Greek islands with Oliver by ferry and bicycle: Kos, Astypalea, Amorgos, Santorini

For some time Oliver has been saying that he’d like to go on a bicycle tour. The timing was perfect for him, but I warned him that it wouldn’t be easy — unpleasant ferry times and too much heat. Who would want to cycle the Greek islands in June anyway? Well, I had plans to meet my cousin and his family in Crete so why not make a little trip out of it? It was Oliver’s first bicycle tour, and what turned out to be difficult for him wasn’t the heat but the hills. The climbs were not very long or very steep (for me), but it’s quite different if you’re not used to it.

We started with a bus from Antalya to Bodrum, camped one night, and got the ferry the next morning to Kos. We spent about 12 hours in Kos, but that was our choice. Within Greece the reasonably-priced ferries (Blue Star and similar) seem to run once or twice a week so you take what you can get. As an example there are daily ferries between Santorini and Crete for about 93 euro/person, or you wait for Blue Star (on Wednesday or Friday only) for 16 euro/person. On the other hand, the ferries between Turkey and Greece mostly run daily and are all expensive so we could have stayed in Kos as many days as we liked (by arriving earlier).

But of course we had lots to do in Antalya to get ready. We left Antalya about as late as we could to catch the weekly Blue Star Ferry from Kos to Astypalea, leaving us with the aforementioned 12 hours in Kos. The first thing we did on Kos was ride to the Asklepieion, a sort of spa/hospital founded about 500 BCE. This is apparently where Hippocrates studied medicine. It’s not so exciting as Roman sites go, but it was crowded with tourists.

Not far from the port is a museum with this nice Roman fresco showing a god (center), Hippocrates (left), and a Koan (a person from Kos):

In addition to Roman ruins scattered through town we found this fenced-off Ottoman mosque:

With our night departure from Kos we arrived on Astypalea at 1am and slept for a few hours near the port. The eponymous village is a looker.

The riding was hot and hilly but not long to Pánormos Beach where we spent a real night. Oliver was getting used to the bicycle.

That’d be a relaxing place to spend multiple nights, but there’s no drinking water (and no nearby shop). Even in the village center people buy bottled water (in 1.5l bottles) for drinking. Really? What an incredible amount of plastic bottle trash! The same was true on Santorini while on Amorgos there were water refilling stations like in Mexico or the Philippines. Yay! On Kos and Crete we drank the tap water. Why can’t Astypalea and Santorini figure this out?

We left in the afternoon and arrived in Ormos Egialis on Amorgos early enough to get our tents set up in the campground before dark. Friendly ferry schedule! 🙂

The next day we visited Tholaria:

and Lagadha:

Ormos Egialis was cute as well.

Amorgos with its white villages with blue trim was the Greek island that I’ve imagined since childhood. We rode up through Chora:

on the way to Katapola where we spent our last two nights on Amorgos.

The 3500-year-old (?) ruins on the hill (called Minoa?) were perhaps the summer palace of Minoan King Minos (from Crete?). For not being very interesting, I was surprised how many tourists were there. An 89-year-old man walking by himself remembered there was more to see when he visited 35 years ago. Maybe they’ve covered some stuff up to protect it?

The ferry to Santorini was actually conveniently scheduled as well.

Uh, wow, Santorini is the real deal. Of course, I’ve heard about it for years. A work colleague’s dream was a vacation in Santorini, and I knew her style wasn’t my style. Well, sure, Santorini’s not my style, but it’s definitely worth seeing. I was stunned. The main attraction are the towns — Fira, Imerovigli, and Oia — perched on the rim of the crater and spilling into the caldera which is now mostly the sea. More than half of the volcano rim is still above water, and there are a couple islands in the center of the caldera as well.

We’ve all seen photos, but who knew it would be so beautiful? The straight lines and desert vegetation reminded me of Palm Springs… until you look down to the blue Aegean.

Oliver and I walked one morning from Fira to Oia via Imerovigli.

After that the other sights of Santorini are kind of drab. The old Roman city of Thera is on top of a hot, dry, desolate hill.

The highlight was the dolphin carving.

We also visited the 4000-year-old ruined Minoan city of Akrotiri which is quite different from the famous Minoan palaces on Crete. Akrotiri was a city destroyed (and thus preserved) by a volcanic eruption similar to Pompeii. However, unlike at Pompeii, no bodies have been found at Akrotiri. Could the city have been abandoned due to earthquakes shortly before the eruption? Or did people come back to retrieve belongings and take care of the bodies? There are unanswered questions.

That evening we had a 1am departure to Crete, but Santorini was the end of the bicycle touring that Oliver and I did together so I’ll leave Crete for another post.