Further up the Kali Strata

As I said in the last post the Kali Strata is the main 'street' between the harbour and the old town at the top off the hill in Symi. It is lined by the houses built by rich merchants in the 19th century. During the war the island was occupied and damaged by bombs and departing German army.
Many of the houses are still ruined, awaiting someone with a large amount of money to rebuild.
Because of the amount of classical houses on Symi any building built must be built in the local style, and as there is no vehicle access to the street the cost can be astronomic.

 But when the houses are restored the results are beautiful.

Up the Kali Strata

I am going to be blogging some of the images I took on our summer holiday in Greece.
We booked at the last moment without doing any research, not like me at all. Well I say no research, but as the girl in the travel agent was pulling up destinations I was frantically searching on my phone.
Our original plan was a hotel with a pool, near a beach, either half board or B&B and near an airport. We ended up on the beautiful island of Symi.
Never heard of it?
Neither had I!
Well it turns out its a small island about an hour and a half from Rhodes by ferry. Sitting about 5 miles off the Turkish coast.  The island has no natural water so no swimming pools, all the water either comes in by boat or from the local desalination plant. Traditionally each house had a cistern to store water from the winter rain, but this is not enough for a tourist trade. Also I would add that all the beaches are a boat trip or long walk away and we were in self catering!
So almost exactly what we had wanted originally!
Anyway we arrived safely and the island was everything we wanted for a holiday. The town of Symi is split into Yialos which is the area around the harbour and Chorio which is the older part of town up on the top of the hill. The two parts of town are linked by the Kali Strata a stone stepped street lined with old buildings.

I will put a few more images of the street up as I get them processed.