Chora in Amorgos - day 2

Our second trip to the Chora had as its main aim to visit the castle, something we had not attempted to do the last time. The bus left us in the same square as before, 

we went past the same church, the Metropolis of Amorgos, which is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

except that this time it was open, 

so we had a quick look. I like the arches. On the left of the photograph you can see all the candles: people tend to pick one up, leave some money, and then light it and place it on the candle stand.

Instead of going straight on, we turned left this time,

past this kafeneion,

Greek houses on Greek islands are painted with limewash for two reasons: because the white reflects light thus keeping houses cooler, and because limewash acts as a disinfectant. And this is the reason why the stone paths are painted white around each stone - it's a way of disinfecting the paths and the process is repeated every year.

A lot of the houses have the Cycladic feature of limewashing the walls of the houses but leaving bits of the stone visible

you can see the painted bits of the stone more clearly here

from time to time there would be steps as we were climbing towards the big rock where the castle is perched on top

I can never get over how narrow some of these lanes are

We got our first view with the walls of the castle on top. The castle, a fortress really, was constructed in the 13th century by Venetian lords, as protection against invasions by Saracen pirates. It's 65 metres high.

We continued and got to this square, the Upper Square, which is massive

it takes up so much space, I was only able to photograph parts of it 

it is full of cafeteria and tavernas

You can see the castle from here,

so up we went

and walked through a labyrinth of narrow lanes

detail

kept going

and whoa! I thought I would be carried up by the wind and fly over the island

good view, 

but I had to get back in the shelter of the houses and the lanes before I was swept up

We couldn't even stand at the foot of the rock, let alone climb up to the castle

So we circled the rock, in the shelter of the houses

hoping for, I don't know what, trying to ease our disappointment

made another attempt out in the open

by the foot of the rock, 

but gave up and went back to the square

sat here, under this tree, as this kafeneion had the most customers (I know you can't see them in this picture, but it did). We had a cool drink

I liked the monkey holding the sign outside this kafeneion

I went inside this shop and bought a scented candle for a friend

and then we moved off

but not before having another look at the castle

and we somehow ended up where we were the time before - there is such a maze of streets ands alleys that it's easy to get lost.

We stopped here for our pre-dinner drinks, as we had enjoyed it so much last time

on the way back we had a look at the lit up windmills

and arrived at the lower square, and got our bus back to Katapola.

And, just to finish off, I am posting thephotograph of the rock and castle that I posted in the last post which you can see here