When you book a last minute holiday to a Greek island at the end of June, you expect it to be hot. It was just as well I bought the factor 50 SPF as Kos certainly did not disappoint.
Monday evening saw us booking a car from Kastri Holidays (thank you Nikalous and Katrina for all the must see tips) and heading off to the mountain village of Zia to catch the sunset view from a rooftop restaurant. The first dolmades of the trip set the tone for a week of first class cuisine.
Tuesday we visited the archaelogical heritage site of Asklepion. This was reputed to be the first teaching hospital in the world, founded by Hippocrates and dating back to 300BC. Having been to Knossos on Crete I had to give Asklepion my vote as ‘even better’. It also appeared to feature the earliest example of Lego?!
Wednesday found me in the saddle. I’d booked an evening ride for 6pm from Salt Lake Stables but we saw that the evening temperature was due to reach 100 degrees so we phoned and rearranged for the morning. 11am and I headed out on a pretty palomino mare, Marie, for a two hour ride to Mastachari and back. I chose her as she was a similar size to my Magic. Cantering up and down the dunes in the midday heat was a tough challenge compared with our usual gentle hacks from Appletreewick to Burnsall, Parceval Hall or Howgill for coffee. I was exhausted by the time we turned back, thankfully along the shore where there was slightly more of a breeze. Riding inland again to the heat of the salt lake plain and a final gallop nearly finished me off, but it was fun in a masochistic sort of way. The stables were well run with a good choice of horses and jodphurs, hats, chaps, socks, and bum-bags all included in the price.
That evening we headed to the far end of the island to Thermes. What an experience. We bathed in the piping hot sea water from thermal springs on the beach. It was just what I needed after the morning’s exercise! Watching the bubbles coming up from the pebbles of the sea and the wisps of steam was amazing.
A boat trip to ‘the sponge island’ Kalymnos was Thursday’s treat. We learned about harvesting sponges, the different types, and their uses, paying rather alot of money for two to bring home; one essentially ornamental and one as a gift for Dan (you can imagine the reaction of a teenage boy to this, but he does spend hours in the shower so it wasn’t quite such a strange idea as it may seem).
On Friday we explored to the west of Kefalos in the morning and discovered a lovely beach at Agios Theologos. It’s incredible how some of the beaches have powerful crashing waves like this one whilst others only a few kilometres on the other side of the island have just tiny ripples that lap the shore. There is so much variation on Kos it seems there really is ‘something for everyone’, whether you want the action of watersports or long sandy beaches with sunbeds and umbrellas.
After a drive and lunch at Kardamana we headed up to Pili and stumbled across an ancient church and tomb and were given plums by a lovely old couple who looked like relics themselves.
One of the holiday’s highlights was watching Mark swim out to the island in Kamari bay from Agios Stefanos. Quite an impressive feat I thought. Of all the beaches we visited this one was my favourite, it was ironically close to where we staying though we didn’t discover it until our penultimate day. I loved the fact that ancient white ruins just lay casually by the beach overlooking the picturesque little island and church; the sea was translucent turquoise. A truly beautiful spot.
Saturday’s trip to the island of Nyssaros was probably the most remarkable experience of the holiday. I always love boat trips anyway but visiting the volcano was incredible. Truly petrified by the decrepit coach driving on the terrifying hairpin 
We rounded off a week of wonderful meals with two visits to the Aphrodite taverna just below our apartments, with prawn saganaki and stifado to die for.
Ahhh, kalispera Kos.