Morning in Mykonos

Day 11     Mykonos, Greece     Monday, August 4, 2014

We had a relaxing morning on a beautiful Greek Isle. This photo is when we were leaving the town at about 1 pm. When we walked by here on our way into town at 7:30 am, the beach was empty and the town pretty deserted. Being in Greece was exciting - first time for both of us. From math, physics, fraternities and sororities, we recognized many of the letters!

A few of the cafes along the waterfront were open that early and had free WiFi if you ordered something, so I ordered a lemonade and we caught up on e-mails. The Internet on the ship was expensive; we ordered 110 minutes of time for $55, knowing that I had to deal with escrow negotiations on both my home sale (Charlottesville) and boat sale (Maryland). But even answering one e-mail used up about 10 minutes of total time, so we couldn't ever do much anything else. Sure enough, this cafe WiFi worked and Janet even got to chat with Aaron since 8 am in Greece was 11 pm the previous evening in Washington state.

It was still only about 8:45 when we set off on our walking tour and goal to reach the bus station at the back of town. This city of Mykonos (on the Island of Mykonos) reminded me of Avalon on Catalina Island except that you got lost VERY easily here. That's on purpose. The labyrinth design of the streets was intended to confuse the pirates who plagued the town in the 18th century. Well, it certainly got Janet and me confused, even with a map. The photo above came when we found ourselves dead-ended at a cafe, but the windmills in the background were worthy of a picture.

There are, of course, a zillion other differences between Mykonos and Avalon, but the overall size and some of these small-street shopping scenes would remind me of the similarities.

After a few dead-end turn-arounds, we made it to this square and then the walk to the bus station was easy. Bus "station" was a stretch, however, as it was simply a crowded square where buses barely squeezed in to unload and load people and then they quickly left. For $2.40 we bought our tickets at a tiny tobacco mini mart, for the bus that went to a nearby beach.

The bus ride took only about 15 minutes and it was a little bayside village with expensive-looking resorts and hotels, and a wide sandy beach. But the beach was covered with private lounges and umbrellas, so we walked to the distant part of the beach in the photo where it was free and open. (Note that this photo was taken as we were leaving, after lots of people had come. When we arrived, it was virtually empty.)

At our corner of the bay we took turns swimming and enjoying the 75° water. It was crystal clear and lived up to its Greek Isle reputation. Gradually others arrived and it got mildly crowded. We had to swim individually because we still had our computer.

I swam all the way to some of the anchored boats. You can see that some are large, expensive yachts. All in all it was a nice relaxing way to spend the morning.

A scene out the bus window on our way back to Mykonos City. They need to import only one color of paint on the Greek Isles, don't they? Well, two -- blue in addition to the white.

On our walk back to the port from the bus drop-off, we again encountered the tiny passageways with all their shops. All so clean and tidy.

 Clean other than the names of these shots of booze. Sure, notice how they're blaming the Scandinavians!

We reached the harbor a bit early so we decided to take a final dip, this time with the beach jammed full. Again, only one of us at a time because of the computer.

There is our ship across the bay. We had to walk a bit to get to the shuttle bus, but it was a perfect day for strolling in the Mediterranean.

Everyone from our ship seemed to be heading back at the same time, so this is the shuttle bus line. Janet is sitting near the left of the photo. Notice more of the white-washed homes on the hillside.

Once back on the ship, we partook of the special Greek Sailaway BBQ at the pool. As usual, the food was excellent.

 

And precisely at 2 pm, we pulled away from the dock and headed toward Istanbul. I took this photo from the 12th floor lounge where Janet and I were reading for a while. I later did my cycling in the fitness room. Before dinner we went to a Beatles Name That Tune contest, but it was WAY too easy (they played six or seven measures before asking us to name Hey Jude or Help or Yesterday. Why they chose songs with their titles as the initial words of the song, I'll never know).  The stage show was a Bee Gees cover group. It was pretty good.