The next port of call was at Mykonos another Greek Island. This one had a nice beach where we spent the morning and a nice resort village area where we spent the afternoon. The ship was docked in this picturesque harbor.
It was interesting to see several private boats in the harbor. Even though it was still really warm quite a few boats had been pulled our and were on shore, just like in our area in September.
It was a beautiful little harbor and seemed to me from where I was standing on the ship would have been a pretty nice place to spend some time.
As with all of our stops we had to disembark and pass through a credential check point. I am not quite clear in which of the coves on the map below we were docked, but once on shore we climbed on a bus and headed across the island to the beach.
The typical buildings we saw along the way were similar to what we had seen on Santorini a couple of days earlier. White and blue seemed to be a prominent color which was quite a contrast of the grey and tan natural colors of the landscape.
I suspect that many of the buildings were hotel or at least resort rentals. There seemed to be a lot of tourists that were clearly not on big ships.
We got to the beach and were ready for some sun, sand and saltwater.
There was a board walk between the hotels, restaurants, shops and the beach. The shade umbrellas were grouped to be serviced by certain restaurants.
We rented a space and proceeded to do what you do at the beach. I wanted to work on by tan a bit. It was starting to fade.
Clarice was trying to decide it the water was cold.
I guess not. She and Jon toss a waboba around (see the small ball in her right hand and the splashes to the left of Jon as it skips his way).
Karen decided that she would go for the saltwater soak.
After a while we walked on around to the far end of the beach and looked back toward where we has come onto the beach. Below we are standing on the hillside with be beach behind us. See working on my tan was successful.
These are some shots of the bay and the beach. It was really a beautiful spot to spend some time.
Eventually that part of the trip had to end and we headed back to the bus to be transported back to the ship. Seeing the Starbucks reminded me that a snack might be nice. We went back to the ship changed clothes grabbed a quick snack and headed back out to explore the island a bit.
This sign was near the shuttle bus parking area. Behind Karen and Clarice was a nice little seaside village with shops and restaurants.
This can't be good!! When ever you have to put on a helmet you can expect trouble is not far away. Originally Clarice wanted to rent scooters and tour the island, Since we did not have motorcycle licences we had to settle for four wheelers.
This might have been only the second or third time Karen has ever been on a four wheeler and she was a bit apprehensive, but didn't want to miss out of the fun either. So off we went like a herd of turtles. The four wheelers were not exactly high performance units. They also did not have much gas in the tank, only enough to get to a gas station. Apparently you can return the rental with an empty gas tank.
We finally found the gas station, fueled up and headed out. Jon and I drove and Clarice and Karen took photos along the way.
Every turn brought another interesting scene.
We crawled up the hills, and zipped down the other side, got out quite a ways out and took a couple of photos to prove were were really here. Lots of fun!
There were plenty of little harbors and bays mainly with relatively small boats. It wasn't clear if these were used only around the island or if they were used for transport to other islands.
It was obvious that there was lots of natural stone on the island and it was used extensively for building material.
There were lots of stone fences and retaining walls made of stone. The photo below has an unusual building that is actually a windmill or at least was a windmill at one time. The island supposedly had lots of windmills which we eventually found later on.
The winding roads, and hills were fun to ride and provided a nice afternoon of site seeing.
We did spot the windmills and spent a little time at this spot taking photographs.
In the distance in the photo above was a pretty good size modern sailboat heading out of the harbor, see below.
Here's Clarice and Jon as we were getting ready to head out again.
Well maybe one more photo won't hurt. Yes I know we should be going that way. but I would to shoot this nice seaside image.
Below is another interesting vehicle. We had seen several small transports that are unique to Europe.
We dropped off the four wheelers and headed to the village area on foot.
This was a nice looking boat that had been turned into a sign.
Out in the middle of this huge bay was this one little boat. It almost looked like it was put there for a photo opp.
The resort village was similar to others we had seen, nice little shops restaurants most with picturesque outdoor seating.
The use of flowers and paint along with the prominent white washed buildings provided a really pleasant environment.
Karen and Jon are checking out the jars of honey and nuts.
I never seemed to be able to pass up an opportunity to get another storage card for my camera. The ones I had brought were nearly full and we still had a week to go.
Above is a church without the typical blue roof this time.
Nice little spaces had been developed for dining almost everywhere you turned. But we need to head back to the ship. We walked along this seawall to the shuttle park at the far end of the picture below.
It was a pleasent day with quite a bit of variety.
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