The marina is set in steep cliffs, just yards away from the picturesque Old Town, with a large church overlooking the fishing harbour.
Thursday, after taking advantage of the town’s launderette we walked along the coast to Therma, and experienced the hot (in some places – very hot) natural thermal spring coming out of the base of a cliff into a small rocky cove. At last a decent sea temperature! The advice is not to stay in for more than 30mins, as the water contains
concentrations of Radon. However in the centre of the village were public baths, where for a small fee one could experience this radioactive water in your own bath tub or jacuzzi followed by a 4 hour towel wrap for therapy. We didn’t bother!, although Ikaria is one of the few ‘blue’ islands in the world where inhabitants routinely live much longer than other populations, so perhaps this radioactive water is the key?
Having experienced Agios Kirykos in a few hours, we unfortunately failed to hire a car for Friday, or find a bus that would take us somewhere interesting and bring us back. So the Archaeological museum on Friday was a last resort, although it did exceed our expectations with hundreds of almost perfectly preserved pottery and porcelain pieces. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, the folklore museum was closed.
One thing we did experience were cinnamon rolls to die for. This was a speciality of the local artisan bakery, fresh, moist and full of flavour. And the black (brown) bread had a good crust and great flavour.
With a slight lull in the forever blowing northerlies, like many other boats in the marina, we made our escape on Saturday morning.
