On our third day in Athens, we took a cruise of the Saronic Gulf to visit three islands. We sailed from the Marina Flisvos in Athens to the first island Poros. From there we went to Hydra and the last island was Aegina.

Being out on a boat in the sea sounded refreshing and was a nice break from the heat in Athens. Originally I had tried to charter a skippered sail boat, but it was going to take all day just to go to one island and the charter companies discouraged us. We therefore booked a ferry cruise through the hotel.

All islands were beautiful, but I especially had a desire to go to Hydra since Hydra was the location of a home I designed when I was in college. The project was to design a home that would blend with the environment. Since Hydra is the rockiest island in Greece, building on rocks and emulating that environment appealed to me. Of course I only had a vague idea of what Hydra was really like from library books. This gave me a chance to see it in person. I was assured that indeed this would have been an idyllic location for such a structure. I have to assume that the island had fewer buildings in the late 60's.

The green lines show the route from Athens, and the yellow the return.

We enjoyed all islands, but it was still extremely hot. By the time we got to Aegina, we just wanted to find a cool shady spot and drink a Mythos. We found a lovely oasis by the beach, with only two other people in it. We ordered a drink and just hung out for about an hour. I soaked in the water. (This is why we have not one photo of Aegina) Link to pictures of Poros and Hydra on the left blue bar.

Note: I have kept this in a section all its own (although they are obviously Greek Isles) because this was a short one-day cruise whereas getting to the other Greek Isles was by virtue of a sailing cruise ship where we spent seven days. Additionally, you will see that although all Greek Isles have some similarities and unique charm...it is apparent that these three isles are closest to Athens.

They served us lunch and we shared a table with three Spaniards from Andalucia. I enjoyed speaking Spanish with them. We also were presented with musicians and dancers. The dancers were quite good and it was here where we learned the expression "Opa!" (Similar to Ole, Hurrah, etc). They performed dances from various regions. Some dances were men only, a couple were somber, but most were very happy and lively "Zorba the Greek " type.