Saturday 6 August 2011

A boattrip to Spinalonga - the leper island...

Read this in Swedish: En båttur till Spinalonga - spetälskeön...

Our sons and I made a small excursion to Spinalonga (officially "Kalydon") the other day. We drove to Elounda and took the boat from there. One can also take boats from Ag. Nikolaous (approximately 1 hour to Spinalonga) and from Plaka (about 10 minutes). From Elounda it takes about 20 minutes.

It costs 10 euro for adults and 5 euro for children (from Elounda), round-trip ticket. At Spinalonga you pay a small entrance fee of 2 euro.


The island Spinalonga has become very famous after the bestseller written by Victoria Hislop; "The island".

It is so beautiful there with fantastic views, and ruins from the Venetian period when the island was a fortress. There are also a lot of ruins from other periods as well as from the years 1903-1957, when Spinalonga was a leper colony. Since then the island is uninhabited.


It really is an island with an amazing history and well worth seeing! Above a leprapacient has written his/hers initials and the year 1938 in the by then fresh concrete...

We had one hour to walk around the island. Here our boat is coming back with a few more visitors and to bring us back to the mainland.

Trailer from the VERY successful Greek TV serial based on the bestseller:



Some of the best pictures from Spinalonga I have put in my photoblog: Greece in my Heart!

Post might of interest:
Spinalonga as background for Tyra Banks and America's Next Top Model

More posts about Crete:

6 comments:

Regina Pefanis Schlee said...

These are beautiful pictures, Eva. My husband and I visited Crete a few years ago and were surprised at all the beautiful places that were virtually unknown.

eva i Aten said...

Thanks a lot, Regina! Maybe you even know some places I haven't seen or heard about! Do you have any suggestions of forgotten places?
Φιλάκια!

Buzzie44 said...

is there a possibility that the tv programme on Spinalonga has been dubbed with English. I really would love to watch it but i do not understand Greek!!

eva i Aten said...

Hello Buzzie! I have tried to find out if there is any English subtitles, but as far as I can see only a few trailers are translated, which is strange. Why to translate trailers if you can not see the program? I wrote an e-mail today to Mega and asked, so I'll be back about this!

Francesca Muir said...

Great post as I LOVE this island - such a haunting, spiritual place - and I am drawn back to it again and again. I too would love to know is there is a sub-titled version of the TV series.
Φιλάκια! F

Eva in Athens, Greece said...

@Francesca
Thanyou very much for your nice comment!Mega never answered my e-mail, so unfortunately I don't know if there is any subtitled version.
Best wishes♥