Not the postcard Cyclades – the Peloponnese coast, where the islands are closer together and the crowds thinner. A few days in Athens first, then Hydra, then Spetses, circled on bikes: eighteen kilometres of coast road, limestone caves where the water filters through a million years of rock, and sea clear enough to read the bottom.
The long day went south: three hours by boat to Monemvasia, the fortress town grown into its rock, walked slowly and earned properly before lunch. A local guide led the whole stretch – the difference between seeing islands and being shown them.