Once again, our breakfast arrived as we were pulling into Mykonos, the most Northern Greek port we visited. While in Rhodes we learned that October 28th was a national holiday: OXI DAY, (oshy) - it is commemorated with military, student and union marches and parades. The Greek flag flies on almost every building. OXI DAY celebrates the very firm "NO!" (OXI!) of the Greek government to the capitulation ultimatum of Mussolini in WWII.
The sun was just breaking through the clouds. We dropped anchor and had plans to meet some of our group by the tenders around 9:45.
Thanks to Jackie O, Mykonos has become the most popular of the Aegean islands.
This island is one of the smallest of the Cyclades (same group as Santorini)
First looks:
The first inhabitants of Mykonos were Cares, then the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cretans and Ionians.
In 1207, Mykonos was conquered by the Venetians.
In 1537 the island feel under Turkish occupation. 1830 Greece won its independence from Turkey.
Between WWI and WWII visitors arrived to visit the archaeological ruins of Delos.
During World War II, the island was under Axis occupation.
In the 50's tourists began to visit Mykonos on their way to see the ancient ruins of Delos. Delos is an uninhabited island now, but similar to Ephesus the ruins have been uncovered and offer a deep look in to life. It was our hope to take a boat over and visit this area, but because of the rough water we did not make it over to Delos.
Instead we had a wonderful walking tour with MANY surprises!
As we rode the tender in:
Tender Dock, love the little chapel!
The harbor, lined with shops and restaurants:
Petros and his girlfriend ( aaron took this pix, I was 50 ft away)
our ship is in the background
A church around the corner,
Church:
another view, the clouds were looking dark ...
A shop on the square, most shops were closed due to the holiday
cool door ... to a shop
fave shot, missing Foster my blk cat @ home:) He posed perfect!
Winding narrow streets, the white paint made the walk slippery ...
first view of the well-known windmills:
aaron studying the clear clear water:
I am here too, we are in an area called "Little Venice"
we continued winding through the streets
Then we heard bells, and followed the sound - the picture did not turn out great, but the ropes are attached to the bells and men stood outside ringing the bells
two high school students dressed for OXI DAY:
A student band, probably middle school
Military lines up ... for someone important ...
the small church was very cool
the walk way was cleared .....
The band played a short tune, like an annoucement, and a dignitary stepped forward. Our guess, the mayor?
Preparing to enter the church
We stayed and watched the pageantry ... then continued on our way
A new view of little venice,
Heading towards the windmills,
We continued to walk through the streets ...
aaron wandering...
a church:
a church:
the inside of a church ... through the window:
We found our way back to the harbor, on the opposite side ...
something was about to happen....
the band was back!
flags ...
we got in rows ... and the parade came right by!
the parade moved from youngest to oldest .. it was awesome!
After the parade, the street was crowded!
we moved to the beach ...
Then we came upon a dance, i think by high school age students
WE took off to meet the group for lunch, the place we planned to meet was closed for renovations!
But we saw Petros again, could not believe the cats were right there too.
So we wondered and found a place for snacks.
back in little venice for some snacks ... we sat and enjoyed many good eats. A number of people from our group wondered by as we sat and ate - they joined us.
this was a giant lobster ...
after our snack, Aaron and I headed back to the main street ... much less crowded
harbor
the harbor
opposite the tender dock
waiting for the tender back to the ship ....
on the ship for a late lunch
naps ... then time for tea. Ms Georgia (she grew up in Athens) picked up some sweets in Mykonos ... she did not want to be in the pix, but how could I resist!
close up ... everything was so tasty.
We did share, there ended up being about 20 people for tea.
from the tea room,
anchor was up at 4:45 and we were heading to Istanbul
as we headed out of Greece ...
off to dress for dinner .... no shots of our final "dress up " night.
But I did have lobster for dinner!
We hung out with the group, tried to watch the entertainment "Ballroom Dancing" it was worse them the MoTown (dubbed wo-town by Aaron) Aaron and I ended up watching some football in our room and fell asleep.
Off to Istanbul, 311 nautical miles, we would be in port at 2pm.
GRACE AND PEACE!
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