Exploring Lesvos by Car #1 The Plan

We spent the next couple of weeks settling in, finding our feet, and of course trips to the vet and pet shops to get Lily sorted out with vaccinations, pet passport, litter tray, toys and all the paraphernalia required for our new crew. I’ll do a separate blog of her later.

Nicolas, as usual, goes back to France for the winter so we decided to hire a car for the three of us to visit the rest of the island before he went home and the weather was still relatively good.

“The lush, green island of Lesvos, or Mytilini as it is also called, is like no other Greek island and perhaps no other place in the world. It is the third largest of the islands in Greece behind Crete and Evia. Virtually unaffected by the mass tourism that has turned other islands into amusement parks, Lesvos is the perfect place to visit for people who want to experience the real Greece”

The above is plagiarised from an online guide introduction to Lesbos, he continues ……

“For the Greek Island traveller who is worried about not having enough to do, Lesvos is the perfect destination with amazing food, beautiful beaches, pine and hardwood forests, rivers and over a million olive trees”

I am sure that in season the narrative is true. Unfortunately however, in November, it is shut.

Being used to the wild expanses of the West Coast of Scotland with little but sheep for company it certainly didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the trip, and in many ways, despite closed amenities, having the place to yourself added to the experience.

We had earmarked a sort of clockwise exploration visiting Kalloni, through Parakila and Agra, stopping at Eressos and Sigri (for the Petrified Forrest), Antissa and finaly Molyvos before returning to Mytilini

If you follow the map our planned route was NW from Mytilini skirting the top of the first big lagoon, Kolpos Yeras, (our 1st landfall) and the second bigger one, the Gulf of Kalloni before turning SW etc.

It is a big island as you can see from the relative scale of the nearby Turkish mainland and the Greece insert , so you would probably, no definitely, need more than a day, perhaps a week or two, to do it justice. Maybe we will do, Siga Siga as the saying goes.

The end of the planning and “Nicolas farewell meal” on Camira. We were not hiring the car until the Friday so the rum was OK, and any event might have helped, as “Jaques Laffitte” wants to drive.

Mytilini Castle

In the interim we visited Mytilini Castle on foot. It’s not far – an easy walk around the main harbour from the Marina.

The castle located on the north side of Mytilini and overlooks the city is one of the largest in the Eastern Mediterranean. Its foundations were laid during the time of Justinian on the ruins of an even older fortification which can still be seen in sections of the walls. It has been used and rebuilt by the Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and the Turks and is now used in the summer for cultural events. There is a Roman or Byzantine reservoir with a 4,000 cubic meter capacity. There are also underground tunnels which cover a large area beneath the castle and the hill.

But : It shuts down in Sept and doesn’t open until April ……. ah well maybe later.