Tag: <span>aegina</span>

Published July 20, 2019

Cathedral Of Saint Nectarios

The Church Of Saint Nectarios in Aegina is a surprisingly modern building. It was built in the 1970’s, but its history goes further back than that – the ministry dates back from the early 1900’s.

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It is a lovely quiet and peaceful place to wonder around, or to sit and contemplate in the shaded walkways. The monastery was built in 1904, you can easily visit the ministry by climbing the stairs at the back of the main building, and that is where you can find the relics of Saint Nectarios. Saint Nectarios is a well-known Greek saint, and when you visit the much smaller ministry it can get a little more crowded with many people visiting the relics.

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I love the pastel terracotta colours of the buildings, they feel so much cooler in the hot Greek weather.

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Published July 25, 2018

Aegina Harbour

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Some of the boats at the quay at the little harbour at Aegina Island in Greece. There are a few big and fancy boats, but most of them are small fishing boats and day cruisers.

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Published June 20, 2018

Temple of Apollo, Aegina

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This temple is the first of the many ancient Greek ruins I have visited. It is one of the many temples dedicated to Apollo in Greece. There is not much left of the temple; only a single standing column is remaining. The temple is a short walk from Aegina Town, and it has a lovely little museum attached to the site. It was a peaceful temple to visit; there were only 2 other people visiting it; so you have plenty of time to wonder around the site in piece, and chat to the friendly staff working in the museum.

A very different experience from the noisy and crowed (yet magnificent) Acropolis.

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Published May 15, 2018

Tower of Markellos

The Tower of Markellos is in the middle of Aegina Town. It was supposedly built in the 1800’s, and it used to be the main government building. Now it is used as a cultural centre, in particular for exhibitions.

The strange thing is nobody actually knows when it was built. Legend says the 1800’s, but the architectural style says 1700’s. Nobody really knows.

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Published January 10, 2018

Busking

While wondering around Aegina Town we bumped into this busker, and he was fantastic. He was one of the few buskers in Greece not trying to make a hash of traditional Greek music, but he was just playing his own thing. I first noticed him when he was playing the Rain Song by Led Zeppelin. A well-known band, but not their most famous song. We chatted to him for a bit, and he says that he makes his living wondering around the island busking.

Just before we moved on, he played an even more obscure Led Zeppelin Song – Bron yr aur, named after the cottage owned by Robert Plant’s family (that was your trivia for the day), and written by Jimmy Page (the song that is – not the cottage. Jimmy Page could hardly have written the cottage).

I’ve also just realised that he was using a sieve as a hat to collect his tips – now that is a little bizarre!

Anyway, if you get hold of a copy of Physical Graffiti you can listen to the Led Zep song.
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Published December 30, 2017

Pistachio nuts, anybody?

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If you want some pistachio nuts, this is the place to come for. Aegina port is full of these nut shops, selling pistachio nuts in every form. Salted, unsalted, in ice-cream, in honey, in biscuits, small bags, big bags. You just can’t get away from pistachio nuts. Lois and I are certainly not complaining – they are my favorite nuts, and Aegina has thousands of pistachio nut trees. The trees grow on just about every street corner (the other corners have olive trees growing on them), and every shop sells nuts grown “from our family trees on the island”.

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Published November 20, 2017

Lazy sunset

Just another lazy sunset on the lovely island of Aegina, Greece.

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Published November 15, 2017

Holiday home on the island

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Aegina is not very touristy. But many Athenians have holiday homes on the Island. If we lived in Athens, I could be very happy having this little house overlooking the Adriatic Sea as a weekend getaway.

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Published October 22, 2017

Temple of Aphaia

Cds IMG 3002The Temple of Aphaia is in the mountains of Aegina, a small island close to Athens. When we were staying in Vagia, a small village in Aegina I decided to go for a run, and the temple is a perfect turning point for a nice loop. But its a brutal climb up the mountain. When I got to the top I was hot and thirsty, so I went straight to the kiosk to buy a bottle of water. The lady helping me thought I was having a heart attack and wanted to call an ambulance. She just couldn’t understand that I had just ran to the temple.

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When I went back the next day with Lois (this time we drove), they gave us a braille guide book, and that is something we found a lot in Greece – the awareness of blindness and disability. In many countries the tourist spots have braille guide books but you normally need to return them. In Greece they are to take home. The only problem is that we found out after we got back to the hotel is that while it was in braille, it was not in English! We still don’t know what language that guide book is in.

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At the temple in a Two Oceans Marathon race shirt. The person who took the pic for me thought that I was a professional adventure runner – not quite!

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Published July 5, 2017

Flying dolphin

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These hydrofoils, or “flying dolphins” as they are known by can be seen zipping all over the Aegean sea. They are must faster than the regular ferries (and much noisier and more expensive), but are idea if you are in a rush to get to your destination.

Whereas we, who had all the time in the world, sat on the outside deck of the regular ferry and enjoyed watching the world go by as we took a leisurely trip to Aegina, and back to Athens a week later.

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