Sunday, February 2, 2020

Mykonos!! Our voyage continues! 09/26/19

I've been a horrible blogger! It's been more than a month since my last post, and it's been four months since we've returned from our trip that I'm blogging about. It has definitely been a busy few months, but I suppose the nice thing about taking time to write about our adventures is that I get to relive our experiences all over again when I'm sharing them! 

So here we are, the 6th day of our trip, and the 5th day of the cruise.  The day before was such a beautiful day, spent in Santorini and today we are docking in Mykonos! We had an early arrival, at 8 am, so we got to watch the sun come up over the island. 







Mykonos is another tender port, and we would be visiting Delos today, so we decided to go with a ship tour to make it easy to coordinate the ferry ride over along with the tender.  We were off the ship early and on our way!









Once we all were gathered in a group we walked around the port area to where the ferry would take us to Delos.  It was about a 10 minute walk.


We got a glimpse of the Windmills of Mykonos!


We all boarded the ferry and were ready to go.




When we arrived we broke into smaller groups and our tour began. Delos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is what is said to be "perhaps the most sacred of all islands".  In Ancient Greek culture, it is the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis. It is also what was once known to be the greatest commercial center of the world.  It was quite a bustling metropolis!

We had a wonderful guide, which is so important in places with ruins like this. The guide can really bring the history to life, with the tales of what life was like when the culture was thriving, and then with what happened to these civilizations.



The excavations began here in 1872 and still continue. The entire island is an archaeological site and it speaks to the size of this community!







Based on some of the homes, it is clear that there was quite a bit of wealth here.


















In this area there would have been somewhat like a road with buildings along each side. The columns can be seen where each would have stood and the pieces from the structures of each lay behind where they once stood.  















The remains of the Terrace of the Lions which lined the Sacred Way. Some of the original Lions are in the museum on the island to protect them from the elements.























This was the Grand Amphitheater of Delos, estimated to hold about 6,500 people!  If you look closely you can see the seats in the back of the photo.























If you have time, you can hike up the mountain for a better view. Along the way are other ruins and historic sites, for example the Temple of Isis and the House of Hermes.






This is what remains of the Temple of Apollo





After our tour we had free time so we walked through the museum.  Here many of the original pieces were located so they could be preserved. 
















We met back at the dock and boarded the ferry back to Mykonos.  I loved the time we spend here at Delos! 


It was a beautiful ride back, with people on the ferry discussing what we had just seen and learned about!







There are some sculptures in Delos and on this island as we passed by. This one is of a man, standing on the edge of the island. They have been described as hauntingly beautiful. I agree. I had heard the sculptures would only be there through fall of 2019.


We had a couple of hours until we had to be back on the tender to go back to our ship. We thought about walking to the windmills.  Then we thought about trying to get some other sightseeing in.  But in the end, we decided to find somewhere to have lunch and just stroll along the beach.  This was a great day, life was really good here in Mykonos!























On our way back to our ship.... 













 





We may not have made it to the Windmills, but now we have something to do when we come back. Each day so far has been perfect, and we still have two more ports on this amazing cruise!  Can't wait for the next day!