Mykonos

Tuesday, April 10: Mykonos

Bus tour of Mykonos. All the animals, except cats, were either leashed or hobbled, including goats, sheep, dogs, donkeys and horses. This was rather odd for two reasons: on mainland Greece all animals were as unfettered as possible, and there were no horses (that we saw) on the much larger island of Crete.

The buildings are generally rounded white cubes with wood trim painted a deep blue on most houses, with a minority various shades of aqua, and a few brick red. The many small chapels have their trim, doors, and barrel-vaulted roofs painted a deep red.

My room looked out on the Aegean, and I could see other Cycladic Islands in the brilliant sea. It is a vibrant blue where deep, and shades of beautiful green where shallow. I never tired of admiring the color, which was incredible even when the sky was overcast.

We visited a number of lonely beaches, which, when the season is "on" are very far from lonely. At one of them Ed sat on a little pier to dangle his toes in the water and got soaked by the only major wave we saw all day.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, where swordfish was the main course. Everyone learned of my fish phobia, as Ed volunteered to debone the fish for me, and was very vocal about my irrational dread of things with an internal skeleton that swim. I actually ate some of the fish. And of course bit into a bone. Fortunately all Greek meals at restaurants have a minimum of four courses: starters, which are often multiple goodies such as fried cheese, breaded fried eggplant, and various other things (a meal in themselves), followed by a Greek salad, then the main course (often accompanied by fried potatoes), and finally a dessert. The dessert that day was a delicious dish of miniature donuts covered in honey.

We visited the near-by monastery, where the visual elements inside were quite over the top. The courtyard was wonderfully peaceful, with a lovely tower, and a view through the doorway in the outer wall of the restaurant where we ate.

We returned to the hotel and I took a nap, then had dinner, a drink in the bar, and retired to sleep, perchance to dream.