Day 65, The Greek Isles

At last we are going to Greece......Yay!!! We are all looking forward to this trip....

Nopi is shaking her head...in the negative??

Why Nopi?? This is your home! Are you too lazy to be our tour guide??

No, that's not it....why dont you want go home??

Ooops, your Papa will tell you to stop loafing around the world with us.....hahahahaha.....

OK Nopi, we won't visit the mainland of Greece...we will tour the islands instead....ok?

Aaah, Nopi has just flashed me a brilliant smile.....

Ok.....let's go...tell us a little about the Greek Islands

The islands are Greece's chief morphological trait and an integral part of the country's civilisation and tradition. The Greek territory comprises 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Sea, a truly uniq ue phenomenon on the European continent; of these islands only 227 are inhabited.

The Greek Archipelago takes up 7,500 km of the country's total 16,000-km coastline, offering a highly diversified landscape: beaches stretching along many kilometers, sheltered bays and coves, golden stretches of sand with dunes, pebbly beaches, coastal caves with steep rocks and black sand typical of volcanic soil, coastal wetlands...

Many Greek beaches have been awarded the blue flag under the programme Blue Flags of Europe. Apart from swimming, they lend themselves to scuba diving, snorkeling, water skiing, sailing and windsurfing.

As they are the cradle of some of the most ancient and prosperous European civilisations (the Cycladic, Minoan civilisations, etc.), the islands boast unique archaeological sites, an outstanding architectural heritage and centuries-old, fascinating local traditions of a multifaceted cultural past.

Most islands lie in the Aegean Sea and are divided in seven groups (from north to south):
The Northeastern Aegean Islands: Agios Efstratios, Thasos, Ikaria, Lesvos,Limnos, Inousses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara.

The Sporades: Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros

Evia

The Argo-Saronic Islands: Angistri, Aegina, Poros, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra and the coastal area of Methana.

The Cyclades: A group of 56 islands, its most important ones being Amorgos, Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos,
Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Tinos, Folegandros, as well as the "Minor Cyclades" comprising Donousa, Irakleia,
Koufonisia and Schinoussa.

The Dodecanese: Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kastelorizo, Kos,Lipsi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Halki.

Crete

The Ionian Sea is home to one sole island group:
The Ionian Islands: Zakynthos, Ithaca, Corfu, Cephallonia, Lefkada, Paxi, Antipaxi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki, Meganissi, Othoni, Strofades.

These islands, together with Kythira, which is however cut-off from the rest, opposite the southern Peloponnese (Lakonia), as well as neighbouring Antikythira, they constitute the Eptanissa.
The islands of Gavdos (situated south of Crete), Elafonissos (in the Gulf of Laconia) and Trizonis (in the Gulf of Corinth), although not forming part of any group, are of unparalleled natural beauty.

Amit wants to go to the Mama Mia island!!

Okay....let's go.....