The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
THE SAMOS TRAIL
TEMPLES, VILLAS AND MUSCAT WINE Hera’s birthplace
The position of Samos as one of the junction boxes of the ancient Aegean is still apparent at the Heraion (0030 227 309 5277; daily except Monday, 8am-3pm; €6). Located on the south coast, three miles west of Pythagoreio, this leafy site was – according to mythology – the birthplace of Hera, wife of Zeus. Three temples were built in her honour between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, of which the last, built under Polycrates circa 535BC, was a world wonder – 358ft long, 180ft wide and 82ft high; bigger than the Parthenon in Athens. Only one of its giant pillars still stands (at an abridged 36ft), but the one-time scale of the sanctuary, has enjoyed Unesco World Heritage status since 1992, is clear.
Ancient artifacts
The Archaeological Museum of Samos (0030 227 302 7469; odysseus. culture.gr; daily except Monday, 8am-3pm; €2) in Vathi offers a clutch of artefacts from the site – while the Archaeological Museum of Pythagoreion (0030 227 3062813; same website, hours; €7) gives broader detail on its latterday successor Pythagoreio. Most of its ruins – a bathhouse, mosaicfloored villas – date from the Roman era, but exhibits inside include
marina. Potokaki Beach, a short hop west along the south coast, makes a play for the youth vote with its jetskis and insistent music. Kokkari, a holiday haven on the north shore, lays out its best reasons to linger – the cocktails of Odyssey Beach Bar and the crepes of Beach Bar Line – along a crescent which loses nothing for wearing a cloak of pebbles.
But the jewel is Potami Beach. The north coast road carries me west to a pocket of perfection so dramatic that, for some minutes, it lifts me out of Europe completely and drops me into the mid-Pacific. There are hints of Hawaii as the sunsets, turning the imposing bluff which bookmarks the end of the beach into a tropical silhouette, as cliffs climb sharply behind. A mile distant, up a winding trail, the Potami Waterfalls pour into a narrow canyon. It could be Kauai but for the Greek authenticity supplied two miles away by Karlovasi – the Agios Nikolaos orthodox church rising in blue domes and honey-hued walls; a babble of Hellenic conversation filling Vento Café on the main square.
If the north of the island is a joy, the south-west – suddenly flat where the gradient eases between Ampelos and Kerkis – is a delight. On a woozy evening, I find myself in
The striking spire of Aghios Nikolaos church, left, near Potami beach; and two boys look across to Samos Town from the harbour, below Ormos Marathokampos – a diminutive fishing village where the scope of this summer’s shortfall is again exposed. There are five tavernas arranged along the flagstones, and unused outdoor tables at each of them. But if there is nervousness among the restaurateurs it is not transferred to the sparse clientele. The beef stifado served to me at the Kerkis Bay Hotel is rich in both meat and tomatoes. Opposite, sails flutter on the masts in the marina.
Of course, the movement of people which has left Samos in this difficult Essentials
Getting there Aegean Airlines (0871 200 0040; en.aegeanair.com) flies to Athens from London Heathrow – and on to Samos via its subsidiary Olympic Air.
Staying there Sunvil (020 8758 4758; sunvil.co.uk) offers direct charter flights to Samos from Gatwick as part of its packages. A seven-night stay in August on the south coast at the Kerkis Bay Hotel in Ormos Marathokampos costs from £722 per person (based on two sharing), including breakfast, flights and transfers. A seven-night stay at Pavlis Studios in the same village, flying on August 4, costs £629 per person – on the same basis. Touring there Samos Outdoor Travel (0030 698 060 6015; samosoutdoors. com) is offering guided hikes on the island of Samos – including a jaunt to the Cave of Pythagoras for €35 per person.
Further information See the websites visit.samos.gr; and visitgreece.gr dizzying chasms. Every facet of the 21st century disappears as I forge north through the hillside villages of Kallithea and Drakei. The latter is a full stop, the road narrowing to cobbles, then finishing abruptly on the doorstep of a squat house. There are no words of English spoken in the lone taverna which appreciates the view, and no hints of modernity.
It is easy, in such a setting, to understand why this section of Samos attracted its most famous son. According to legend, the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was born on the island in 570BC and lived in Pythagoreion until, unhappy at the excesses of Polycrates’s governance, he sought somewhere less fraught.
He found it in a cave on the south side of Kerkis, above what is now the town of Isomata, where he was able to write and think. I have to scramble to reach it, up bare rock, but I am rewarded by a rounded chamber which gazes back down the mountain in inspiring fashion. Not that this was enough to detain the great man. He moved to what is now Calabria in 530BC, searching for a more benign framework for his brilliance – though he reputedly returned some 10 years later.
Samos will hope that tourists follow his example.