Last year we went to Poros and this year we again visited the Argo-Saronic islands- Aegina.. We left the UK on the hottest day of the year and arrived in Athens on their wettest day in living memory. Our ferry was delayed by 20 minutes by the harbour authority because of a thunderstorm but the Seajet made light work of the driving rain although we could see nothing out of the windows. The rain had more or less stopped when we arrived in Aegina but there were puddles everywhere. There was no taxi to be seen. We phoned our Greek agents, out of office, no reply. We phoned the hotel and they kindly came and picked us up in a private car, going a long way round to avoid flooded and blocked roads. Later the taxi driver phoned the hotel to apologise, she couldn’t get through a flooded road.
The next day was cloudy and we did a local walk in each direction along the coast. Roads were covered in slippery mud (the island soil is clay), beaches were roped off because of erosion or covered with debris, especially seaweed, the pistachio fields for which the island is famous were flooded, some drystone walls had collapsed and some residents had their soft furnishings outside to dry off in the sun. One woman told us later that she had thought she was going to drown in her basement room.
Our hotel had a lovely garden and our balcony gave us a view across it to the archaeological site of ancient Kolona and the sea beyond. It was only 5 minutes walk to the site, dodging drivers ignoring the one-way streets and pedestrian crossings.    It was a very interesting site with walls and buildings from successive occupations from 3,000BC to the Byzantine period and capped by the remains of a temple of Apollo. There was a good bus service and we used it to visit the other ancient site- the temple of Aphaia, daughter of Zeus- the only place in Greece where she was worshipped. Bothe sites had informative museums which pointed out that the best finds from work in the 19th century by British and German archaeologists had ended up in Munich and the BM.
We also visited the very impressive 1973 church of Ayos Nectarios, the second largest in Greece which was packed on the Sunday with worshippers emerging with their hunks of communion bread to climb the ramped path to the adjacent monastery where the saint’s remains were. We had planned to go on from there to walk round Paliochora: a hillside village sacked by Barbarossa and abandoned, leaving some 35 churches, some with frescoes. Sadly, the path was poorly marked, rough and eroded and the couple we did get to were locked and it was very hot by then so we retraced our steps to the taverna opposite the church for a cool drink until the return bus arrived.
On alternate days we relaxed on one of three beaches. The town beach near Kolona was popular with locals, especially after lunch (most shops and businesses kept traditional hours, closing for the mikro hypno siesta period) and provided good views of the stream of ferries of all sizes and vintages, bringing vehicles and visitors, especially day visitors from Athens, some of who paid high sums to travel in luxury in a mini-cruise ship. There was a reef protecting the beach from invading boats which was popular with cormorants, the most common bird we saw during our stay.   All the beaches with bars or cantinas were kept very clean and there were lots of recycling bins but also a lot of grafitti, nearly as band as Athens. We also found a beach not on the bus rout but 1 40 minute walk which was much quieter and the cantina sold basic snacks and cold drinks. It also had a good view of the nature reserve island of Moni which had goats (none on Aegina, even on menus), deer and peacocks. We also took the bus to Marathonas beach with several restaurants, free sunbeds and umbrellas and a useful supermarket. We were impressed that all the beaches had facilities for disabled bathers.
I mentioned the clay soil. The island is covered mainly with Pistachio trees, a few olives and vines. We were there for the Pistachio Festival to celebrate the harvest. The main harbour was the setting for 20+ stalls selling local produce: jewelry, ceramics, fabrics, honey and, of course, everything pistachio. There were cookery demonstrations, most restaurants had at least one pistachio dish on the menu and there were a series of free concerts on stage set up near the ferry dock. We caught the end of two: a large bouzouki orchestra, a soft rock concert, VERY popular, by Dimitri Bazis and the start of one by power ballad singer Yanna Vasiliou whose concert started with long speeches by, I guessed the mayor and chair of either the festival committee or the Pistachio Growers Cooperative. Despite all the seats being full people were standing, sitting on harbour walls and bollards and generally wandering about, prams, kiddies, dogs, bikes. I didn’t see anyone fall in the harbour…There were late ferries to take the day visitors back to Athens afterwards.
The food on the island was excellent. There were lots of seafood, including eels and manat ray and a thriving wet fish market served by lots of local boats.   Several dishes stuffed with pistachio and lots of pistachio ice-cream on offer. When in Greece we prefer to eat by the sea but we have learned that some of the best eateries, favoured by locals are to be found in the back streets. We dined twice at a Cretan restaurant in one such street. The had a guitarist and bouzouki player several nights who did Greek tunes, not just the tourist stuff. The first time we went they gave us free raki after the meal. The second time they gave us large glasses of ouzo. I had to drink both as Sheila doesn’t loke it (this was after the wine we’d ordered). Then I asked if bougatsa listed on the menu was available ( usually melon is the only sweet served in the evenings) not only was it available it was clearly freshly made and came with a small carafe of raki. When the bouzouki player went off for a break the guitar player did a medley of 60s pop hits: Satisfaction, Another Brick in the Wall, Hotel California and the song that my friend and guitarist George in Kalymnos always insists I sing (every night!): House of the Rising Sun. Luckily he only did one verse so I wasn’t tempted to join in despite the alcohol (Sheila was giving me the “Don’t you dare” look).
There were lots of sailing yachts, mostly laid up and only one superyacht, unlike Poros but usually something coming and going in the harbour.
We left Greece in 30 degree sunshine, our transfer from the ferry took us the scenic route round the coast to the airport as we were in good time, better than the motorway, nd we arrived in Heathrow in a torrential rainstorm so full circle. Next year, possibly Agistri, the smallest island in the group. I’ll be 80 then and probably not walking quite so far.
RtS