Vacation Notes 2015: September 9th: Mykonos, Greece

The ship docked at 7:00AM and tenders immediately started transporting people to Mykonos, Greece. Tenders ran every 20 minutes. However, on this glorious morning we overslept. I didn’t get out of bed until a little past 9:00AM.

I went up for a late breakfast while L* continued to prepare for the day. M* was feeling a little ill - perhaps the effects of too much sun and heat from the day before - and elected to sleep in for the day.

10:00, 10:30, maybe even 11:00 o'clock but L* and I eventually got ourselves on a tender and headed to shore.

The first thing you notice as you step off the tender is the WHITENESS. Most, if not all of the buildings are painted the brightest white imaginable. Small fishing boats are moored seemingly randomly around the harbor. Several smaller fishing boats lay about on the shore. The beach is sandy in places, but pebbles and small stones dominate in other places. In many areas along this gateway to the island, there is no beach as construction reaches to the water’s edge. The water slaps lazily against a stone sea wall that rises only few feet above sea level. For anyone within a meter of the sea walls edge an occasional spray of warm salty water is unavoidable.

As is customary for Americans and other ugly tourists of our ilk, both L* and I took a few steps into the crystal-clear, warm waters. I'm happy to say that there was no Kraken—at least not on this day—to drag us beneath the waves nor did any octopus choose to mingle with our toes.

Walking along this area that obviously thrives on tourists was damn delightful. I'm not sure that such an unashamed tourist trap should have any right to feel this good, but it does.

The brochures say that the streets of Mykonos are cobblestone. I'll have to concede that claim, as I don't know my stones well enough to dispute this. However, what I do know is that the large stones are laid out relatively evenly, except in those places where it appears to be intentionally creased down the center, possibly for water run-off. Additionally those street stones are outlines with the same heavy white paint, or stucco-like, paste that covers most structures.

We turn off the roadway, known as Paralia Mykonou to those who can pronounce it, in search of the famed library of no apparent name. Once off the main tourist drag the streets, or more realistically the pedestrian ways, became noticeably narrower. There were places where the walk way was barely a single meter wide, yet all walks ways are bordered with sun-lit white buildings that are 3 - 4 stories tall. We have stepped into a true labyrinth of shops and hotels and residences in the old city.

There is, in my mind at least, little doubt that one of the effects of painting everything in brilliant white is that light is bouncing all over the place, brightening up what might otherwise be dingy alleyways and making a slight sunburn virtually unavoidable.

We continued inward, past the shops and through a hotel district. We emerged from the hotel district to - we'll call it a major roadway: AG. Ionnou.

There was nothing particularly striking about this roadway. It was wide by Mykonos standards—almost wide enough for two mini cars and a pedestrian. It was also ordinary; blacktop. We decided to head west, for no particular reason. We had walked no more than 15 feet, or maybe closer to 4 meters since this is Greece, when we saw a sign that made L*’s face light up: a rental company. They had cars, ATVs, and, most importantly, scooters!

As evidenced by the exclamation mark that closed the last paragraph we decided it was a good time to scoot around the countryside in a couple of Vespa-like vehicles.

With the sun at our backs, or the top of our heads, or directly in front of us—it’s really hard to tell when it’s bouncing off of white walls from practically everywhere—we exited the rental lot and turned right. There was no particular reason to turn right except that it appeared to lead uphill.

 

A curiosity in Mykonus, or maybe this is the norm for renting vehicles in Europe, is that the fuel gages of both bikes pointed to "E". (Full disclosure: The rental agent did tell us where we could find a gas station before we left the rental lot.)

We rode up—as in uphill—the AG.Ioannou roadway and turned left at what looked like another steep climb uphill. Our turn steered us in the direction of Ano Mera Kalo Livadi Kalafati, an impressive name but not important as I can’t say with any certainty that we actually made it that far. We found a gas station, gassed up, and continued on our uphill climb.

Sadly, I can’t comment knowledgeably about the important historical significance of all that we passed. The roads were narrow, winding, and, even on a one-gear Vespa wannabe, demanding of a little concentration. The crosswinds were brisk, hot and always welcome. Although there were times when it seemed as though the sun had been turned up to 100%, we didn’t mind. We were having a blast driving coast-to-coast (Mykonos is a small island) and collecting grit and other memorabilia in our teeth and hair.

 

We ventured into what were obviously more working-class areas, construction zones and some farmland, before deciding to turn back to our starting point.

Of course, there were some diversions on the way back. We headed into a roundabout, or circle, and somehow came out at two different points. At one point we stopped to look at chickens—I’ll have to let the pictures explain that decision. Also, naturally, since we were on tiny scooters, we were cut off by a truck.

In spite of the obstacles we once again we found ourselves on the AG.Ioannou, but rather than immediately head in the return we proceeded further in what had been our original uphill direction. We rode a little ways until we came upon the windmill at AG.Georgiou. I don't know that this windmill is any more significant than any of the others that can be found on the island. I’ll leave that determination to the tourist brochures, Wikipedia and others. I’ve just noted the location in case anybody would like to look it up it later.

 

It sometime was past noon, between 1:30 and 2:00, and our stomachs having been conditioned for regular eating after only 4 days of cruising began to feel empty. We got back on AG.Ioannou and headed west because, we had been told, food could be found to the west.

As it turned out we never did find that food but we did find a great vantage point overlooking of one of the several family-friendly (damn) beaches suitable for swimming. Once again, a picture, or several pictures, will have to be worth thousands of words.

Actually, we did find a suitable place to eat, but we chose not to. Instead, we continued uphill because it was there and we could. This time it was a very steep incline and although we thought we could make the climb, our tiny scooter engines didn't sound entirely convinced. Anyway, we did eventually reach the summit of this particular hill. It ended at a impressive-looking private home with a very impressive gated entryway. We continued past for a few more meters until it became obvious that continuing on this route would be taking us downhill. However, we didn’t turn around without first stopping to admire the panoramic view of the island offered by this location. We could see from a swimming lagoon, to the old village, to the harbor filled with its small fishing vessels. A few photos later, we re-mounted our baby-Vespas and headed in the general direction of the rental agency.

 

A few twists and turns and some photo-op stops at vantage points later, we returned the bikes and re-entered the labyrinth that is the old city. Somehow, while attempting to retrace our steps we came upon things that we had not come upon before. New shops, eateries, and a chapel dedicated to St. George.

Eventually we emerged several blocks west of our intended destination in an area known—at least in the tourist brochures—as Little Venice. Here as in the rest of the old city the roadways are pedestrian only wide, the primary difference from the rest of Mykonos is that many of the building literally hang over the water and, rather than all brilliant white, are painted a variety of brilliant colors including reds, yellows, blues, greens, and many others that I failed to name.

 

We walked along the seawall in Little Venice, catching some ocean spray as we did so, heading in a direction that we hoped might be correct. I really can't really give any credit to our sense of direction but somehow we did manage to stumble out into the area were we needed to be to meet our tender.

We boarded the tender and wound up sitting next to a small group from Toronto. We swapped stories, helped out with the occasional selfie, relished in the relief from the heat that was provided by the occasional kick up of a warm ocean spray, and just basically enjoyed a nice ride back to our cruise ship.

We fetched M* from our room and went up to the top deck with thoughts of observing the ships departure from Mykonos. As it turned out the departure would take a back seat to the winds, which really started whipping around the top deck. Standing in one spot was a serious challenge. We watched as pool chairs were being blown along the deck.

After our top-deck wind-blown adventures we, and by we I mean L*, stopped to take care of some business, such as booking an experience in Athens.

For the second night in a row we chose the sit-down dinner over the all-you-can-eat option. We met a couple from Scotland, J* is a farmer-researcher relocated to Scotland from Ireland. His wife, F*, is a caretaker for people with severe learning disabilities. M*, who was feeling a little better by now, joined us for dinner. A pleasant time was had, I hope, by all.

Exhaustion takes us all eventually. After dinner, in spite of several great ideas and opportunities we opted to call it a night. And, except for a brief excursion for some emergency ice cream, we did not leave our stateroom for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow we dock at Kusadasi, Turkey. It is expected to be much hotter than today. Today we stayed under 90 degrees F. The ship should pull into port around 7:00am. We've not booked any excursions—Ephesus is the big draw here, but we’d been there—M* included—previously. At this time, we are not planning on anything beyond a brief on-foot shore excursion.