August, Summer Holidays, Naxos I

August means summer and summer means holidays!

Hello little one - we are setting off for Naxos with your cousins, your aunty Lilly and Grandad P and Granny Y.



Here you are with Mummy and Cousin E on the boat. Can you see in the background what's going on? It's the famous Hekatontapyliani church of Paros - they say it was built by St. Helena herself... (actually, you can't see it in this photo, Daddy likes to show off!).



We were on Naxos last year and after Daddy went back to Athens to get ready to go to France for the FSE General Assembly, Mummy realised that she was going to have a baby. You! Look at you now, one year on in your little sun hat...



Here we are with a very happy Daddy! We are on the back of the boat with the wide expanse of the Aegean behind us. You liked to be out on the back of the boat with the smell of the surf and the briny winds. You weren't too keen on the exhaust fumes from the Goodies restaurant, and to be honest, I don't blame you.





While on the boat, we had to change your nappy at some point and the nice steward unlocked the disabled bathroom for us so we could use the changing table in there. The disabled bathroom is very big compared to the other one and gave us plenty of room to manoeuvre and wash you with running water properly. Full marks to the Blue Star steward for this one.

On the left, you are lying on the changing table waiting to get changed. Here on the right, you can see how we set up your child seat so you could sit comfortably for the whole journey.



We spent the summer at Athina's apartments in the Plaka area of Naxos. It was our third time at Athina's rooms. She was expecting you and had set out a play pen for you and had put a friendly teddy bear in there for you. We called him Athinoulis.



This is a common sight in the Plaka area - can you see how the dog likes to be on top of the car?



Here is Mummy with the pram on our first day on Naxos as we headed to the world famous Cedar Cafe. Can you see how she positions the sling over the pram so the sun does not burn you. This is how we moved you around in the day. There is a funny video here with cousin E pushing the wrapped up pram:



It was quite a windy day, that one...

Our average day went a little like this: We would wake up and Mummy would feed you in the morning, then sometimes your cousins would come round on their way to the beach to play.

Here they are in our room both of them trying to get your attention with the wind-up music box.


And here they are all together with Aunty Lilly.

Sometimes Daddy would have to sit and work on his laptop - and you would help him by hanging on his shoulder:


You were a great help to Daddy, so much so that things he worked on in Naxos are still having results almost six months later.

Some days, we would all go to the world-famous Cedar Cafe for eggs and bacon or for cakes and coffee. Here is a selection of photographs from Cedar Cafe.



We were most often there with Aunty Lilly and Uncle Claude and your cousins:





Here we are all together at Cedars in a photo taken by Daddy's friend Lefteris:



Sometimes we would go to the supermarket in town and buy exciting things to eat in our rooms, all together. Here Mummy is preparing scrambled eggs with some eggs from real hens that one of the cleaning ladies gave to us.



We tried all sorts of meat cuts from the meat counter of the supermarket but our most interesting discovery was the Naxian cheese shop in the town. Very interesting indeed.

Sometimes friends would come and visit us. Here are some photos of friends who visited us in Naxos:

On the left is Daddy's boss Marianna, and on the right is Daddy's friend Lefteris. Below is Daddy's friend Margarita.

Visiting the Karstic spring of the Kolethra Resurgence

Weekends start with Telonius, the Robot Turtle: he will destroy you... attack! When you had had your fill of robot attack games, we got ready for the day's big adventure: going to the Kolethra resurgence, a karstic spring in Euboea.

This adventure involved, apart from a 263 km round trip (once again breaking all records for the greatest distance travelled in your life up to today) not only another trip to the beach, but also a trip on a boat, twice, across the stretch of sea called the Southern Gulf of Euboea! Mummy's friend Diamanto came along too. She hadn't seen you since you were very little in the maternity ward, so she was looking forward to it.



Here you are in the boat with a very happy Mummy. There is also a stop motion video showing you on the boat: no picture that Daddy could frame was big enough to show you and the fact that the car was on a boat.



Mummy was less happy after all the filming because with all the opening and closing of doors we woke you up and then you started complaining until we were quite close to our destination, although this was probably because you were hungry again.

Finding the spring of Kolethra was actually quite easy because Daddy's friends had given him good directions. We got there just as the cave divers were coming out of the water and were getting ready to rest. They had had a tough day and were all looking a little worse for wear, but they had made really good progress into the cave and they were happy.



This is the Kolethra resurgence.



And here is Komninos, the cave diver, resting after a tiring dive (1,000m penetration is not an easy thing, you know…), and here is the melon he cut for us together with the survey materials. Can you see the compass and underwater writing equipment?

After you had eaten, we made an al-fresco open-air nappy change in the picnic area where the people come from the local villages on Mayday to celebrate. This is where Daddy's friends the cave-divers camp out when they come to explore. Here are some photos of you with Diamanto and Mummy at the picnic area.






While we were at the picnic area, eating the tasty melon that Komninos cut for us, Mummy discovered that someone had left their hammock there unguarded. Quick as a flash, you were put into the hammock and had a really fun time swinging under the plane trees of the Kolethra spring.







After a while, Elias and Aggeliki set off for the beach at Oxylithos, and we followed them. Elias had come out of the cave first and was better rested. The area did not look too good for a swim, with plenty of reinforced concrete breakwaters rusted and with the iron bars breaking through like the original failed attempts of restoring the marblework on the Acropolis. After seeing the waters, we were convinced the place was perfect for your first dip.




We put you on your 101 Dalmations towel and had a dip in the sea, which was crystal clear and warm enough for us to enjoy it. It is very common for the waters to be clear when there is a mass of limestone behind - the underwater springs keep the waters near the beach refreshed. Daddy took the two pictures above, of you on the beach, but for the rest of the story, we have to look at photos taken by Aggeliki with her DSLR... (yes, Daddy has lens-envy).



These photos are all by Aggeliki: first, you are pulling faces in the hammock.



Next here you are with the reinforced concrete Daddy was complaining about. You are in your swimming trunks with all the happy sea creatures on them...



Here you are with Daddy, before actually getting into the sea. The bokeh is not extreme, but I think you will understand why Daddy misses his Nikon lenses.



Look! Here's Mummy and Daddy holding you just after they had put your legs into the sea. You did not complain too much, but when your bottom got wet, you gave out a little cry and Daddy took you out to dry you and get you out of your wet swimming trunks.



In this last one you are out of the sea, resting with your favourite fingers in your mouth! All ready for the journey back.

The journey back was uneventful, broken by the occasional complaint from you, but nothing too serious. We think that the problem is mainly caused by the difficulty in reaching your mouth with your hand when you are strapped into the seat.



For the record, the journey was a round trip of 263 km - more than you had travelled ever, (again)!

First time to the beach!!

Hello little one. The plan for Saturday 18 July was as ambitious as it was difficult to implement. Daddy's oldest friend, Jockey, was going to be coming to Athens with Lisa, his friend and there was a great opportunity to meet up and see eachother. Lisa lives in the wooded areas around the old temple of Dionysus and we were all going to go up there and then go on to Marathon where the Persians fell foul of Miltiades' cunning and the marshy ground. There's a whole lot of stuff in this area for Daddy and Jockey to get excited about as archaeo-culture-vultures that they are, although Daddy was not so sure about whether they would overcome the inertia.

Before setting off, Daddy read to you about Neolithic stone tools. You had a lot to say about these and found the arguments in favour of specialised production (as opposed to each household producing its own) quite appealing.



After the insightful reading, Daddy played a little with Telonius - everybody's favourite robot turtle...







Daddy is still working on the definitive Telonius video - it should be coming soon. So, after playing, it's time to set off for Dionysos and Lisa and Jockey! When we got there Lisa's family went out of their way to make us feel at home. They have a very nice garden, much bigger than Daddy's with all sorts of plants - some useful some just pretty. We had a very nice lunch - a very nice homemade quiche. Although we didn't mention it, Daddy and Jockey both know that quiche is just another word for omelette pie...

After eating we set out for the beach at Schoinias. Daddy used to go swimming there when he was younger. The waters are nice and warm and the sea is shallow and the pine trees come down almost to the sea itself providing plenty of shade.

When we realised that we could not set up Daddy's camping shade without tent-pegs we folded the tarp over and put you under a tree with Mummy while Daddy went swimming with Jockey and Lisa.





The sea was nice and warm, but we didn't feel right about putting you in it to see for yourself. That has to wait for a different day at a different beach.



Here you are with your nice red hat that Daddy bought for you from that nice man, Johhny Boden.



Here you are with Daddy's friends Jockey and Lisa. Lisa used to work with Aunty Igor, although she knew her by her proper name, Aunty Annika. That was in the days when the Athynew was still a daily newspaper and still belonged to the charming Mr. Lambrakis.



Here are your first photographs near the sea! It's as close as you got that day and much closer than we got at Flisvos.





And here you are again on the tarpaulin with your toys. You had a really good day out. We all stayed out almost until the sun went down when Jockey and Lisa had to go. These were the first people you had met from the UK, where Daddy grew up and where Mummy spent some years. It was fun for Daddy to spend time and talk with Jockey, to remember old times and talk about how everyone from the past is doing now, even though Lisa felt a little left out when we talked about technical webby things like RSS feeds.

Some day, we'll all go together to the UK so you can see for yourself what things are like out there, on the edge of Europe, sandwiched between all-encircling Ocean and the savage tribes of the Hyperboreans.

The trip to Marathon worked as a "dry-run" for the next day's trip to Euboea. You worried us a little with your crying on the way back, but we think it was not so much because of the car but because you were tired and hungry after seeing foreign visitors and the vast expanse of the sea...



In all we covered about 94 km this day - quite possibly more than you have travelled in your whole life!