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The Birthplace of Apollo, it is said that “Mykonos Shines Like a Diamond in a Sapphire Sea!”
Mykonos belongs to the island group known as the Cyclades, since they form a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos, one of the religious centers of ancient Greece. Seen from a distance, the Cyclades resemble a necklace of gems on deep blue satin. These islands are ideally placed astride the trade routes from Europe, to Asia Minor, to Egypt, and back again.
The rocky soil at Mykonos results in an austere and barren look, but the cube-shaped white houses provide the charming characteristic that we all have come to associate with Greece. These houses are set with a contrasting dazzling blue sky and sea. In the old days, there was always the danger of invasion by pirates, so the town and harbor are compactly built for defense. Well, the maze of narrow streets may have confused the invaders but they also serve well to break the effects of the strong Aegean Sea winds.
We did not sign for any formal tours for this stop. There were only a couple of tours and it seemed that everything was close enough to the ship that we could just walk around. This was a good decision. The photographs below simply record what we saw on our stroll through the town of Mykonos.
Before leaving Mykonos we sat down at an open air cafe and Mieko ordered ice cream and I order a Greek beer. The beer was good, a very nice beer. The five, yes five!, dips of ice cream were really good. A very good chocolate ice cream.
