Day 16 – Tinos

We wanted to go to Tinos town primarily for the famous church, the church of Panagia Evangelistic which is the most important Orthodox pilgrimage site of Greece where the miraculous icon of the Virgin was found.   Pilgrims kiss the icon praying for a miracle, many crawling 800M on theirs knees up the hill from the harbour to the church.  We’re not at all religious but it is moving to see people with such belief and faith.  The church and carpet up the hill is amazing, but there’s so much more to Tinos than we thought.

Our journey to Tinos from syros was the only wet and cloudy day we’ve had so far.   It was only 20 miles but was a bit cold and miserable,  but with the spray hood up we had some shelter.  When we arrived there was a ferry in the outer harbour and another arriving, it turns out tinos is the M25 for ferries!  The pilot guide had already said the ferries needed most of the inner harbour to turn so we waited until both had gone before going in.  Happy days there was a harbour master who told us to park side too on the southern side of the harbour (in front of one of the permanent residents parked stern too on the main quay).   There’s also more stem to parking just along from where we were so space shouldn’t be an issue.

So Tinos is such a lovely town, very Greek and not overly touristy.   It’s pretty busy and full on, loads of traffic from the ferries and it just feels like a proper Greek working town.  There’s are loads of shops selling religious souvenir tat and some of the biggest candles I’ve ever seen.  But then behind the main streets there is a maze of back streets and alleys with bars, tavernas and cafes.

After we moored up we went for a mooch and ended up eating a pita gyros in a local Greek ‘fast food’ restaurant (a pita shaped in a cone with shaved pork or chicken, tomatoe, sauce or tatziki and chips).   Bad for you, but delicious!

After a wee rest on the boat we headed out for dinner and ended up having a drink in a bar with locals, followed by dinner in a small restaurant owned and run by a local family.   All very Greek, we felt really foreign, it was lovely!

The next morning we had a proper look around taking pictures and also went up to the church.  As I said before we’re not religious but nonetheless we did light candies for two dear friends.

If Tinos isn’t on your must visit list, get it on!!!!!

Yammas!