This is the view I am greeted by each morning when I wake up and look out the window. The view over to Mykonos is great. I love watching the ferries go past during the day, and by night you can clearly see many aircraft arriving and departing from Mykonos Airport.

As we are only on Tinos for 6 nights, we decided the best way to see more of the island was to book ourselves on to a coach trip.

The daily tours are run by the local branch of the national bus operator ΚΤΕΛ. 7 days a week, the bus leaves from Χώρα.

There are two routes: one route operates on a Tuesday and a Friday – the other on all the other days. Each route takes you through the villages of Tinos and makes 5 stops. The guides tours are in Greek and in English.

I’m normally always sceptical about coach tours – but this is not one provided by an international tour operator. This is Greece’s national bus company and most of the tourists on the tour were in fact Greek.

Our first stop of the day was at the village of Ξινάρα (Xinara), where we looked round the museum and church there. The scenery here is interesting too, with the big rock in the background, it was almost like a mini-Meteora: To see what I mean, take a look at last year’s photos from Kastraki and Kalambaka.

Of Tinos’ 42 villages outside the main town, Πύργος/Pyrgos (meaning Tower) was our next stop. With narrow pedestrianised streets and a square with lots of cafenia, a bakery and post office, this made a good place to stop for a drink… and had time allowed would have been an excellent location for lunch as well.

Next on the day’s itinerary was a visit to Κολυμπήθρα beach. Kolimbithra is actually 2 beaches – ‘Megali Kolimbithra’ which is less crowded but more exposed when the wind gets up, and ‘Mikri Kolimbithra’ which has 2 tavernas and sunbeds.

The coach stopped for 1hr 45mins, giving us enough time to have souvlaki and chips at the taverna above the beach. Had time allowed, we would have liked to walk across to the larger beach, but the small one is not bad at all. There’s just more people there.

On the way back from Kolimbithra, the coach goes up to the monastery of the Virgin Mary, not far from the highest mountain on the island, with views over to Mykonos and Delos to the South, and Syros to the West.

The final stop before the coach returns you to Chora is at the Halaris patisserie, where you can try traditional sweets from Tinos, and you have the opportunity to by them too.

At a cost of €12 each (or €7 for under 12s), this was not a bad trip. There are regular busses to all the places the tour goes to so we can easily go back to spend more time at our favourite places, if we want to.

Returning back to Chora at 17:30, we got an ice cream from the mini market opposite the bus terminal, and got the minibus back to Porto – driven by the same driver who had driven the coach on the trip!

Tomorrow won’t be quite so busy I think. We plan to say around the Porto area and relax for the day. Perhaps on Sunday we will go in to Chora in the evening and eat in one of the restaurants in the narrow pedestrianised streets which lead away from the port to the residential area.

Time to get ready to go out for dinner now.

Bye for now.

FH.