Chóra - Maráthi - Ftélia -
Ano Merá
Evaluation:
This walks leads from Chóra
to Ano Merá, the ancient capital of the island, while following some
paved
roads and a few trails. Deserves
**.
[The translation of
this walk was
made with some help of Google translate - so, do not mind the mistakes...]
Estimated time:
The actual walking time
(AWT) for walking to the beach of Ftélia is about 1h50, and then it takes 40
minutes to reach Ano Merá. The actual time thus amounts to a total of 2h20 - we
walked a little more than four hours (total time), from 10.00am to 2.15pm...
Route description:
(0h00)
You can already see the Bóni mill from the square with the taxis, so you take
the stairs towards the mill, which goes up between the restaurants located at
the rear of the place. While keeping a little to the left, you ascend a
beautiful old staircase, which eventually reaches the asphalt road, near a
chapel with a red roof - a little to the right stands the Bóni mill, where the
Museum of Agriculture is located. You enjoy a beautiful view of Chóra.
(0h06) After your visit of the mill,
you should retrace your steps for a while, in order to take the staircase in
front of the chapel: it rises between old and new houses. You keep to the left,
the steps become concrete and so you get to the upper road, next to the Shell
petrol station.
(0h12) You go to the left, and
continue straight on at the roundabout (direction Ftélia and Ano Merá). You
should now follow this broad road for 10 minutes.
(0h22) A little beyond the Hondos
Center, you take a small road to the LEFT (sign to Agios Aléxandros). Two 2
minutes later, there is a junction where you keep to the right; the little road
veers left, but near the next junction, you again keep to the right - and you
still continue between the houses. You descend into the interior of the island
and close to a heavy wall that surrounds a beautiful house, you keep to the
left. But at the angle of a wall, you do NOT go left, but you continue straight
on a vague "path" strewn with construction waste.
(0h37) The trail becomes better, you
go left at a bifurcation and you continue pleasantly for another 3 minutes – but
then there is again a concrete road near other brand new houses - on the left,
you see everywhere new constructions! You continue on the concrete road towards
the lake you already are seeing. You veer left and you get to a crossroad: in
front there is a useless path, you thus turn right. You continue straight on a
winding road, but about 10 meters before reaching another crossroad, you can
finally take a grassy path that begins on the LEFT side, between a wall and
utility poles.
(0h44) You follow this rather nice
trail for 3 minutes - there are flowers, but also a lot of plastic, and you
again arrive on concrete, next to new houses.
(0h50) You get in this way to the
asphalt road that you follow to the right; after 4-5 minutes, you arrive at a
crossroads next to the chapel of Agios Panteleímonas. You turn right here, but
after 400 meters or 5 minutes, you go left, right to the artificial lake: here
you discover another aspect of Mýkonos, with a landscape spoiled by trash, old
and new buildings, concrete pipes, old trucks, etc.
(1h06) You thus arrive next to the
storage lake of Maráthi and you follow the gravel road to the right: it follows
in wide turns the shore of the artificial lake, and this for about 1 km.
After 14 minutes, you take the small side road up to the right, just before some
new houses with further a chapel with a red roof. But already after 20-30
meters, you find in a bend a wide trail that starts on the left between walls,
straight to the beach of Ftélia. This trail is sometimes so overgrown with grass
(spring 2013), that you are obliged to continue to the right of the trail, on
the terraces. You describe a few turns left and right and you pass an old and a
new well.
(1h31) After a little more than 11
minutes, you arrive between a small square building and a chapel with a red
roof: here there is a narrow trail that continues straight, but we prefer to
keep to the RIGHT along the chapel, in order to follow a gravel road which
becomes further concrete. You may not take a left too fast, but only after 4-5
minutes, where the concrete becomes gravel, you should take the trail that
starts on the left between walls.
(1h35) Now you can finally follow a
grassy and nice monopáti for 8 minutes. Halfway, you pass through a gate in
reinforcing steel, and towards the end, you pass through two other gates, the
second of which is very difficult to open. You veer left and you get to a small
asphalt road, which you follow to the left of course. The road becomes sandy,
and after 2 minutes, there is a junction where you keep to the LEFT (to the
right, a sign indicates the beach bar Alemagou).
(1h50) You reach the beach that is
dirty and not very appealing - maybe it will be better in summer?
You follow the beach to the right for 3-4 minutes, until you come to a small
rocky cape: here you take the sandy road to the right, which winds through piles
of sand, sometimes strewn with rubbish - and you continue towards the beginning
of the paved road.
You follow this road uphill for a few minutes, then you get in a right turn.
(2h05) Fortunately, you can take a
small gravel road on the left – it passes a few houses and a chapel. Just past
the last house, you take the wide path that goes up between walls, in front of
you.
This steep trail gets after 5 minutes again to the asphalt road and so you
continue up to Ano Merá.
Just beyond the war memorial, you should take the street diagonally to the
right: it leads up to the famous monastery of Tourlianí, with the big platía to
the right. (2h18)
The monastery of
Panagía Tourlianí is located along one of the long sides of the square. At first
sight this monastery looks rather insignificant, hidden behind a heavy outer
wall. But behind the wall and the fortified gate you find an elegant church
dating from 1767. In that year the church was rebuilt after the destruction of
an earlier monastery from the 16th century. Inside, the monastery
contains a lot of cells and it is much bigger than expected; also the elegant
campanile, built with marble from Tínos, is remarkable. The richly decorated and
baroque ikonostási is striking as well – it is made by craftsmen from Florence
and it dates from the year 1775.