Mykonos and Santorini

Our good ship docked in Mykonos

On Wednesday we sailed into the Aegean, made landfall on the island of Mykonos, and headed into the town for the afternoon.  We were told that the narrow streets were intentionally laid out as a maze to thwart pirates from finding anything, and we can truthfully say it worked for us.  Now the wealth flows the other way, into the myriad souvenir shops.  Of course, the treasures we were after were the classic scenes of Greece, and these we found in abundance.  

Mykonos town

In addition to the expected houses with whitewashed walls and bright blue window shutters and doors, we discovered a familiar friend:  bougainvillea.  Here is a montage of this colorful plant:

With all the modern windmill farms being put in for power generation, I can't resist saying:  what goes around comes around:-)

And then with the sun sinking low in the west, it was time to return to the ship and head off for Santorini.

Our ship, transfer boats; Oia village in background

The island of Santorini is the rim of a mostly sunken volcano with no mooring facilities, so our ship anchored in the lagoon and we went ashore via transfer boats.

We opted for a tour because there are (at least) two towns we wanted to see, Thera (sometimes Fira) and Oia, far enough apart that a tour bus becomes the preferred means of transportation.  Our first stop was Oia.

The ruins of Oia Castle

Santorini is known for its five 15th century Venetian castles.  The one at Oia is totally in ruins, but this is a recent development, the result of a major earthquake in 1956.

Here are more scenes from Santorini:

Supplies go down the cliff by donkey

We could see our ship from many points on the island

Coffee break cliffside

Next up:  Dubrovnik and our return to Venice.