Hydra

This morning didn't start off well: there was no internet access, and after 10 am there was no running water in the flat. Fortunately we had tickets for the hovercraft to the island of Hydra, so we weren't too inconvenienced by the lack of water -- although we fervently hoped that the problem would be fixed by the time we came back.

Hydra is a 25 minute trip from Poros, almost due south. I have to admit that I didn't know much about Hydra, apart from the facts that Leonard Cohen was a well known resisdent of the island in the mid 1960s, and that motor vehicles (save those of the fire brigade as well as rubbish collectors) of all types are not allowed on the island -- although we saw two vehicles that should not have been there.

There are many ferries going to the island: in the first hour that we were there, I saw ferries from three different companies arrive along with one small cruise ship (this might have been a day trip from Athens as it wasn't one of those huge ships with cabins). As such, every hour or so there is a new group of people that arrive and overwhelm the small island.

Our first port of call was the Hydra museum, that was small but interesting. Most of the exhibits were concerned with the Greek war of independence period (1820-3) but there were also some artifacts from the second world war. This reminded me slightly of the war museum in Malta¹. One large room was dedicated to the artist Kostas Grammatopoulos with many paintings, wood cuts and lithographs, where generally these were of a faux naif style (but very well done). One wasn't allowed to take photographs within the museum otherwise I would have taken many photos of his works.

Once we finished with the museum, we carried on in the same direction where I ascended a peak lined with cannons - from this position one could see and control a large area of sea. My wife had been going on about 'the sun'; where is the sun, she kept on asking me. I said that it was directly above us as it was noon. No, she said, there is a sculpture of the sun. We carried on walking below the defensive position and eventually came to 'the sun'.

This sculpture is made of two sets of arms; the first is fixed and the second is constantly turning. Fittingly shaped as a giant golden sun, the 9.1 metre wide ‘Apollo Wind Spinner’ that bears the face of the Greek God is just one of artist Jeff Kloon’s newest pieces on display in an exhibition on the Saronic Isle proudly presented by the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art. This was worth the trek in the hot sun.

After the sun, it was back to near where the ferry landed for a very big pizza, even when shared between two. Then we split up, as my wife had had enough walking. I went down into the town by the promenade: like Poros, there were many shops selling tat or dresses. Naturally there were also many bars and restaurants although the range of food was more limited than in Poros. I found tucked away in an alley off this main strip a small monastery that was very quiet and relaxing.

Eventually we joined up, sat by the ferry landing and swapped pictures. The ferry came, we travelled back to Poros stopping below our flat, then we walked into the flat. One of us turned on a tap ... and water flowed! So I had a cold shower then my wife had one; a cup of tea later we laid down for a rest, and here am I at 9 pm typing this.

A good day, but tiring because of the heat and the walking (almost 10,000 steps). We are undecided about tomorrow - I would like to buy a linen shirt and maybe we will take the local minibus for its trip around the island, the local 'hop on hop off' bus.

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