Mykonos

When we woke up on Monday morning we were in port at Mykonos, Greece!  It's amazing how smooth the ship was - we didn't feel a thing as the boat smoothly pulled into port in the middle of the night.  Looking out to the landscape, we saw very rocky brown hills accented by white cube buildings.  The sea was completely clear - you could see all the way to the bottom, and the beaches were beautiful.  

We were anxious to get out and about, so we took a quick shuttle bus ride to the downtown area.  It was already quite hot - close to 90, but we were able to mostly stay in the shade while we did some shopping.  

The island was loaded with these beautiful plants that climbed up the sides of the shops and houses.

Nolan's one souvenir request before I left was to bring him back a pinwheel, so I took advantage of the shops to start my hunt.  I didn't think it would be very easy to find, but Mykonos is known for some beautiful Medieval windmills, and I found a spinning windmill magnet that I thought might be a reasonable substitution.  While paying for it, I accidentally walked away without taking my credit card.  I had no idea it was even missing until we got back on the ship and scanned my sea pass. Alarms went off and I panicked, not knowing why I was tagged and my mind raced trying to figure out what was going on.  The very sweet shop owner had gotten my card back to the ship and the crew had tagged me, so that when I scanned my pass they would be able to deliver my card.  I was so impressed with how efficiently this worked and by the integrity and honesty of the shop owner.  

Later that day, we ventured back out to begin our Shore Excursion - a tour of a small family vineyard and a tour of the downtown area, a bakery, and the Medieval windmills.  As we rode our bus to the vineyard, I was struck again by how brown, dry and rocky the landscape was.  I certainly expected it to be greener.  The other thing that was interesting is that all the buildings in Mykonos were cube shaped and painted white.  The cube shape was used to be able to most efficiently collect water during the infrequent rains and the white was to help keep the buildings cooler.  I learned that they were actually required by law to paint them white, and most painted the trim blue in honor of the colors of the Greek flag.

We arrived up to the small vineyard and noticed the grape plants were trimmed very low to the ground.  We were told this was done to prevent them from being damaged from the wind.  Mykonos' nickname is the "Windy Island" and windy it was. Despite the wind, it was still cripplingly hot - well over 90 degrees.  

They had a table set for us with some tasty snacks - some tasty cheeses, crusty bread and olive oil, salami, and a tomato, cucumber, and olive salad.  We got to sample three different kinds of wine - a white, a red, and a sweet dessert wine.  All were absolutely delicious.  

And every vineyard needs a donkey...

After our tasty lunch, we headed back toward the main downtown area, where we learned the labyrinth design of the village was meant to confuse pirates.  Again, it was SO hot and there was hardly any shade.  We were just dripping sweat and our tour seemed to take forever.  We stopped by the oldest bakery on the island, and got to taste a traditional almond cookie and the almond drink that is often served at weddings.  Both were so very sweet that they just didn't taste good to me in the heat.  

We continued our tour to the Medieval windmills, located near the bakery as they were used to mill flour.  They were beautiful, but again because of the heat we didn't linger real long.

After our tour concluded, we made our way back to the ship, seeing the sights along the way.

A nice guy offered to take a picture for Mom and me...Thanks, buddy.  

It was a great place to visit and the people were so friendly.  We all really enjoyed the vineyard and wish we could've had a little more time to be able to eat at one of the restaurants with the fresh seafood.  I guess that leaves something for our next visit!