Click here to download our day 6 itinerary, photos and points of interest as *.kmz for Google Earth.
The long excursion day started with visiting the Byzantian church Panaghia Krina, (see e.g. external website, Wikipedia (German)). The church is from 13th Century whose exterior is composed of small stone structure complete with great arches and domed ceilings. Unfortunately we could see it only from the outside, it was closed for renovation and covered with scaffold and could not be entered. The old olive grove next to the church was really impressive and justified the trip for us. It is a bit complicated to find the location of the church as it is poorly marked on the maps and road signs do not really help. The best strategy is to first find the village “Vavyli” where you can ask the locals about the church.
Driving to our main target Nea Moni Monastry, we made short stops on the way to take a look at little chapels by the road from Thelopotami to Ag. Gregorios. This road offers great view to the eastern coast of the island.
We continued up north in order to reach Nea Moni monastry. From the road taken it is possible to enjoy a great mountainous/hilly scenery, mainly uninhabited with fantasic views to the east and west coasts of the island. The road itself is in very good condition.
Arrving at Nea Moni Monastry, a UNESCO world cultural heritage (see UNESCO, Wikipedia) is already a very pleasant experience when you see the siluethe of the whole complex from a distance in the pine forests. The Monastry itself is indeed a very impressive complex, composed of a Katholikon, Tower, 
some ancient monk cells, dining hall, two little chapels and some remainings of the first settlement and ancient Byzantine walls. It is originally erected during the mid 11th century. Thanks to a EU grant, the restoration activities are finally almost over. Inside the Katholikon is very well renovated and very impressive with frescoes and mosaics, though most of them have unfortunately been destroyed due to the Ottoman Massacre, wars, earthquake and fires.
Area around Nea Moni reminded us of Cirali, Turkey, because of the high density of pines.
Another interesting landmark for us was that in many places of the island, man made terraces limited by stone walls can be found. Our guess is that these terraces were made in order to support the cultivation of agricultural products such as olives, mystic gum etc.
Driving back to the cost, we passed by the windmills at the coast, north of Chios, on the way to Vrondadhos. We took a look at them and made pictures from a distance. There was also a Tavern next to them, looked promising however we did not try it as we wanted to save the appetite to the supper at Taverna Markellos.
Heading up to the north, we have run into a harbour with several old ferryboats (maybe Minidis) and a small harbor with a shipyard (Ormos Anatolikos Pantoukios according to Google Earth information).
However, continuing to the north from Chios city, there are not so many highlights apart from the hilly landscape that have much less plant cover. it seemed to be a dry area, but still impressive and enjoyable. Signed Hiking pathes are available.
Finally we entered the high plain of Pityos, through a mountain pass with a huge cross, a few cows welcome us there.
Around late afternoon, we have reached Pityos, the passage to our lunch/supper destination. The village itself looked authentic with remainings of a castle and is suprisingly quite green after the very dry area it is surrounded however we did not spend anytime here and just drove through to reach to the Taverna Makellos as quick as possible. 
The food is gorgeous, everything is home-made, very fresh and delicious. It is especially a unique experience to taste the home-made pasta or better to say first watch it while being done by the ladies and then eat it directly.
After the supper, we continued towards Volissos (see e.g. Wikipedia) close to the western coast of the island. We have the impression that forest fires have been influencing the landscape along the road significantly. The castle of Volissos is an impressive landmark, looked so especially when illuminated after the sunset, but we decided to continue to the beach in order to reach it before the sun goes down.
In the end we arrived at a very nice beach place with a monastry called “Agia Markella” a few kilometres west of Voliossos (see Wikipedia and a commercial website about Chios for some information about Saint Markella). This beach offers sand, pebbles, clean water and a great possibility to witness sundown.
On the way from Volissos to Agia Markella there are a few more inviting beaches, take a look to our detailed information for Google Maps / Google Earth.
We drove back to our hotel, quite a long trip. We passed the west coast of the island – as it was dark we could only imagine the beauty of the landscape. As we were still not so hungry after the food at Makellos, we bought nice desserts at a bakery in Chios city and ate them at our huge and comfortable hotel room at Mavrokardatiko, while sorting out the pictures of the day.
Final Tips:
- Clicking on one of our photos above will open a bigger version of it in a new browser window.
- Click here for an overview of our trip “Greek islands 2008″
- In case you have a question, just leave a comment on this article!
June 4, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Beautiful photos,interesting info.