Day 8 Ferry to Amorgos & Arrival Aegialis
Thursday Sep 6
All up for full Greek 5:30am breakfast at Triton. Bags in lobby, prechecked out thenight before. All 11 of us make our way through the crowds, buses and taxis to the Hellenic Seaways HighSpeed4 big (~1000 pax, ~180 vehicles) hydrofoil. Joined by the 6 others from Athens, our group of 17 was on our way to Amorgos with the 0715 departure!
Plenty of window seats to enjoy the view! We saw the Blue Star “Naxos” leaving ahead of us, headed to Paros, Naxos and Santorini – the very ship we’d be returning on from Amorgos. About 30 minutes later with Piraeus fading in the distance behind us, we easily passed the “Naxos” doing 36 knots (~41mph) to its ~25 knots.
Soon islands, shipping, yachts, other things of interest. We had good views out the windows but because of the speed, we were not allowed to go out on the small open deck aft – only for arrival and shortly after departure for the outside view.
This gave us all a chance to be with each other and catch up. Plus good internet connection via roaming cellular if needed all the way.
First port, Paros, then our familiar Naxos (we’d stayed there for 5 days last year and loved it), down the west coast and under the southern end of Naxos to Koufonisi, an island SE of Naxos, then the high peak and length of Amorgos started coming out of the haze.
We all headed for the loading deck to get our bags as we made our final approach to Katapola and lowered the ramp.
Our Aegialis Hotel & Spa bus and welcoming group was waiting for us. We loaded with another yoga group from Taiwan then headed north up over the high pass by the capital Chora.
Arrival at 1430 at Aegialis!! with a big group to welcome us! Checkin, rooms assigned, exploring and finalizing our group’s plans and logistics, then our first yoga practice in our Ananda Shala at 6 followed by sunset rooftop meditation at 7, then huge Greek buffet dinner at 8!!
We were well on our way to Amorgos time!!