May 17/18

NCL's cabin stewards do towel animals just like the other lines. I sometimes wonder if each cabin steward does his/her own, or if there's some poor soul in the depths of the ship who spends all day making swans, elephants, monkeys, etc. to be distributed to all cabins. But yesterday evening we had one I hadn't seen before...a bat hanging from our ceiling, wings out-spread. I wonder if this is a comment on my cabin mate's habit of sleeping in until noon or even later when she doesn't have a tour so that the cabin steward can't get in here until late. Hmmm...

May 17 and we are at Mykonos, Greece. I had signed up for basically the same tour that I took last time to the village of Ano Mera. It's a good tour, scenic with ouzo to drink (or not), Greek appetizers, and village cats to watch. Almost everyone I've talked to in the last couple of days seems to be signed up for this one. We may just over-run the little place.

We anchored off and tendered in because the huge Ruby Princess was taking up the cruise ship dock that was just being completed the last time I was here. Fortunately, the ocean was very calm which made getting on and off the tenders a good deal less strenuous than the "Tender High Jump" event that I have occasionally experienced in the past. 

The weather was overcast and extremely windy which did not help the ambiance of the island or of Ano Mera. Even the town cats were snugged away somewhere warm, except two or three who must have been the designated tourist greeters for today. I didn't take any photos worth uploading today, but if you want, you can scroll back through this blog to my previous visit.

UNfortunately, while we were out on tour, some "they" with a non-operational brain moved the location of the tender dock ashore from where the buses had picked us up and then also dropped us off to the other end of Mykonos town. I'm sure they did it so that the tourists would have to pass through the shopping area. We had to walk the entire length of the waterfront which I'm guessing was about a mile since the guide kept referring to it as a ten minute walk. And it was all rough cobblestones! I made it with numerous stops to rest, but toward the end I had some serious questions as to whether I really would survive it.  Bless my friend, George, and my cabin mate, Debbie, who stayed with me the whole way back. I plan to have some strong comments for the NCL Shore Excursion people who did not mention this when I specifically asked about walking distances on the tours I had booked.

Needless to say, I was exhausted, so after lunch I set my alarm clock for our early dinner hour and took a nap. When it went off, I happened to be facing away from it, so rolled over to turn it off, and ran out of bed before I finished rolling. So I'm lying on the floor, clutching the alarm clock, and the muscles in both legs are cramping from all that hiking. Again, blessings on Debbie, as between us, we managed to get me back up again without having to call for a derrick. 

On to Istanbul tomorrow. I'm going to take another rest day instead of virtually repeating the tour I had last time. 

Early on May 18. It's a very good thing that I'm not on tour here. I'm so stiff and sore from yesterday that I can barely move! Sleep late, do some reading or crocheting, and just hang around the ship is about all I can manage today. I need to be in touring shape for Izmir tomorrow so I can report to Betty on what it is like these days, although I've heard that it is now the third largest city (or maybe that's port) in Turkey.