The approach to the harbour town was probably the most spectacular of all the islands that we have visited flanked on both sides by colourful neoclassical houses in a riot of complimentary pastel shades, contrasting wooden shutters, decorative iron balconies and red tiled roofs.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, rhodes, Symi
Even though travel restrictions are easing I am not yet minded to risk it so I still have no new stories to post so I continue to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 30 July 2010 I was on the Greek Island of Symi close to Rhodes…
On arrival in Symi there was no one to meet us, no notes pinned to the door of the room or instructions giving any sort of advice at all on what to do and the phone was not being answered.
It was eleven o’clock and extremely hot and all we could do was sit on the sun terrace, sweat and wait. Luckily I had a couple of tins of Mythos in the bag so I had to drink them quickly before they heated up in the midday sun and after an hour or so and I had almost recovered from the ordeal of the climb I went all the way back down the steps to get some more and to buy some food for lunch.
Getting back up the steps returned me to my previous state of sweat streaked exhaustion and what I really needed was a cool blast of air conditioning but still the phone remained unanswered and still no one came.
A French guest came and went and told us that usually someone came by at about two o’clock so this meant that we would have an hour or so to wait so we made some lunch and drank some more Mythos and competed with each other for the shade of the wooden pergola.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in back packing, Beaches, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, rhodes, Symi, Travel
From the harbour we walked further up the Kali Strata towards the upper town of Ano Symi passing on the way dozens of abandoned once grand mansions that were built over a hundred years ago when Symi’s sponge fishing and ship building industries were both thriving but which fell into decline in the first half of the twentieth century when both suffered serious economic failure.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Other houses were damaged during the Second-World-War during the German occupation and empty shells stand adjacent to some, like the Pantheon, that have been restored. Rules on restoration are very strict and this together with difficulties of access for modern vehicles (the only viable means of transporting building materials is by expensive donkey train) means that the cost of a restoration is often prohibitive and for this reason the whole process of regeneration is likely to take some considerable time.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, backpacking, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Ano Symi, Blue Doors of Greece, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, rhodes, Symi, Travel
A Boatafly…
There were some spectacular views from the top over to the other side of the harbour where tiers of multi coloured houses rise like a sheer cliff face above the narrow harbour and piled randomly one above the other with shutters folded back like the wings of a thousand butterflies basking in the sun.
Posted in Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Travel
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, postaday, rhodes, Symi, Travel
Abandoned Mansion – Symi, Greece
Further up the Kali Strata we walked towards the upper town of Ano Symi passing on the way dozens of abandoned once grand mansions that were built over a hundred years ago when Symi’s sponge fishing and ship building industries were both thriving but which fell into decline in the first half of the twentieth century when both suffered serious economic failure.
Other houses were damaged during the Second-World-War during the German occupation and empty shells stand adjacent to some, like the Pantheon, that have been restored. Rules on restoration are very strict and this together with difficulties of access for modern vehicles (the only viable means of transporting building materials is by expensive donkey train) means that the cost of a restoration is often prohibitive and for this reason the whole process of regeneration is likely to take some considerable time.
Posted in backpacking, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, postaday, rhodes, Symi, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
A Boatafly…
There were some spectacular views from the top over to the other side of the harbour where tiers of multi coloured houses rise like a sheer cliff face above the narrow harbour and piled randomly one above the other with shutters folded back like the wings of a thousand butterflies basking in the sun.
Posted in Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Hotels, World Heritage
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Life, Photography, postaday, rhodes, Symi, Travel
Restored Mansions on Symi
Today we walked towards the upper town of Ano Symi passing on the way dozens of abandoned once grand mansions that were built over a hundred years ago when Symi’s sponge fishing and ship building industries were both thriving but which fell into decline in the first half of the twentieth century when both suffered serious economic failure. Other houses were damaged during the Second-World-War during the German occupation and empty shells stand adjacent to some, like the Pantheon, that have been restored. Rules on restoration are very strict and this together with difficulties of access for modern vehicles (the only viable means of transporting building materials is by expensive donkey train) means that the cost of a restoration is often prohibitive and for this reason the whole process of regeneration is likely to take some considerable time.
Posted in backpacking, Cyclades, Greece, Greek islands
We had enjoyed the first full day in Symi so much that we did exactly the same things all over again with just a few variations to see the places that we thought we might have previously missed. It seemed that there might be an air conditioning repair today because the woman at the apartments asked us to leave our keys which she explained that she would just casually leave on the window ledge for the repair man to let himself in but we refused to do that so that seemed to scupper the prospects immediately.
Posted in back packing, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, Travel
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, rhodes, Symi
After we had settled in, cooled off and calmed down we decided to do a little exploring and as we had already seen the harbour, today we walked further up the Kali Strata towards the upper town of Ano Symi passing on the way dozens of abandoned once grand mansions that were built over a hundred years ago when Symi’s sponge fishing and ship building industries were both thriving but which fell into decline in the first half of the twentieth century when both suffered serious economic failure.
Posted in back packing, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, island hopping
Tagged Ano Symi, Dodecanese Islands, Pantheon Mansion Symi, rhodes, Symi
Have Bag, Will Travel 