We had one last full day in Greece, and needed a new Airbnb and a little time outside of the city. Thus we booked a ferry to the closest of the Greek islands, Aegina, one of the Saronic Islands, a 45 minute trip from Piraeus.
Aegina has a lot to recommend it – a postcard perfect town, fresh fish restaurants along the water, pistachios grown, bagged and sold on island, and one of the best preserved temples we saw while in Greece. 
The Temple of Aphaia
This magnificent temple stands on a pine covered hill overlooking the island. The temple is dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphaia, built in 500 BC and, like the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon, built in the Doric order. Interestingly, if lines were drawn connecting the three sites, they form an equilateral triangle; this is known as the Holy Triangle.
Aphaia, a mountain nymph and the daughter of Zeus and Carme, was initially named Britomartis, meaning “sweet maiden”. In the myth, she was friends with Artemis, the goddess of hunting, and, when she was fleeing from the pursuit of King Minos, who had fallen in love with her, Britomartis jumped into the sea, landing on some fishing nets. Artemis took pity on her and turned her into a goddess. Once she became a worshipped deity on the island, she was named Aphaea (Aphaia).
She was also was associated with numerous other goddess names, depending on location, and some historians believe that these may actually be alternate identities of Artemis.
Cathedral Of Saint Nectarios
After the temple we drove through the mountains a bit more to the Cathedral Of Saint Nectarios, an imposing church and monastery widely visited by locals and visitors alike. Agios Nektarios is one of the most widely known Greek Orthodox Saints, and was known as a miracle worker and healer of diseases.
We mostly wanted to see the church and monastery (quite beautiful but no photos allowed) and my daughters contemplated for quite some hours over what the sign below could possibly mean (who, they wondered, would come to church half naked?).
Perdika
After climbing mountains, exploring temples, and viewing churches while ensuring nobody was half naked, we had built up quite an appetite, and headed to the town of Perdika to find some fresh seafood.
Luckily, there were plenty of sweet cats to entertain our littlest, and her Grecian cat count exceeded into the 400s.
Seaside exploration
We searched for seashells (found some cool ones, too!), saw the Temple of Apollo (well, the one lonely column that remains of it), and I took a gorgeous morning sunrise run. Islands are great.
It had come to this; our last day in Greece. We ferried back to Piraeus and caught a bus to the airport. And completed the most important task – postcard mailing!
thecloudsarelowerhere 