Thursday, October 21

Mykonos, Greece.  Originally scheduled to be a tender port, we docked at the brand new, not-quite-finished ship port. Jill had a tour to Delos a 35 minute ferry ride away to see the ruins there. She reported that there is no shade and lots of ruins at this UNESCO World Heritage site.

I took a tour on Mykonos itself. It is a member of the island group known as the Cyclades. The island has lots of very square white buildings mostly with blue shutters and doors, ooldes of rock walls running every direction, and about a zillion rocks that are not in walls. Legend says that the granite rocks on Mykonos are the bodies of the Titans that were slain by Zeus. Ah...I almost forgot the olive groves and prickly pear cacti that were everywhere.

We stopped for views of Delos and several beaches although how sand beaches got there with all those rocks on the island is somewhat of a question...must have been many eons of waves on those rocks. Mykonos has long been a popular tourist spot so there are many small hotels, condos, etc., and the local population is quite cosmopolitan even given that many are still actively farming. Most of the farming is of olives and grapes as the island is so arid. Water is, of course, why the buildings all have flat roofs and cisterns.

We stopped in a town called Ano Mera to visit a monastery’s church. I stayed in the little town square and communed with some of the herd of smallish cats of just about every color that were wandering around. I even found a postcard of “Cats of Greece,” but I’m keeping that one myself. Then we went around the square to a taberna where we were offered a snack of Greek hors d’oeuvres and either water or ouzo or ouzo with ice in it to make it cloudy. It was 10:30 in the morning, for heaven’s sake! I passed on all of that and just got a Greek beer which was cold and quite good, although it was a very large bottle, and I didn’t finish it. It was very pleasant to sit in the sun, drink cold beer, and watch the other tourists try to skritch the cats...mostly successfully.

Back to the ship in time for lunch and a lazy afternoon. We sailed at 5:00 p.m. with Frank providing “color commentary” again. (Fortunately he can only e heard on the open decks or on the closed circuit tv on the BridgeCam channel.) As we left, the Costa Fortuna arrived to take our place. Then another Costa ship arrived, but a rather small and old one for which we couldn’t make out a name. (Note to self: next time I travel to foreign climes, I really must remember to bring my binoculars and some decent maps of the area.)

Friday, October 22

Monemvassia, Greece. I can spell it, but still have trouble pronouncing it. This 1,000 foot high crag is known a the “Greek Gibraltar.” It separated from the mainland during an earthquake in 375 A.D. Now it is reached by a low causeway. The place was in its heyday during the 12th century, and is the original home of Malmsey wine. By the way, it is located on the southeastern corner of the Argolid Penninsula, i.e. the southernmost tip of Greece.

There is a fortress at the very tip top. Down at water level on the seaward end (to the right in this photo)  is the walled lower town which is only accessible on foot or by mule via a single narrow gate. (“Monemvassia” actually means “one way in.”) Although several thousand people once lived there, only a few do so now, and they have to park their cars outside the gate.

Once inside, there is a very narrow zigzag walled path that leads to the upper village...only two people wide with arrow slits at every turn. The place was ruled by the Turks for about three centuries, but was retaken by the Greeks after a siege in 1821.

This information comes from the screed that the ship provides on each port. The ship spent the day doing creative drifting in the little harbor area while people were taken ashore on the ship’s tenders...a very bouncy ride with today’s stiff winds. I am no longer interested in competing in the “tender high jump” event, so I stayed aboard. I must say that Captain Gundersen and his staff and crew are wizards at creative drifting (i.e. remaining in about the same place without using the anchor) as well as at head-in, back-in and parallel parking this ship at docks.

The last tender from shore was supposed to be at 1:30 p.m., however it appeared that two passengers were late, so it was after 2:30 before we got going again. We had a very good view from our veranda of the crew raising one of the tenders back into position. Now that we are back out in the Aegean, the wind is very strong, and the ship is moving around a lot more than it has on this whole trip! The final formal dinner tonight should be an adventure also.

Tomorrow is the final sea day as we head back to Rome and will be filled with repacking the suitcases for the trip back to the U.S. Jill and I will be spending one night in Rome, and hope that we can arrange some sort of tour in the afternoon. So this is probably the penultimate posting for this trip.