We had done a lot of research before we came and saw that this certain boat company that actually allowed you to climb the stairs to the church did Mamma Mia! tours to Skopelos from Skiathos on Wednesdays and Sundays....hence our stay here Tuesday-Thursday. So, when we sent Michael out to get tickets (they wouldn't respond to my email/Facebook requests), we were surprised to find they were only doing tours on Sundays! Ack!! Mess! Michael went down the whole port looking for other tour companies that do a Wednesday tour to Skopelos and nothing! Ugh.
So, we spent that night making a new plan and bought ferry tickets that left around 10:30 and got to the northern part of the island at 11. Then, we figured we get a taxi to drive us around and drop as the southern port around 2:30pm in time to catch a 3pm ferry. We bought the morning tickets, but not the evening ones in case we need to take the later (and slightly more expensive) 5:30pm ferry.
We got to sleep in (YAY!) and made our way down to the ferry terminal stopping for chocolate croissants (of course). We got to the terminal and 5 minutes later a ferry pulled up and it was scrolling that it's next stop was Skopelos. So, we boarded the boat. By the time we got up to the ticket taker she looked at at our tickets and said "what are these?!" and we were like "our tickets?" and it turns out they were for a different ferry!! Ack! So she sent us to another door and we told the woman we needed to get off, but it turns out we were already moving. She took us to a supervisor and when we explained our situation he let us stay on board (on the top, windy deck). Stowaways! Embarrassing! It turns out our ferry pulled up about 5 minutes after the one we boarded, but we just had no idea there would be two different ferries going to the same place at the same time! Lesson learned!!! One slight problem: this boat was going to the southern port and that was a lot farther away from the Mamma Mia! church so it wasn't clear how we would get there.
Once we got off the ferry, it was a bit of chaos as we planned out our day. The last ferry was at 5:30 so as long as we could get back by then we were good. We tried a couple of tour offices—they had nothing for us. Mike checked a rental car place, but we realized we didn’t have a drivers license with us in our daypack, so that was out. We tried to get taxis but when we told them where we wanted to go they always said it was too far and they didn’t have time. There was a bus that would go to the Mamma Mia beach, so that was our plan. Until we realized we could just have a taxi take us there and that would at least get one stop done.
So we went back to the taxi stand and waited and eventually a taxi came. We told him we wanted to go to Kastani Beach and he said get in…so we did. As we headed to the beach and explained our plan/goal for the day he said he’d take us to the church, wait, then take us to the beach, wait and get us back in time for our ferry. It was a bit pricey, but still very reasonable and suddenly the day was saved!! Yay!!
We enjoyed the scenery of this beautiful island on our 50ish minute drive to the church. Then, we got to climb the stairs to the top. So magical. Beautiful views! Anna was in heaven. We had 30 minutes there to visit the church and then it was off to our next destination. The beach where a few scenes were filmed was gorgeous! One of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen!! 20 minutes there to take some pics and back down the mountain we went.
We finished our day on Skopelos with a late lunch at an Italian place. Anna got spaghetti and we shared a pizza. We then walked down the shoreline to a local brewery where Mike got to sit and enjoy the views. Anna and Alison went for a stroll in the town to buy some souviners and then find a cute place on the water to have a chocolate crepe (with chocolate ice cream).
We took the 5:30 ferry back and then we went to a place we saw the previous day that looked like a club but also served sushi. So fun! They had a beautiful back patio.
Then, Anna and Alison went for gelato and Mike took a seat at a pub on the busy street to do some people watching. Another lovely day despite the rocky start. :)
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