The long path to the Church of the Seven Martyrs on Sifnos. [7952]
The 74km2 island of Sifnos, pop 2500, was our last daily port-of-call from the Sea Cloud. We landed there by Zodiac at the port of Kamares on the west side. The main town is Apollonia, named after an ancient temple of Apollo here, but we spent our time at Kastro (Venetian for "castle"), an impossibly beautiful little town high up on the east side.
The Sea Cloud pulls into Kamares for a day in Sifnos. [7867]
Waterfront cafes in Kamares. [7894]
Fishing boats in Kamares harbour. [7895]
Sifnos is popular with Greek visitors who arrive by ferry, but we saw rather few of them and none from other countries. Sifnos is really "non-touristy" and would be our pick of "places to stay" of the islands we have seen so far. We found Kastro to be so beautiful, so photogenic, but also so steep, it being built on the side of a steep hill. Paths and steps withing the town were a challenge to negotiate.
Cats outnumber dogs in all towns in Greece. [7949]
"Sifnos was inhabited by human beings from at least 4000 BCE.[6] Archeological evidence indicates the island was within the mainstream of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic civilization. The island was very wealthy in ancient times, thanks to its gold, silver, and lead, which were being mined there as early as the 3rd millennium BCE. There are 360 churches in the island of Sifnos, as per the days of the year, more than any other island in Cyclades." Wikipedia
Idyllic Sifnos port town of Kamares with highly organised beach seating and waterfront cafes. [3334]
Mainstream it was in those ancient days maybe, but Sifnos doesn't appear much in ancient Greek histories, nor is there much reporting of it from Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman eras. And we haven't seen any references to Sifnos in ancient mythology, so all those gods obviously didn't do any procreating or miracle-working on Sifnos either. But by the 1800's Sifnos had become "important" in commerce and Greek politics.
Cafes cling to the side of the hill in Kastro, but have a good view. [7905]
A beautiful bay beneath a cafe in Kastro. [7921]
After a bus trip up, Roula and Gemma, our local guides, led the way up steep steps into Kastro, but soon we just wandered aimlessly through the pedestrian labyrinth of the town and around its edge, including a hike down to the Church of the Seven Martyrs, a tiny church. Paula, expedition leader, managed to get this church opened for us. A few gifty shops suggest that there are fairly regular visitors to the town, and we found some delightful cafes to take a breather at. Kastro is one of the prettiest towns we have encountered, amongst many contenders.
Pathway steps within Kastro are pretty challenging for our old legs. No railings! [7925]
Gemma holding court in a tiny square in Kastro. [7931]
Grapes in downtown Kastro. [7933]
Covered path in the Sifnos town of Kastro. [7934]
Message board or graffiti, on a house in Kastro. [7978]
Housefront in Kastro. [7979]
Bells on a local church in Kastro on Sifnos. [7984]
Steep steps up to the blue door. [7938]
House decoration in the Sifnos hillside town of Kastro. [7946]
An ancient wall on Sifnos. [7954]
Looking back, we considered that Sifnos may be the "best to come back to" of the islands we visited on the Sea Cloud. All were beautiful in their own way, of course, but Sifnos was especially appealing for its cute little towns, some good beaches, crystal clear waters, a wide selection of cafes and (most important of all) very few visitors. We didn't stay here, so no comment on accommodation options, but all-up, it seems like a pretty idyllic location to us.
The rugged coastline below Kastro on Sifnos. [7969]
Sea Cloud expedition leader Paula happy to be going downhill to the Church of Seven Martyrs. [7960]
Inside the tiny Church of Seven Martyrs. [7972]
Rare clouds in the sky as we look back to Kastro from the Church of Seven Martyrs. [7970]
Delightful swimming spot with clear water but difficult access, at the bottom of a Sifnos cliff. [7977]
Much of Cyclades islands land is terraced for better utilisation. [7985]
It was off Sifnos that we had the best chance of photographing the Sea Cloud under full sail. [8040]
From a Zodiac on the way back to the Sea Cloud in Sifnos. [4120]
4th of July off Sifnos so we celebrated with an Independence Day cake. [8121]
An auction of a watercolour of the Sea Cloud raised USD600 for the crew. [3149]
Lightroom Photo Map of this blog's Sifnos photos shows how we crossed from the port at Kamares to the other side and the gorgeous town of Kastro.
Sifnos was our last island on the Sea Cloud before returning to Piraeus. On the principle that you don't know where you've been unless you have a map, below chart shows the rough route of the Sea Cloud, rough meaning that we, the passengers, were unaware of the details, only the destinations of our overnight passages. We don't know the precise way the Sea Cloud threaded through the 220 islands of the Cyclades, but as the map shows, we zig-zagged across the southern half of thisi wonderful archipelago. It takes some imagination to see why the ancients thought of the Cyclades as forming a circle around the sacred centre of Delos, but they didn't have GPS or maps like this.
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