the menu which were divine, Libby chose a selection of things on toast and had to wait 10 minutes for the fresh bread to turn up. They don't have a kitchen but prepare meals at their tiny counter. So pleased we came here. 

Top left the gorgeous cafe and our breakfast bowls plus our juices below. Top right a church we discovered in the wee alleyways and bottom right, Libby sitting outside enjoying the beautiful town. 

Our next stop was to be the Church of Panagia Evangelistria which sits at the top of a steep street. This is a very significant religious church here, constructed in 1823. To the side of the steep street is a carpet strip parallel with the footpath, this is for the enthusiasts to crawl the 400m up to the church, before they continue to crawl up the church steps and across the large courtyard. This happens on mass during a pilgrimage in August but we were lucky enough to see one man crawling up there today - Libby took this photo.

Top left - some of the buildings were in a state of disrepair but it meant we could see they are constructed with layers of rocks. Top right the man crawling up the carpet to the church. Bottom pics are both wandering around the town. 

We had run out of time so didn't get up there until Thursday after all. Instead we headed to the largest supermarket to buy supplies for lunch and dinner which we were cooking at our villa. From there we walked along the waterfront to meet Paul - who ran the 7km to meet us (as it was a tiny run he actually ran much further so it was over 20km by the time he met us) and we picked up a rental car, a wee Citroen C3 manual. As Steve and I decided we wouldn't be driving we didn't buy international drivers licenses which are needed for kiwi's as our licenses don't have our address displayed so Paul had to be the renter of the car.  

Pics to the right top right is one of the fabulous pop up books at the cafe. The other three are wandering around the lovely alleyways. 

For Karen and I we had a wonderfully restful afternoon, lounging by the pool reading our books or doing the same on our deck, the other three went on an adventure climbing up the mountain like hill behind us to check out the view to the south and see how far they could go, it sounded a little treacherous but they seemed to have fun. Then we sat outside eating snacks, drinking and chatting really. Libby started meal prep just before the sun set and cooked us a fabulous meal of aubergine, courgette, pasta and salad. 

This is what holidays are all about, spending time in a beautiful location with friends. 

Left - chilling post dinner, snacks on the deck and Libby doing meal prep. Selfie at the port. 

I got really fascinated with how they use marble for security screens here with fabulous decorative panels of marble as an alternative to shutters. 

These are 4 examples of windows with marble panels.