A Hydra boat trip is a sea trip to Hydra, the Greek island in the Saronic Gulf. It is one of the Greece tours that join a stone harbour town, island history and the neighbouring islands.
What is a Hydra boat trip?
Hydra boat trip is a journey by sea to the island of Hydra in Greece. Visitors choose it to meet a place with a long and eventful past. That past still shapes how the island lives, works and welcomes people today.
Early settlement left signs on the island that a Hydra boat trip reaches. Archaeologists have found obsidian from the island of Milos on Hydra. Obsidian is hard volcanic glass used for sharp tools. Mount Chorissa gave up vase fragments, an idol’s head and tools. An idol is a carved figure people worshipped.
Apparently, the first truly Hydriot vessel was launched in 1657. Hydriot means from Hydra, and a vessel is a ship. Hydra’s maritime growth stalled until after 1718 because of conflict between Venice and the Ottomans. Maritime means linked to the sea. A Hydra boat trip is a fitting way to learn that sea story.
Hard times also marked the island’s story. Hydra suffered famine between 1941 and 1943, during the Axis occupation of Greece. Occupation here means that foreign armed forces held the country by force. An estimated eight per cent of Hydra’s people died of starvation. Famine is a period when food runs very short.
- Early gap: The Dorian invasion, around the 12th century before the common era, appears to have left Hydra empty.
- Disease: A plague, a deadly spreading disease, killed a large part of Hydra’s population in 1792.
- Visitors: Hydra’s economy depends on tourism, and people from Athens form a sizable share of its visitors.
Hydra’s municipality, meaning its local government area, has been twinned with Ereğli in Turkey since 1996. Twinning links two places in a formal partnership. Together, these facts show that a Hydra boat trip leads to a place with real depth.
What does a Hydra boat trip gain from Hydra Town?
A Hydra boat trip reaches a port town whose harbour is ringed by captains’ mansions. Mansions are large, grand houses, and these ones testify to the wealth shipping brought Hydra. A harbour is the sheltered part of the sea where boats tie up.
Napoleon features in the story of Hydra Town. He gave Hydra the cathedral’s huge silver chandelier, a large light that hangs from a ceiling. The gift thanked Hydriots, the people of Hydra, for running the British blockade. A blockade is a ring of warships that stops other ships from entering a port.
Hydra’s boat story gives a Hydra boat trip its background. The first truly Hydriot vessel is said to have been launched in 1657. Hydriot means from Hydra, and a vessel is a ship. Heavy tariffs and taxes limited the speed of Hydra’s development, which means they slowed its growth. Tariffs are charges on traded goods.
Sailors matter as much as ships in the story of a Hydra boat trip, because ships need crews. Anastasios Tsamados was captain of the brig Aris, a sailing ship with two masts. He died heroically at the Battle of Sphacteria in 1825. His name belongs to the island’s sea history.
- Language: Even in the 20th century, wealthy local families such as the Koundouriotis spoke the Arvanitika tongue on Hydra.
- Weaving school: A Tsamados house up on the hill over the port was donated to the church as a weaving school.
- Theatre: Hydrama Theatre and Arts Centre stages theatre and dance productions during the Hydra Performing Arts Festival.
Hydra stayed on the margins of history for much of its existence. That means the island sat at the edge of events, not at their centre. Even so, Hydra Town gives a Hydra boat trip real history to read about.
What does Andreas Miaoulis bring to a Hydra boat trip?
Hydra boat trip visits gain a strong local story through Andreas Miaoulis. He was born in 1765 and became a Greek revolutionary, an admiral and a politician. An admiral is the senior commander of a navy, which is a nation’s fleet of warships.
Miaoulis was born on Hydra to a family with roots in Fylla, a town in Euboea. He had been a merchant captain, a ship master who carries goods for trade. Then the islands chose him to lead their naval forces. His story is the kind that a Hydra boat trip can bring to life.
Miaoulis commanded the expedition sent to take revenge for the massacre of Chios. A massacre is the killing of a large number of people. In 1825 he carried supplies and reinforcements, meaning extra fighters, into Missolonghi during its third siege. In a siege, enemy troops encircle a town and block the supplies reaching it.
Miaoulis led the Greek navy until Thomas Cochrane took over the role in 1827. In August 1831 he took control of the main ships of the Greek fleet at Poros. A fleet is a group of warships under one command. Facts like these give a Hydra boat trip a real chapter of naval history.
- Crown: Miaoulis was one of the delegates sent to invite King Otto to accept the Greek crown.
- Burial: He was first buried in Piraeus, near the tomb of Themistocles.
- Honour: The Hellenic Navy named a cruiser, a large warship, after him in 1879.
His son Athanasios served as Prime Minister of Greece between 1857 and 1862. The leader of a country’s government holds the title of prime minister. For anyone on a Hydra boat trip, the name Miaoulis is a good one to know.
What does a Hydra boat trip gain from Lazaros Kountouriotis?
A Hydra boat trip gains a real person’s story through the islander Lazaros Kountouriotis. His birthplace was Hydra, in April 1769. He was regarded as the First Citizen of Greece. Knowing his name gives the island’s history a clear face.
The family name Kountouriotis carries a story all its own. The Kountouriotis family descended from the younger son of an Albanian peasant. Lazaros’s grandfather, Hatzigeorgios Zervas, came back from the Kountouria region wearing local dress and took the nickname Kountouriotis. Anyone planning a Hydra boat trip can start with that name.
Lazaros was the elder of two sons, and his brother Georgios was thirteen years younger. At fourteen, he represented his father in Hydra. To represent means to act in another person’s place. The father was away on business in Genoa. His father was murdered in 1799, and Lazaros then ran the family’s interests.
Lazaros later sat in the Greek Senate of 1844. A senate is a council of leaders that helps make a country’s laws. He was also a leading figure of the War of Independence. A Hydra boat trip makes more sense once this national role of a local man is known.
- Death: Lazaros Kountouriotis died on 12 June 1852 while serving as a Senator, a member of the Senate.
- Mourning: Lazaros Kountouriotis died, and the nation then mourned for five days.
- Family: The playwright Pantelis Horn, a writer of stage plays, was the great-grandson of Lazaros Kountouriotis.
The life of Lazaros Kountouriotis ties a family, an island and a nation together in a single story. For anyone preparing for a Hydra boat trip, his story turns island history into names, dates and people. That makes the island’s past easier to follow.
What does Spetses bring to a Hydra boat trip?
Hydra boat trips are a way to meet the Greek islands. Spetses adds another island to learn about. The municipality of Spetses, the local council area, covers 27.121 km2. Besides the town of Spetses, the island has no other large settlement.
Spetses has a very old past. The Mesolithic Age, or Middle Stone Age, saw the first people occupy the island, about 8000 BC. At that time, a narrow strip of land called an isthmus linked Spetses to the Argolida mainland. The point where it joined is now named Kosta.
Through time, Spetses has been known by more than one name. The ancient name Pityussa describes a forested island full of pine trees. In the 15th century the Venetians named the island Spezia, meaning spice, after a spice trade route. A reader who plans a Hydra boat trip finds both names in the history of Spetses.
Spetses also has paths for walkers. Trails encircle the island and total about 25 to 30 km. A trail is a footpath, and encircle means that the paths run all the way round. A Hydra boat trip takes place on the water, while these trails belong to the land.
- Uninhabited islands: Spetsopoula, Falkonera and Velopoula belong to the Spetses municipality and have no inhabitants.
- Main dock: A statue of Laskarina Bouboulina, shown at life size, stands at the main dock, where boats tie up.
- Gold in wells: Captains from Spetses were so wealthy that they had been hoarding, or saving up, their gold in wells.
A Hydra boat trip is one reason to look up Spetses. The island has a long record of its own. Readers who know that record see Spetses as a place in its own right. That is what the island adds to the picture.
What does Dokos bring to a Hydra boat trip for readers?
A Hydra boat trip gains plenty of background from Dokos, an island whose history is long and layered. A narrow strait, which is a thin channel of water, separates Dokos from the Peloponnese. A map label calls this strait by the name Hydra Gulf.
The 2011 census is an official count of everyone living in a country. It reported a total population of 18 persons for the island of Dokos. That is a very small population for an island. That figure helps readers planning a Hydra boat trip picture how thinly settled the island is.
Only Orthodox monks and sheep herders live on Dokos. Orthodox monks are men who follow a religious life within the Orthodox Christian church. Sheep herders are workers who look after flocks and keep the animals fed and safe. Facts like these add real depth to a Hydra boat trip for curious readers.
Archaeological studies show that people have lived on Dokos since the Bronze Age was in its early part. Archaeology studies the human past by looking at old objects and remains found in the ground. The Bronze Age is the period of tools made from bronze, which is copper mixed with tin.
- Old name: In ancient times, the island of Dokos carried the name Aperopia.
- Castle ruins: Ruins of a great castle from Byzantine and Venetian times lie on the east side of Dokos.
- Strategic place: Since ancient times, Dokos has been seen as a strategic location, meaning one that matters for defence.
In 1975, Peter Throckmorton discovered a wreck near the island of Dokos. A wreck is what remains of a ship lost at sea. Facts such as this one make Dokos worth reading about for anyone planning a Hydra boat trip.
Which questions does a Hydra boat trip raise?
A Hydra boat trip comes with four plain facts about the place it belongs to. The Argolic Gulf lies beside it, and the Saronic Islands form its island group. A municipality holds it, and the Salamina weather station records the seasonal temperatures and rainfall.
Which gulf lies beside a Hydra boat trip?
The Argolic Gulf, a large sea bay, is 30 km wide and about 50 km long. Nafplio, the gulf’s main port, is a town where ships dock at the northwestern end. Spetses is an island, land that has water on every side, where the Argolic Gulf opens.
Which season suits a Hydra boat trip?
Salamina weather station average highs: April 21.9 °C, July 35.3 °C, October 25.1 °C. Salamina station average rainfall: April 21.3 mm, July 3.9 mm, October 24.8 mm. The Salamina station also records mild winters and very hot summers.
Which island group includes a Hydra boat trip?
Salamis, Aegina, Agistri and Poros are the main inhabited Saronic Islands, which means that people live on them. In Greek administration, the Saronic island group is part of Attica. Ferries, which are ships that carry passengers, regularly serve these Saronic Islands from Piraeus and the Peloponnese.
Which municipality holds a Hydra boat trip?
The province of Hydra, a former area of local administration, was abolished, meaning ended by law, in 2006. The current municipality, a local government area, has the same territory the province covered. From 1942 to 1964, Hydra province belonged to the Attica prefecture, a regional government area.