http://www.tomsportguides.com/Mykonos-08-01-2011.pdf
With that in the plans, and Dave's back still slowing him down mightily, we decided it would be best to set our alarms and plan on being off the ship on the early side of things for this short port day (also a tender port). We also guessed (correctly) that there would be fewer early morning crowds than at our first stop--with people worn out from long outings in Kusadasi the day before.
So, by about 8:30 we were fed and boarding the tender (a bigger, port owned tender--no lifeboats in Mykonos). I sat in the open area in back and enjoyed taking some photos of the ship.
Here is a shot that shows the size of the tenders
Mykonos is one of those ports where the tender drops you off RIGHT in town. It is always so easy when you are where you want to be right from the get go :) There was another (larger) ship in port (might have been the Norwegian Jade--though I am no longer sure of which ships were where), and they were docked about 3 kilometers from town. We were glad we did not have to deal with that.
Here on some photos of the area in the immediate vicinity of the tender dock:
It quickly became apparent that when Tom's Port Guide said the distances were short! Everything was clearly very close and there was no real danger of missing things or getting totally lost. So, we happily put the PDF away and just wandered at leisure. The shops were not open yet, and very few tourists were out and about and for that first hour the little streets were just MAGICAL. We had the nicest hour and were so happy we got out early. I am about to inundate you with a bunch of photos--everything I looked at just begged to be photographed.
Everywhere was sparkling clean--probably barbecue shop keepers even mop the streets in front of their stores in these early hours!
A local fisherman working on his nets
And then, suddenly, we came around a bend and into an open area, and there were famous windmills! It was such a nice way to get there, too. There were excursions and taxi arriving to a parking lot back behind and kind of rushing by with cameras before hopping back in susses and cabs to run off somewhere else--but they all seemed so rushed and also had missed all that magic we had had the pleasure of strolling through for the past hour. We were so happy we had done it our way.
I think I stood balanced on a broken piece of wall for about 10 minutes waiting to get this shot with (almost) no one in it. I should be able to crop that person out if I decide to hand this one on the wall.
And, the views were really nice looking the other way as well, once we got our fill of the windmills:
After about a half hour exploring around the windmills, (plus the hour or so walking through town), Dave's back needed a bit of a rest. We thought those cafes right on the water (in the shot above) looked pleasant and headed down to have a seat and a drink. As it turned out, the cafes were not open yet, but we found a nice step to sit on, with a wall behind to lean back, and enjoyed watching the waves crash in for a bit.
After a bit of a rest, we started wandering back through town. It was still lovely with the shops open and tourist filling the streets--but we remained very happy that we had gotten out early. We had two things we were looking for: a pharmacy so we could buy more ibueprofen for Dave's back (he had taken his last that morning) and a cafe whose chairs looked comfortable to him and were not out in the walking areas where we would be jostled. And while we looked, we took more photos!
And right across from this gorgeous bougainvillea, we found our cafe. It had a nice big terrace set back off of the main street and reasonable chairs. Prices were about teh same as anywhere not IN the walkways in town, a little steep (especially compared to Split and Kusadasi) but not terrible by any stretch. I think we paid about 15 Euro for an iced coffee, a cola and a glass of (good) wine.
Notice all those empty chairs??? The only thing we did not like at this cafe, not the cafe's fault, was the group of four who came about ten minutes later and sat RIGHT next to us, even with all that space (that in and of itself was okay). One man kept leaning VERY far back into his chair and literally pushing into me. Sometimes he ignored it, and at other times he turned to glare at me as if I were in his way. I eventually got up and changed seats--it was so annoying. They were also just very loud in general--I had to wonder if they were already drunk at 11:00 in the morning.
Isn't the little Greek Coke cute?
So, after our break (we lingered for quite a while--the rude people drank their beers quickly and left), we meandered a bit more through many of the same streets, found the pharmacy and then took the tender back to the ship for a late lunch and leisurely afternoon.
This is such a long post, that I feel I should keep the comments about on board things to a minimum for this day.
We had our second full production show, "Dancin' Thru the Movies" which we liked better than the first. The costumes and music were better, performance quality about the same. Here is a photo of the very "old school" cruise director talking before the show and a shot from the show itself:
There was a Michael Jackson dance class that evening which was fun and not something we had seen offered before. We had a nice dinner, and then headed off the The Quest. A fun and slightly rowdy scavenger hunt type game (okay, more than slightly on some ships, but with Bill from teh 50s as cruise director slightly fits!). For the first time in a long time, no male in MY family had to dress like a girl! Ha! We had a fun (and international) team which included two sets of newlyweds and the Germans that we so enjoyed at lunch on the first sea day, and came in second place.
The Quest was followed by the "White Party" up on deck--in what was some of the warmest and least windy weather we had had all week. That was a GREAT time and we danced until about 1:00 a.m. (okay, Dave had to sit out and rest his back often--I danced nearly the whole time though)
Glow in the dark glasses at the white party
Officers demonstrating a line dance
And then the officers left and the cruise staff took their jobs back
You really haven't lived until you have danced Gangnam style in a pool at midnight with someone you've never met while floating around between Greek islands
and gotten more and more people to join in.
Up next, Argostoli, Greece.
--Hadley
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