Our Travels

Today is August 29, 2023. First and foremost, this is the day Tyler plans to try to get his driver’s license! Go for it, Tyler! You’ve got this! Can’t wait to hear how everything went and to congratulate you on reaching this huge milestone❤️

Today we sailed to Mykonos, Greece. Three cruise lines are visiting at the same time:Costa, MSC, and… Holland America. It is a hot, sunny day, this is a small island, and… everything is WHITE (mostly everything)! It was a toasty day, indeed! Although there is a nice breeze in some places on the island, it seems as though the dominance of WHITE everything reflects more heat….

Because Mykonos is small, there isn’t much space to actually dock. Instead, we and the MSC ship dropped anchor and tethered to shore! Tethering means that we took boats a little bigger than the life boats, filled them up, and went back and forth to shore and to our ship as often as we wished. Most people seem to do only one trip to shore and one trip back. These little boats ran every 15 minutes ‘til it was time for the all-aboard. The MSC Ship did the same. I THINK the Costa docked, but that meant that passengers would come to shore a little distance from the old town center. By anchoring, MSC and Holland America passengers could be dropped off smack-dab in the midst of the old town. These ships are used to this sort of thing, and the process was well organized and extremely painless.

Arriving to port, the Aegean Sea was a beautiful sapphire blue! Where a wake was created by the ship, the water was a gorgeous lighter blue.

Mykonos is hilly. The houses and buildings on the hillsides and lower areas were stark WHITE! Some rooftops, typically church domes, are turquoise blue, with the rest of the building bright, bright white. Some church domes are maroon, with the rest of the building stark white. Railings are painted various colors, I.e., turquoise, yellow, green…and doors are typically painted green, blue, red, yellow,….Beautiful bougainvillea vines climb the railings and some entry ways. Planted bight orange canna flower blossoms might be nestled against a white building, perhaps where a bend in the road occurs. Fig and olive trees do well in Mykonos. The walkways have inlaid, marble-type large tiles, framed by white-painted outlines. There are restaurants and cafes—outdoor types—everywhere! Shops selling all sorts of clothing, decorative items, and jewelry line the streets along the hillside, closest to the beach area. There are resorts and hotels, all looking like houses, really, and adhering to the same color conventions as everything else on the island. There is a public beach with lifeguard right as one enters town. It is small compared to the huge stretches of shoreline along Florida’s Gulf or Atlantic sides. The sand is pebble-y and tan. The entry into the Sea is rocky. The water itself is crystal clear! There is another, larger beach a few minutes away from old town, Paradise Beach, which, we hear, is quite the party place! I saw lots of sea glass on shore, but I only saw a few tiny snail shells. I left them behind, given how many I have at home. I did not wade in the water because I had some blistering going on and because I didn’t want wet feet inside my socks and gym shoes. I had no towel.we chose to explore on our own this time. We did not take an excursion. It worked out very well for us. We saw the windmills (that used to work, but now they just look pretty); a famous church that everyone who goes to Mykonos tries to photograph, some of the neighborhoods, the beach, the shops, the restaurants, “Little Venice”, stray, fiendly cats (I made a bougainvillea pillow for one of them trying to rest its head in my hands), and so on. We stopped for a Greek sangria, fruit plate, and water in a charming restaurant in Little Venice.

I had planned to look for Petros, the Mykonos pelican that roams about town at will. Evidently, Petros the First used to roam about, the people grew attached to it, and when it died, the residents were aggrieved. Jackie Kennedy Onassis donated another Petros to the Island, but since then, it, too, has died. Petros III, supposedly a massive pelican, is the current descendant, and he is the mascot of the city. I looked for Petros wherever I went today, but Petros did not come through. I did find a bird I did not recognize, standing on a boulder in the sea. He was black and white, stood penguin-like, and has webbed feet. Until I find Petros next time I’m in Mykonos, this little guy will do!

Mykonos is a lovely little place and well worth a visit if life permits. With its “maze-like layout”, and it’s prohibition on cars in the “streets,” it is an extremely walkable city! Steps are steep, inclines can be strenuous, and walks could be slippery and/or uneven, so for Midwesterner’s like us, leg calves can certainly rebel. Still, though, what a privilege and hat an incredible experience!

Tomorrow, we dock in CRETE and go on a guided walking tour of Charnia!

BTW: Although we always want to bring beautiful mementos home to our loved ones, we do not enjoy shopping in rushed manner just to shop. We also have found that most items are available on Amazon.