Turkey and Greek Islands

Cruising the Aegean

Mykonos

Harbor, Mykonos

I was up early again on June 13, but I missed the sunrise this time. As we sailed into the harbor of Mykonos. I saw another ship already at anchor. That was a sign the town would be crowded, because it’s high tourist season in these islands. Sure enough, by the time we were both up and ready to go into the town, there were two other ships at anchor – Celestial Cruises and a Disney ship. Yep. High tourist season indeed.

We had been to Mykonos in the mid-1990s, and though there were some very attractive excursions we would have enjoyed this time, we decided to visit the town on our own, without following anyone else’s plan. Mykonos doesn’t have a pier or a dock that can handle cruise ships the size of the Grandeur, much less some of the ones that are four or five times bigger. That meant any passengers on the Grandeur had to queue up, load into small tenders (that doubled as lifeboats for the Grandeur), and be ferried to the island. Passengers who were going on official excursions went first, in several groups, and when that process was complete, any other passengers who wanted to visit the island could just go down to the third deck, hop a boat, and head out on their own.

Mykonos, Street

So we did just that. Mykonos is one of those islands that is very attractive, with white-painted buildings, colorful windows and doorways, bright colored domes, and about 1200 small chapels. Those had often been built as an act of thanksgiving by an individual or family in response to a blessing they received. The presence of all those chapels, small shops, narrow streets, and a consistent appearance wherever one turned makes Mykonos one of the best places in the Greek islands to just wander around in. On our earlier trip we bought a set of prints of photographs of three colorful doorways here. They hang in our bedroom now. This time we enjoyed a couple of hours just walking walking around, dodging cars, window shopping, taking a lot of photos in the part of the Old Town we were in. Judy did buy a necklace – black lava rock on leather cords — and we enjoyed looking at several other interesting shops. At one point we stopped for a beer, and a break from walking, mostly to enjoy the shade and cooler air.

Judy and the Pelican

When we circled back near the harbor, we saw a pelican just strolling along the street. Seriously. A pelican. At first we thought that strange, but then we noticed the Pelikan bar, right there on the water front. Clearly that bird was a fixture of the neighborhood. It was also fun to just see a lot of locals — maybe shop keepers or people just out — wading in the shallow water along the waterfront street., one person even playing with her dog in the water. The whole atmosphere was light, because it wasn’t too hot yet,

I napped a bit after lunch. After we went to trivia and cleaned up a bit, we went to Dinner at Pacific Rim, one of the specialty restaurants on RSSC ships. We always indicate we’d like to share a table in those venues, and it was fun to find we’d been paired with a couple who also married in 1968. He had been a pilot in the Air Force, and guy, they had lived in Laredo at about the same time we used to visit there. We had a good time talking about the Cadillac Bar!

Judy on Drums

In the Meridian Lounge after dinner, Judy noticed the trap set was sitting there all alone. Nothing would do but she had to have her photo made. It’s sort of a parallel to all the photos we have over the years with her sitting in the bud driver’s seat, or even piloting a catamaran in Key West. On top of that king of fun, we found the bartender was Arnulfo, the barista/bar tender who was on the Navigator last year. He even welcomed Judy behind the bar for a quick photo op.

Judy and Arnulfo

So our second day visiting new places on this cruise ended with reminiscence and an encounter with an old acquaintance. Not a bad way to end a fun day.