Mykonos, Greece - August 1

lion statues

 Well, it’s hard to believe July has come and gone and I am writing August 1. It does seem like we’ve been away for a while. Chris and I were discussing today that we feel that we are just getting into the grove of vacation – we are lucky to have a week more.

Today is one of 3 ports that were not part of the original itinerary we booked. With Israel out, Mykonos is one of the substitute ports. It obviously can't be compared, but it's not a 

disappointment.

fertility symbol - duh?

This is our second time to Mykonos. We decided to visit the island of Delos. This is significant in Ancient Greek mythology. Apollo and Artemis were born here when their mother Leto had to find a place to give birth after Hera (not unusually) was angry at her for hooking up with Zeus (Apollo and Artemis’s father) and ordered lands to refuse Leto a place to give birth. Leto finally found a place to give birth on Delos.

The ruins here weren’t ever covered and as we see them today were basically how they were in classical times – give or take the grass growing around the columns and things fallen over.

In order to get to Delos we had to take a tender from the ship to the port and then get on a ferry from the port to the island of Delos. The ride on the ferry was something else in terms of heat and humidity at 9 AM. We knew the island was going to be hot with little shade, but the ferry ride – WOW!!!

mosaic floor

ruins

M|ykonos town

Once off the ferry there was a bit of a breeze on the island. The ferry back to Mykonos was much breezier and cooler. After a 2 hour tour of the island we were back to Mykanos. We decided on lunch in town of souvlaki, meatballs, wine and beer – not cheap, but tasty.

lunch

The rest of the day was filled with napping, dinner and the ship’s ‘block party’. This is when at a designated time everyone meets in the hallway outside their cabins to meet their neighbors. Wine and cheese are served while we chat with those we share the hall with. As far as block parties go, this one was pretty lame, but we met a couple of interesting people along with a glass of wine or 2.

Tonight we also met with a guy who works in the bar who we knew from our cruise in 2011. When I saw him tonight I was pretty sure I recognized him, but of course wasn’t sure. We chatted with him a bit and discovered that sure enough it was him.