Planning Your 2018 Holidays

Yialos earlier this week.

Looking across to the Kastro and Lemonitissa church 

Symi gold.

Symi has all sorts of interesting shops, including an organic Greek food store and a tinsmith who personally crafts many of the items that he sells.

Fork in the road.  The left hand steps lead to the old kataraktis foot path up to Chorio that runs up the back of the kastro hill that you can see in the previous photograph.  This comes out in the oldest part of Chorio.

A conifer sprouting out of top of a wall at the back of Yialos.

What's that on the wall of St John's church?

A fragment of an old marble sculpture, possibly a stele  incorporated into the structure of St John's church at the back of Yialos.

Another ancient fragment on St John's bell tower.

Free range Fred struts his stuff in Chorio.

It almost rained this morning.

September is one of the loveliest months on Symi.  Not too hot.  Not too crowded.  The children are back in school and the beaches are peaceful.  The season feels as though it is drawing to a close and the ambience is relaxed and laid back.  It is not quite over though.  Next weekend marks the beginning of October and the walkers start to arrive.  Walkers, painters, photographers - they come to enjoy Symi's golden autumn light and the beginning of the island's second 'spring'. April and May, the proper spring, are glorious in their own way, with abundant wild flowers, mild temperatures and the joys of Greek Easter but October has a huge advantage - the sea is warm!  

If you are thinking about a visit to Symi next year but are afraid of Mediterranean heatwaves, consider the end of September and the first 2 weeks of October.  While the excursion boats and water taxis start to wind down in the middle of October, many other amenities such as tavernas, cafes, tourist shops and bars stay open until the Panormitis Festival on 8 November.  Now is also the time to take a look at the ferry schedules as this year's schedules for September and October are still visible on line and provide a useful guide for synchronising flights with ferries.  You can also follow our travel blog.  Andy is already putting up useful flight information for next year as it becomes available.

We are starting to take bookings now for 2018 so why not drop us a line on symi-vis@otenet.gr?  Just let us know how many people you are, the ages of any children and any special requirements you might have and we will profile your booking to suit you.  You can always be sure of old-fashioned personal attention when you book through Symi Visitor Accommodation.

Have a great weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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Symi Views from Above

The entrance to the church yard at Stavros to Polemou, a monastery high up in the forests on the west side of the island. Photograph by Dawn Sproson.

Symi is not just Yialos, Chorio and Pedi, neo-classical architecture and pretty beaches.  It is also staggering views from mountain tops on clear days.  Photograph by Dawn Sproson

Looking towards Panormitis bay with the length of Rhodes and Halki in the distance. Photograph by Dawn Sproson.

The results of the goat cull about 10 years ago are starting to become obvious as the island slowly reforests and becomes greener. The indigenous trees are mostly conifers on these arid slopes.  Photograph by Dawn Sproson.

If you have never been up to the interior of the island, or taken a round the island trip, you may be completely unaware of just how wooded parts of Symi are. This is all indigenous natural forest.

Talking about indigenous trees, the tamarisks are starting to flower.

Sweeping the Kali Strata.

A black cat crossed my path on Wednesday.

The official name of the Kali Strata is actually Ierou Lochou after the Sacred Band, an elite Greek military unit during the Second World War who named themselves after the original Sacred Band of Thebes

Busy bees in the plumbago.

Here we are, half way through September and other year is drawing to a close.  The island is a lot quieter than usual for September, but that has been the case throughout the 2017 season.  Symi really is slipping back into become a sleepy by-water on the tourist map.

Looking out of the office balcony doors right now I can only see 4 yachts berthed on the north side of the harbour and another dawdling out past the clock tower.  The Symi Sea Dream has come in so there are a few day trippers around. The Panagia Skiadeni goes to Panormitis first on a Friday so won't be in until 1 and the Nikolaos X usually gets in around then too.  Many of the locals are up the mountain today, celebrating the name day of St Nikita and others have gone to Rhodes on the Blue Star.

There are only two days in the week when it is possible for the people of Symi to go to Rhodes for business - Wednesdays and Fridays, with the Blue Star.  As Wednesday is quite a short day because the boat leaves again at 15.00, Friday is more popular for anyone who needs to do serious shopping as well as see the tax office, accountants, lawyers, MOT and the like.  Rhodes is only 25 nautical miles away but that is a long way when one is dependent on ferries.  I haven't left Symi since May!

The weather continues warm and sunny.  Midday temperatures are around 30 degrees, dropping to around 20 at night.  The storms and rain that have affected the Western and Central Mediterranean sweep north over the Greek mainland and the Balkans.

We are still some weeks away from the first rains, even though the 'second spring' that is the Symi autumn is already under way.  Plants are less stressed and starting to grow again. The plumbago and jasmines are flowering for the second time this year, as are the tamarisks.  The squills are poking through. The plant shops will soon be selling vegetable seeds and seedlings again, ready for the moment the ground is soft enough to till.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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September Symi Sunshine

The view from Symi Visitor Accommodation this morning.  The harbour is much quieter with fewer boats now that the Turkish holidays are over.

What the best-dressed yachts are wearing this year - a pink inflatable flamingo!

It takes a long time for the sun to reach the Kali Strata in the morning.  Only 10 days or so to the equinox.

Hello!

The squills are back.  They are the first sign of the approaching rainy season, punching up through the hard-baked earth.  The leaves follow much later. The bulbs are like gigantic onions and are traditionally tied to the front door for good luck at New Year.

Castle walls.

The morning sun reaches Pedi quite late too.

Sunset over the windmills of Chorio.

And on Pedi bay.

The floating crane has gone, revealing the current state of the new commercial harbour.  The streetlights are already up and it looks as though there isn't much left to do before it becomes functional.  The idea is that the big car ferries like the Blue Star will dock here instead of the clock tower, reducing the amount of heavy traffic around the harbour.

Monday morning rush hour on the Kali Strata.

It looks as though this grape vine  near the high school has found a cistern or septic tank.

Spotted on the quay last week. This one is registered in Malta.

The children are back in school. The French, Italians and Turks have gone home.  September is the month for couples who can chose their holiday times and don't have to worry about school terms, either because their children are very young or because they have long since flown the nest.  It is a popular month for British and northern Europeans.  It is also a popular month for weddings on Symi - our congratulations to Neil Gosling and James Collins of Symi Dream who celebrated their civil partnership on Friday and to Mike and Sarah Porretta who are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their wedding on Symi.

The weather is warm without the scorching temperatures that we experienced in late June, July and early August.  When it is still it is quite hazy and humid. When the breeze blows it is from the west and visibility clears for miles.  The sea is as warm as it is going to get and the weather remains fairly settled. The thunderstorms experienced in Spain and Italy at the moment seem to be tracking north as they reach the Adriatic, leaving the Aegean in sunshine.

Have a lovely week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Good bye September! Hello October!

Celestyal Cruises called into Symi on Wednesday afternoon.  With the current uncertainty regarding Turkey and Egypt as cruise ship destinations, Greece in general and Symi in particular are seeing a lot more cruise ships.  They only stay a few hours and it is good publicity for Symi.

Salamis Filoxenia from Cyprus is another cruise ship that is a frequent visitor to Symi.  In this case, however, the passengers are not in pursuit of hedonistic pleasures  and all inclusive banquets but are predominantly Greek Orthodox Cypriots visiting the main religious sites in the Dodecanese.   As Symi is home to 3 well known monasteries dedicated to St Michael, the chief of which is Panormitis,  Symi is a place of pilgrimage.  

The  colourful scene from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office balcony on Thursday morning.  As you can see, the fishing caiques are moving back into the head of the harbour now that the summer excursion boats are heading for the boat yards.

Just in case you hadn't noticed them in the previous photo, I zoomed in on the pigeons to bring them to your attention.  I don't know who is feeding them but this is a new phenomenon  Perhaps the pigeons have taken over from the lonesome duck of previous years. They certainly look fat enough.

Smiling down serenely from a pediment on the Kali Strata.

There is no way of escaping steps on Symi. This is idiosyncratic collection of random flights connects Villa Papanikola, just visible with the cream paintwork and dark blue shutters, with the mid section of the Kali Strata. The piecemeal nature of such routes is because each property owner built his own access steps when he built his house.

This flourishing fig tree must have its roots in the cistern of this ruined mansion on the Kali Strata. As Symi has no rivers, lakes or streams to provide a water supply, every house has a cistern.  Originally used to harvest rainwater from the roof in the winter, these days most houses get top ups from the municipality with varying degrees of frequency during the summer.  There are very few places where there is a continuous water supply and most neighbourhoods only receive water for a few hours a week.  Cisterns, pumps and water shortages are a fact of life here

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Walking in the Valley

A privately owned solar farm in the Pedi valley.  The main use of solar power on Symi, as in many countries in the region, is in the form of solar water heaters but there are quite a lot of solar panels around once one starts looking out for them. The combination of ever increasing electricity prices and a steady reduction in the cost of solar power systems makes this an attractive proposition for rural dwellings.  Some years ago Symi municipality installed solar panels on the roofs of some of the island's reservoirs to provide power for streetlights.

Looking across the Pedi valley towards the Kastro, the oldest part of Chorio, from the path to Drakos, an early settlement on Symi that has had little archaeological attention, despite being about 2000 years old. One can see why that hill would have been an appealing site for the knights to build their castle. All that is left now are fragments of the castle walls and there is now a cluster of churches at the apex.

The path to old Drakos in the Pedi Valley - overgrown with thistles but reasonably easy to find as one follows the wall.

We were last here 10 years ago, when the wall was capped and the sign put up.  It doesn't look as though anyone has done anything to maintain it since then.  That is a small goat perched on the wall on the left, beyond the squill.

Symi has no shortage of mysterious old walls and terraces and in many cases little is known about who built them or why.  As you can see, this is an incredibly arid landscape with little soil to sustain agricultural activities.

This length of dry stone walling has collapsed along the path and the vegetation is taking over.

If you are on Symi now and are wondering why your eyes are itching and you are sneezing you may be allergic to tamarisk pollen.  Tamarisk trees have very fine wispy flowers and produce clouds of very fine pollen.

The Symi Flower shop is in autumn mode now - lettuce and brassica seedlings, onion and garlic sets and broad bean seeds have taken over from flowers and pot plants.  The rainy season can't be far away now and it is important to make the most of the crucial combination of warm days and water to get the vegetables started before the cold dark days of winter take over.  The rainy season runs roughly from October to March and is the main growing period in the Mediterranean basin.

The water taxis are busy, taking visitors and locals to the beaches.  With temperatures in the mid to high twenties and the sea still pleasantly warm, a day with friends on one of Symi's picturesque beaches is an important part of any Symi holiday.

Yialos in the early morning light.

Autumn is taking over from summer and the season is drawing to a close.  Temperatures are pleasantly mild - between 25 and 28 degrees during the day, falling to around 18 degrees in the evenings. The breeze has turned cooler and the humidity is gone.  The harvest moon has been replaced by clear star-spangled skies and visibility is infinite.

Many of the boutiques in the harbour have clearance sales now as they will be closing in a week or two.  If you want to buy designer beachwear with 50% discounts, now is the time.

The ferry schedule for October comes into effect at the end of the week. If you are planning on coming to Symi in October, it is a good idea to check Dodecanese Seaways and Blue Star Ferries when making your plans as overnight ferries from Rhodes to Symi come to an end after 1 October.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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