Today we visited the islands of Tinos, the pilgrimage of the Aegean with its miracle-working shrine of Panagia Evagelistria, our lady of Annunciation.
A drive along the islands gave us the opportunity to see the wild beauty of the Cycladic landscape. Precipitous coasts, arid land, treeless island, lack of water, wild flowers, wild thyme, oleanders, capers, the blue of the sea, and the intense light compose a unique landscape. This hard landscape is marked and emphasized by walls of dry stonewalls, which mark and protect properties and testify the intense efforts of people through centuries to master nature, to cultivate land, to survey…
The landscape is also marked by windmills to grain cereal to make flour, humble cubic structures in the fields to be used during harvest time by the farmer’s family, and shelters for goats, sheep and cows giving milk for the making of the famous Tinos products. The most characteristic feature of the Tinos landscape is the dovecots, white washed masterpieces of traditional architecture. Economic unites once, now beautiful relicts of past ages. After this fascinating drive we arrive to the village of Pyrgos to visit the marble crafts museum with the focus on marble, from the extraction to manufacturing, to artist creation. This museum was an unexpected pleasant surprise in terms of quality of display and learning experience. We continued to the village, passing by the cemetery with beautiful marble monuments carved by some of the best modern Greek sculptures for their family graves. The village was beautiful with its whitewashed houses, the narrow alleys spotted by flowers. We sat in the square with the public fountain, the coffees shops, all shaded by an old plane tree. We enjoy the coffee and local desserts and explore the photogenic village with the small store of the beekeeper, the marble worker, the itinerant vendor, etc.
Returning to the port we enjoyed the beautiful beaches, saw the remains of the temple of Poseidon and ended at the majestic church of the Evagelistria. The interior is astonishing. Shining ex-vote plaques hang everywhere glowing in the light of hundreds of candles. The church is crowded with long lines of pilgrims waiting to kiss the icon.
At lunchtime we sailed for Paros. The presentation given by Ian, the photo instructor, on using smartphones and iPhones to photograph was enlightening. In late afternoon we arrived at the port of Naoussa, on the island of Paros. An afternoon ashore, what a delight! Swimming on the beach, dinner ashore, shopping in the artist shops of the small town which is so alive when it becomes dark.
