Map of the Eastern Cyclades

Relief Map of Amorgos

Rolf's Map of Amorgos 1976

The lure of the blue, transparent Aegean Sea and the young people we had met in 1971 left us no peace. I searched the Greek tourist brochures for an island which was far from the tourist circus but not too far from Athens, uncrowded, and had some beaches. My choice fell on Amorgos in the outermost circle of the Cycladic Islands.... We arrived at 3 o'clock in the morning after an 11-hour ride through the night. A waning moon was rising over the white houses. An old couple picked us up at the pier and took us into their guesthouse in a garden of flowers and lemon trees.

Bay of Katapola where the boats arrive. The Chora is hidden behind the broad mountain in the center, on the right mountain is the Hellenistic city of Minoa.

View from Tassia's garden onto the bay. Every time we returned to Amorgos, we would stay at Tassia's house for the next 20 years. First her husband died, and then she became to old to clean after the guests and make us breakfast - and we moved elsewhere.

Xilokeratidis fishing boats.  There are three smal villages around the bay: Katapola, Rakhidi, and Xilokeratidis. In Katapola are the pier, the shops, the snoddy harbor warden, several small restaurants and Tassia's Rooms among other pensiones. In Reakhidi live the old timers around the cathedral, and in Xilokeratidis - the oldest settlement - live fishermen, boat wrights, and is Kosta's restaurant, which serves the best food.

Barbara writing letters at Kosta's restaurant.  In 1976 Xilokeratides was charmingly rundown, except for Kosta's place. Here all the young people, mostly from Europe none from the US, met every evening for dinner in the shelter of the saltbush trees by the water. We met many people over the years, but only one friendship lasted - and that was much later. After an evening talking to each other everyone went his or her own way. An island of individualists.

.

A Museum piece of an old Ford bus rumbled up the dirt road to the Chora a few times a day. There was also a taxi - a Soviet Volga (!) - both were driven by the same man. These were the only motor vehicles on the island. I cannot remember for sure, but believe that in 1976 the boat from Athens anchored in the middle of the bay and we were ferried to shore packed like sardines in small motor boats. This was the practice in Ios and many smaller islands. But sometime around then piers were built and the harbors deepened so rear-door ferries could discharge their load directly.

Anyway, in those days an old kalderimi (donkey path) to the Chora was still in use. We walked it often, one hour up, and Barbara still walked it sometimes in 2005. This is the view of Katapola Bay from the path to the Chora in 1976. The three villages er clearly visible, Katapola to the left. At the junctions of the roads behind Rakhidi, are the humming diesel generators, which supply the island with electricity.  Together with the generator the Colonels of the Junta, in an attempt to foster tourism, had started to build a modern hotel. When they disappeared, the gray concrete structure was left, an unfinished ruin. Last year the community bought the building and plans to install a museum, some day.....

 As one scrambles up the kalderimi, the Chora rises in a saddle next to Mt. Ag. Elias, the island mountain. From the distance it is not as picturesque as the Chora Iou. A steep rock rises from the houses, the kastro. Fortified by a chapel dedicated to Ag. Georgios it was the last refuge when the pirates appeared.

 On one of our walks this diminutive woman came running after us with grapes and figs from her garden. Barbara loves figs, the older the better. After we had eaten our fill, she got the key and, after formally introducing us to her saints in the chapel, showed us the kastro.

The house of Lila Maragou, the archeologist in the Chora. Once one is lost in the Minoan maze of the Chora - and I still get lost there once on every visit - one realizes that this is a very special Cycladic Chora. Over many entrances one still finds the two horns of Minos (like in Knossos!) flanking the triangle of the Minoan Goddess! Until very recently the locals had no idea of the origins of these decorations - I am sure Ms. Maragou knows - until in 2005 Demeter, a young lady told me, that she had learned their meaning from the "Da Vinci Code," which she had just finished reading!! - And there are other very ancient customs alive on Amorgos, like all property is "owned" by the women and is inherited from mother to daughter. The man is only an adjunct, O Thanos, "the year-king who must die...."

 I once counted twentyseven churches and chapels in and around the Chora Amorgou. I came across this view of heavenly domes held down to earth only by a green rain pipe, when visiting a young Englishman who had rented a room on the roof of one of the houses. I have never been able to find the place again. One of my most beloved photos from Amorgos. .

 The Chora is at an elevation of 350 m. Walking east through the village one arrives at an outlook - 400 stupenous, vertical meters above the eastern sea. On fortunate days one can see Astypalaia floating at the horizon. Below lies a small white chapel: Ag. Annis. In 1976 a dirt road reached half-way down the escarpment, the access road to Moni Panaghia Chosoviotissa, which on this photo is hidden behind the third fold underneath the rock of Mt. Elias.

The kalderimi to Ag. Annis was in 1976 the only way to get to the beautiful clean pebble beaches on the east side. Barbara on the way down.

Barbara at the gate to the Moni. - Bring a large scarf or pullover along if you want to visit the monks. Men must wear long pants.  

 It is yet an ardous climb from the road and the gate to the monastery. Chosoviotissa was built in 1048 (?) to shelter a mosaic icon of the Panaghia which had floated to the shores of Amorgos. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Greece. Built half into the rock it hangs 300 meter below Mt. Elias and 300 meter above the blue sea. In 1976 two young acolytes shared life and the proscribed services with an older Pater Gerontias. They were very hospitable to tourist visitors - but wily Father Gerontias would never let an opportunity pass to try to convert you to join Orthodoxy!

The mighty, six-story east wall.  From the windows of the cells one only sees blue...

.

This view from the northeast shows how thin the protuding part of the building is. Barbara sits on the cover of one large cistern, a second one is hidden under and only accessible from inside the building. The curtained window on the third floor is the xenodochion, the reception room for visitors and foreign dignitaries Surrounded by faded photos of famous visitors back to the 19th century, and sitting on dust-breathing chairs of Ottoman times, the youngest monk will brew a kafelaki for you and offer you a liqueur and a sugar-cured cherry in a glass of water... If they like you - they assume you are an heretic infidel (absolutely do not breathe a word that you are Catholic, they will throw you out of the house!) - and you beg them, and give them a small contribution for the upkeep, they will show you the monastery.

 On the highest level is the chapel with the holy icon. The monk pushes open a door and you stumble, literally blind from the darkness into the fiercest light you have ever been in. The photo, cannot give you this experience.

 Barbara looking out from the parapet.

.

 This spot near the gate is one of Barbara's favorite places in Amorgos.

.

Scrambling from the gate along the escarpment we found a sea cave near Aghias Annis, where we spent the afternoon with an English pair until it became cool enough to climb back up to the Chora..  Today you can take the bus down or up to Aghias Annis and from there clamber along the rocks to the nude beach.

 View of the escarpment and the Moni from the nude beach.

.

Barbara in the garden of the monks. We found this secluded spot one day by accident and fell in love with it. In the shade of a lemon and a fig tree the lilting melody of a spring issuing from a bamboo tube in the rock at right, a stone table and two benches. A perfect hide out above the sea. Over the years we have spent many days there watching the gusts of wind blow across the sea. It turned out to be the vegetable garden of the monks, and one day I even asked the Gerontias for his permission to be there. We have kept this garden a secret, only Cornelius knows where it is.

 Barbara reading in the Garden.

.

 A corner in Xilokeratidis in 1976. You would not recognize this spot today. The house with the balcony has turned into a bar! - In late September they don't have many customers, and the two young men who run it sit in front of the blue-lit bar and listen to their pop records. But the water is still as transparent as it was then.

One early, wind-still morning I caught this reflection of a sail boat in the harbor of Katapola. I have tried many times since to catch a similarily intriguing image, but in vain.

Ios

We had agreed to meet Barbara's brother Dieter and his wife Marlen in Naxos and take them to Ios. It was their first trip to Greece. Reluctantly we left Amorgos in a damp, wind-still full-moon night. The sea was like a wavy mirror with the moon languidly bouncing between the islands. A magical, unforgotten night. In Naxos we spread our sleeping bags on the beach and were attacked by thousands of sand-fleas and the singing of moon-crazy young revelers. Next morning we did meet Dieter and Marlen, but Dieter, the member of parliament, was completely wrapped up in some political issue. It was hard, this sudden forced return to a reality - which I didn't care about in the least. Finally, when we reached fabled Ios the Chora was so crowded with drunk and noisy people that we barely found a camp bed. And until early morning loudspeakers blared Beethoven and Rock from the hillsides. We soon moved to Milapotas. It was terrible.

A caged finch on the wall of a church in the Chora Iou.

.

One day we tried to escape it all and went to magical Manganari Beach, but the group of friends with whom we had been there in 1971 had left no tangible traces. After a serious collision between Dieter and me, we decided to leave for Athens.

.

Athens

Athens from  the Hill of Philopappos at night. A group of young people sat singing on the stairs of the Philopappos monument. They turned out to be from Hungary, having semi-legally crossed the borders of Yugoslavia and Greece to freedom in Greece..

.

 On one of the last mornings we walked up to Kaiseriani. The chuirch at the Moni of Kaiseriani.

.

The 11th-cent church and  the 14th-century bell tower.

.

Barbara in the newly planted woods of Hymettos on our way back to town.