Milos beaches: Firopotamos

A lot of what makes Milos unique and memorable is the beaches.  They almost all have clear blue water and great swimming, but that's hardly a rarity on Greek islands.  There's just some combination of the volcanic geography and unique architecture, combined with that beautiful blue water that makes them such an unforgettable experience.  One of my more favorite beaches (though not the absolute favorites, which I've saved for later) was Firopotamos.  The beach is organized, with umbrellas and a cafe.  There's no restaurant in the area though.  The roads in are good (not always the case on Milos) and parking is easy, at least when we were there. 

Here's a look at the beach from the road above.

 

Like a lot of the beaches on Milos, Firopotamos is very photogenic.  In has cliffs dropping right down into the water and giant rocks jutting out.

There's a church and a wall of ruins all the way out at the tip of the rocky finger of land on the east end of the beach.  (A little tough to see in this picture, maybe.)

There are houses built right on the water, with waves lapping up against the front doors.

 

You'll see houses right on deep water, like in this second picture, all around Milos.  They're called 'wires' and my best guess is that those ground floor doors open in to something like a garage for boats.

Notice the man on the rocks.  He was fishing.  I don't know how he got there or how he'll get back, but there was a powerful surf beating those rocks.  If he had fallen in, I wouldn't like his odds for getting out alive.  Must be some good fishing there.

A closer look at the church, looking back toward the beach.

And a close-up of the wall.  I wish I knew what these are the ruins of.

We spent over an hour at Firopotamos, just exploring and taking pictures.  It was particularly impressive that day because the wind was blowing the water up against the rocks, spraying everything near the shore.  I licked a lot of salt water off my camera lens that day...

On the topic of wind, one of the big advantages to Firopotamos as a beach is that it's well protected from the wind.  The week we were in Milos, there were strong winds from the north that made many of the northern beaches unpleasant for swimming.  I think strong winds in the late summer and especially Fall are pretty common on the islands.  The guy at our hotel pointed out that the heavy winds aren't really a problem on Milos.  If the winds are coming from the north, there are lots of nice beaches to the south.  If they're blowing from the south, there are lots of good beaches in the north.  We found that to be true.  The beaches to the south were extremely calm all week, despite strong winds out of the north.  And, as a bonus, there's Firopotamos, so well protected from the wind that it's good for swimming any time.