Saturday 10th May 2014 - Sifnos - Exploring Apollonia and Beyond

From what we have deduced - most buses depart from the islands capital Apollonia so we catch the first bus up there.

First stop for breakfast is the cafe in Hotel Anthousa and Patisserie right in the centre of the town.  Before we leave we given a biscuit each from the patisserie.

We follow the path out of the village to Pano Petali.

The path continues on to the village of Artemenos where we stop in the pretty square for a cup of tea.  We can smell the freshly baked produce coming from the nearby bakery.  The pottery chimney pots are really something!

We continue down an almost deserted road towards the windmill which now provides accommodation for tourists.  

It is a bit overcast today but that doesn't detract from the amazing view of neighbouring islands.  I'm sure the islands we can see are Anti Paros, Paros, Naxos and maybe even a bit of Sikinos and Ios (pushing it a bit!).  I don't think I have ever seen so many islands from one vantage point like this before - it was pretty amazing!  

From here we can also see the village of Poulati

It is very hard to resist to keep on walking to keep discovering what is around the corner.  We do keep on walking along the coastal road until the road almost grinds to a halt.  Down below we can see what we think is the Kastro but it looks so far away.  To get to it we need to start walking through farmland and down winding paths that look quite labyrinthine from where we are standing.  Peter goes on ahead to explore and I wander around photographing the wildlife!

So close and yet so far - but we decide to call it a day anyway.  We head back through the same little villages again in reverse.

As we pass through Pano Petali again, an elderly lady waves her arms to Peter to attract his attention.  She beckons him to climb the steps to her little balcony and through gestures asks him to unpeg her washing from the washing line (like being at home eh Peter!).