Greece - Korina Miller [516]
Kinky Bar ( 6973667489; midnight-5am Wed, Fri & Sat) The island’s only real club is a stylish place surrounded by trees and very popular with Greeks. It operates three days a week, from June through August only. Find it in Avlonas (3km from town) on the road towards Agios Ioannis Beach and Kaspakas.
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WESTERN LIMNOS
North of Myrina, the road left after Kaspakas village accesses the fairly quiet Agios Ioannis Beach, with a few tavernas and beach houses. The beach ends with the aptly named Rock Café, set nicely beneath a large overhanging volcanic slab.
After Kaspakas, drive east and turn left at Kornos, and follow the road northwards to remote Gomati Beach on the north coast; a good dirt road gets there from Katalako.
Alternatively, drive east from Kaspakas and continue past Kornos, turning south at Livadohori. This road passes barren, tawny hills and modest farmlands. Further south along the coast, Kontias is a fairly prosaic, plastered old village now inexplicably popular among Northern European property hunters. Below Kontias the road swings southwest back to Myrina, on the way passing the sandy Nevgatis Beach and Thanos Beach. Although they’re very popular and get crowded, these beaches are truly idyllic and only a 10-minute drive from Myrina.
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CENTRAL LIMNOS
Central Limnos’ flat plateaus are dotted with wheat fields, small vineyards and sheep – plus the Greek Air Force’s central command (large parts are thus off-limits to tourists). Limnos’ second-largest town, Moudros, occupies the eastern side of muddy Moudros Bay, famous for its role as the principal base for the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in February 1915.
The East Moudros Military Cemetery, with the graves of Commonwealth soldiers from the Gallipoli campaign, is 1km east of Moudros on the Roussopouli road. Here you can read a short history of the Gallipoli campaign. A second Commonwealth cemetery, Portianos War Cemetery (6km south of Livadohori on the road to Thanos Beach and Myrina) is the area’s other sombre attraction.
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EASTERN LIMNOS
Historical remnants and remote beaches draw visitors to eastern Limnos. Its three archaeological sites (admission free; 8am-7pm) include four ancient settlements at Poliohni on the southeast coast, the most significant being a pre-Mycenaean city that pre-dated Troy VI (1800–1275 BC). The site is well presented, but remains are few.
The second site, the Sanctuary of the Kabeiroi (Ta Kaviria), lies on remote Tigani Bay. The worship of the Kabeiroi gods here actually pre-dates that which took place on Samothraki. The major site, a Hellenistic sanctuary, has 11 columns. Nearby, the legendary Cave of Philoctetes is supposedly where that Trojan War hero was abandoned while his gangrenous, snake-bitten leg healed. A path from the site leads to the sea cave; there’s also a narrow, unmarked entrance to the left past the main entrance.
To reach the sanctuary, take the left-hand turn-off after Kontopouli for 5km; from Kontopouli itself, a dirt road accesses the third site, Hephaistia (Ta Ifestia), once Limnos’ main city. It’s where Hephaestus, god of fire and metallurgy, was hurled down from Mt Olympus by Zeus. Little remains, however, other than low walls and a partially excavated theatre.
Limnos’ northeastern tip has some rustic, little-visited villages, plus remote Keros Beach, popular with windsurfers. Flocks of flamingos sometimes strut on shallow Lake Alyki. From Cape Plaka, at Limnos’ northeastern tip, Samothraki and Imvros (Gökçeada in Turkish) are visible. These three islands were historically considered as forming a strategic triangle for the defence of the Dardanelles, and thus İstanbul (Constantinople); this was Turkey’s case for clinging to Imvros in 1923, even after Greece had won back most of its other islands a decade earlier.
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AGIOS EFSTRATIOS ΑΓΙΟΣ ΕΥΣΤΡΑΤΙΟΣ
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Little-visited Agios Efstratios lies isolated in the