Day 8; Sunday, July 28, 2013  Mykonos/Delos
Link to Day 8 Mykonos and Delos Photographs 

The excursions have generally been scheduled for first thing in the morning.  This is a good thing!  The mornings are cooler and we get back to the ship in the mid-afternoon and are able to enjoy a swim and read quietly for a couple of hours before thinking about another meal.  We started the day at 7:30 am and took a ferry from Mykonos to the small island of Delos.  Delos is now uninhabited - but from 3000 BC to about 88 BC it was very prosperous.  Delos is thought to be the birthplace of Apollo, god of the sun, music, beauty and light and his twin Artemis, goddess of the moon.  So it had religious significance (no one was allowed to be born or die there), well as being the center of trade activity. Excavation in the 19th century uncovered mosaics, statues, temples and tons of artifacts.  In fact, they found so much, that the entire island has been declared a National Museum!  It was very windy there and after spending a couple of hours with a very knowledgable tour guide, we boarded our ferry back to Mykonos.

All of the homes in Mykonos are painted white - the streets are very narrow, only wide enough for two people to pass.  Some of the streets were also painted white.  In combination, the village was breezy and relatively cool.  We shopped for a bit, stopped in several small churches (that were about as large as some family mausoleums) and photographed the windmills that were built here in the 16th century.  We had a wonderful lunch on the seashore, overlooking the turquoise sea and watching the restaurant owner draw in customers by recognizing the likely nationality of the tourists.  He would greet them in their language (he must have spoken at least half dozen), giving everyone the impression that he had been waiting for them, that he had saved them a table and was so glad they had finally arrived.  The guy would be an asset in any restaurant anywhere in the world!  It helped that the beer was cold and the food was delicious.  We also watched the local police bring in a tourist who looked to have been in a fight.  Later, on board our ship, we asked “what happens to tourists who are arrested?”  The crew member merely said, “Well, we don’t wait for them.”

The cruise line has a professional staff of photographers on board and we had formal portraits taken - the proofs looked so good that we decided to get a set.