We had another very calm night at our anchor in Karthion on Andros. Joanne had read about a monastery on Andros so we decided we would visit it. We dinghed into town and went to a taverna, figuring there we could get help with a taxi. The owner came out to take our order and said he had a fresh batch of lemonade and apple pie. We all had a lemonade and shared some pie. The lemonade was great and I didn’t have any pie but everyone else said it was very good. We asked him about a taxi. His English wasn’t too good so we used google translate which worked great. He got two taxis for us because they didn’t have one big enough for the six of us. In return for calling the taxi he wanted us to come back for lunch but we said we would be back for dinner. He even said we could pay for our lemonades and pie when we came back (I think he wanted to make sure we would come back).
We had a taxi driver who spoke some English and gave us a tour as she drove. Andros is the second largest island in the Cyclades and is home to about 9,000 people. It is a quiet island and many families go there for vacation and to walk the many trails.
After about a 25 minute ride, we arrived at the Monastery of Panachrantos which was built in the 10th century by the Byzantine emperor Nikiforos Fokas, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire between 963 and 969. The Byzantine emperor waged a war on Crete and legend has it that two monks on Andros prayed for his victory in exchange for financial help. After the emperor had won the war he fulfilled his promise and built the monastery. The monastery is located 750 meters up a mountain and has terrific views. Here are some pictures of the monastery.
Our taxi drivers waited for us and then brought us back down the mountain back to the town. We tried to walk out to a church that we could see from the boat but it had a fence around it and we couldn’t find a way in.
We returned to the boat. I took a nap. Mike and Terry swam to shore. It was a leisurely afternoon.
Around 5:30 we returned to the island to explore before dinner. We walked around the town which pretty much consisted of three streets paralleling the water and several cross streets. Here are some pictures.
We had a very nice dinner at the taverna. We returned to the boat for our nightly game of dominoes.