Mykonos & Delos, Greece

This segment of the cruise is very port intensive, which means lots of excursions. Both Michael and I have escort duty on separate excursions for the next several ports. That way we can cover more territory and take twice as many pictures. Just wait until you get to sit through the slide show of the entire trip! OK, we won’t make you do that, but it is so hard to eliminate any of the pictures. It looks like we are going to be seeing lots of ruins.

On a picture perfect day, we anchored at Mykonos, Greece and were assigned to different excursions. First, a little information about Mykonos. The name Mykonos literally means a heap of stones or rocks. It is interesting, unique and charming, and it’s impossible to take a bad picture here.  Mykonos is famous for its windmills, architecture, and beautiful sandy beaches. The town is a labyrinth of crooked, narrow and winding streets (they were designed that way to confuse marauding invaders and pirates). Every building is painted bright white with blue doors and shutters. All buildings are cube shaped and have flat roofs in which to collect rain water that is collected in a cistern under the house.  There is no water on the island. The churches are white with red domed roofs (there are over 400 of them, most family owned). The law requires that all commercial structures be repainted twice each year. Only about 10,000 people live here and it is windy all the time, except for today! It is a very upscale city and the shopping street is in the top 20 most expensive in the world.

My excursion was the highlights of Mykonos. I got to ride a bus most of the day and saw churches, beaches and a really cool monastery. We stopped at a taverna and sampled ouzo and Greek appetizers. I did not finish my ouzo as I didn’t think it would be appropriate for the escort to stagger back to the bus, schnockered.

Michael boarded a tour boat to the historic island of Delos. Delos is about 30 minutes southwest of Mykonos, and according to Greek myth, it is the birthplace of Apollo, god of Light, and his twin sister Artemis, the Goddess of the moon (also known as Diana). Apollo and Artemis were the illegitimate offspring of Zeus. He got to walk in the footsteps of the ancient gods and goddesses, and upon his return I had to inform him that he was just a mere mortal and to knock off the g*d sh*t.

The ruins here are extensive and remarkably well preserved. At its peak, Delos was a city of 30,000 on an island only about 1 mile long and 1/3 mile wide, so it was very congested. Most of the stores, homes, temples, theatres, etc. are still here (all but the roofs) and were quite identifiable, and we are talking 2,500 years old! The homes of the most wealthy had mosaic floors, and they are intact; even the color is still rich. They didn’t have windows then and so the only light came in from the “atrium,” the roofless area in the middle of the home.

Delos was a place open to all people, regardless of their faith and so one can find temples, and even synagogues. Of course, they also had slaves here, so it wasn’t so great for everybody. After about 2 ½ hours of wondering around with an excellent tour guide, he re-boarded the boat for the trip back to Mykonos.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing about the pool trying to rest up for tomorrow, which promises to be a long and taxing day.