Hydra

Last weekend, (3/14-3/15) we took a short ferry ride to the small island of Hydra. It's a very small traditional Greek island with no motor powered vehicles allowed other than a few farming tractors.

The main mode of transportation on the island is by donkey! Each morning we saw a whole group of them at the dock being loaded up with the daily delivery of things from the mainland...food, construction supplies, etc.

While the port is a natural harbor, there are fortified walls with cannons built around the outsides. The fortifications are left from when the island fought independence during the Napoleonic wars.

Saturday we enjoyed a hike around part of the island. Shortly after we started our journey, we made friends with this puppy who stayed with us even when we stopped and other people walked by.

Part way into our hike we stopped along the coast for a picnic lunch. We enjoyed watching the fishermen in the water and this pretty butterfly in the flowers. The entire island was covered in these beautiful yellow daisies.

While we were on our hike we passed three of the over 300 monastaries on the island.

What started out as a nice little hike along the coast turned into a much harder climb up the side of the mountain over looking Hydra Town. The views were amazing.

Along with the traditional way of life, there were a lot of traditional Greek fishing boats.

By the time we got to this point, overlooking Hydra town (2.5 hours into the hike), we thought the hike was about over and we would just wander down the hill and into town. Little did we know we would have to climb up another hill, around a mountain peak and over a valley before getting into town on the far side 2.5 hours later!


While the hike was much longer than we expected, we enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. After our full day of hiking we decided that we earned a fresh seafood dinner at the local taverna.