Skópelos

[Ed: A shortcut to Athens part 2 is here. It’s finally finished; only 10 months late!]

Skópelos town is spread around the harbour and stepped up the hill behind. The quay is lined with cafés and restaurants buzzing with the usual activity of a busy tourist area but behind them are beautiful narrow streets with lots of little shops selling locally crafted pottery, artwork, jewellery and delicacies. It’s a delight to walk around. There are also an awful lot of chapels. The island apparently has 40 monasteries and 360 churches on it, of which 123 are tucked in amongst the lanes and buildings of Skópelos town. We didn’t see anything like 123 of them but there did seem to be a church at practically every turn.

Skópelos owes much of its authentic traditional atmosphere to the combination of not being damaged too much in the 1965 earthquake, nor earlier by the Nazis in the WWII, despite local participation in the resistance. Other towns suffered serious damage as reprisals for resistance activity but an Austrian in the German garrison, Alfons Hochhauser, had lived in the town before the war (perhaps as a spy) and was, it seems, able to exert some influence to preserve the town from vindictive action by the German troops.

Stepped up the hillside we found several terrace bars with excellent views out over the harbour.

The big blue yacht is S/Y Electra not BV! BV is one of the apparently very small yachts near the corner of the quay

Tucked around the corner from the northern breakwater was a very pebbly beach we were also able to look down on. The water was very clear and on several occasions during our stay we swam from the beach out to the rocks.

Balconies also seem to be a traditional feature of the houses here. What a great place to relax with a coffe and enjoy the view.

We stayed 2 nights here and on the second evening we celebrated our 14^th wedding anniversary. We dined at Kyratso’s Kitchen, a taverna in the old port that we had spotted as looking rather good from the number of people eating there, including many locals. It turned out the that the restaurant had previously been in Glisteri, a bay just to the northwest of Skópelos harbour. In that incarnation it came recommended by Jamie Oliver and, whilst it’s location has changed, we don’t think that it’s food standards have at all; the family’s mother Kyratso still runs the kitchen. We ate stuffed courgette flowers, tzatziki and salad followed by a fantastic slow-cooked pork shank for me and oven-baked goat and pasta cooked in a terracotta dish for Nicky. Indeed, the pork shank was so enormous that when we were being shown the kitchen and the available dishes the owner joked that the pork shank dish was named after his hugely fat brother, one of the chefs. And we didn’t need to splash out on the wine as the house red (in 0.5litre carafes, very French!) was perfect with the meal. It was absolutely delicious, good traditional food and we will certainly return when we are next in Skópelos.

With a few weeks to go before Charlotte and Sophie join us in this area we don’t expect to be putting many sea miles in the log. We’ll continue to slowly explore the islands looking for good places to show them with our next stop most likely being a bay or habour on the south side of Skópelos. That is influenced by the forecast which shows it blowing quite strongly from the north on Thursday.

Skópelos, Greece