Greece Trip Report Day 15: Day Trip to Aegina

Day 15, Nov 23, 2018, Friday:

We had 5 full days in Athens. So decided on a day trip to Aegina to get a Greek ferry experience. After all Greece is #1 in the world in ship building.

We had the choice of the Saronic islands – Agistri, Poros & Hydra and Aegina for a day trip; their  location in the Argo-Saronic gulf is an immediate attraction. Aegina is close to the port of Pireaus on the mainland. Visitors must arrive by boat but the journey is short (between 40 and 80 minutes depending on which boat). Map below shows the location...I've circled Athens, Aegina and Nafplio in red.

The myth has it that the island took its name from the most beautiful of the twenty daughters of Asopos, the river god, who eloped with Zeus to the then deserted island. In historical terms, the island was inhabited from as early as 3500 B.C  Aegina is not as “manicured” as some islands popular with foreign tourists. It hosts mainly Greek weekend visitors. This adds to the charm.  

Took the metro from Monastiraki to Piraeus which is the port from where the ferries leave for Aegina and many other islands. Metro stations of relevance circled in red... Victoria is near Hellenic motor museum

Walked to the Blue Star ferry office. The girl directed us to the post for buying the tickets. The ticket counter was closed when we reached there, thankfully a lady guided us to another counter from where we bought the tickets for the ferry. Even the lady cleaning the toilets spoke good English.

We bought the tickets one way to Aegina for 8 euros each. Her instruction was pretty inadequate to reach our boarding gate. She said to go to exit 8. We reached exit 7, got a little confused, then somehow made it to exit 8 and boarded the ship as the last ones.

 Nice lounges. We spent most of the time on the open deck.

Views were great and we had a good time. 

We reached Aegina after an hour, 20 minutes.

Got a taxi, bargained for 30 euros for a return trip after seeing the Popular sites: the temple of Aphaia and the church of Agios Nektarios.

The drive was uphill past lovely olive tree groves on hillsides; fantastic sea views & pistachio tree orchards (Aegina’s most famous export).

 Afea/ Aphaia Temple is further up, we passed the monastery reserving it for the trip down.

 Afea/ Aphaia Temple:

 5th century BC Doric temple of Afea is beautiful. The temple forms an isosceles triangle with the Parthenon and the temple at Sounio,  

View of the sea...

Church of Agios Nektarios

We then visited the Church of Agios Nektarios (Saint Nectarios) and the monastery of Agia Triada (The Holy Trinity) that is located on a higher level overlooking the church. 

Agios Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920), is one of the most widely known Greek Orthodox Saints. At the monastery area of The Holy Trinity we can visit 2 little chapels with the old marble tomb where he was buried. Many faithful can hear the Saint blessing them if they put their ear to the tomb and listen. In the left small chapel his remains are kept in a silver box. Behind the chapels are the rooms where he used to live. Next to the chapels we can fill a bottle with holy Agios Nektarios water.

We asked to be dropped at the market adjoining the marina. We had some food,

 Walked along the lovely merina

 visited the church,

   had a pista ice cream.

 Bought 1 kg of excellent roasted salted pista from the Cooperative kiosk at the marina.

 Then we went to the Blue star ferry counter and got the tickets for the ferry back to Athens... at 1.30.

we enjoyed the marina for a little more time.

 Then walked to the port.

 Visited the lovely little church there.

 Our ferry came a little late, we boarded , it set off at once.

We landed at Athens by 3 PM.

It had been a lovely day.

We roamed the main drag between Monastiraki to Syntagma... the top brands were having a field day... Black friday crowds shopping in a frenzy...

We caught a glimpse of lighted Acropolis and called it a day

VIDEO LINK:

A short video on our time in Aegina is here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aU8yy855NRdESNAu9

Report on our 4th day in Athens, Day 16 overall, covering Hadrian's Arch, Temple of Zeus, National Garden, Benaki Museum  is here:

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2018/12/greece-trip-report-day-16-athens.html