Seabourn Day 3, Mykonos Evening

We’ve enjoyed the past few days aboard ship so much that I actually had some qualms about going ashore this morning. The ship is a known quantity. I love adventure, but I was unsure what Mykonos would have in store.

We took the tender into Mykonos this morning around am and wondered the streets. We were not the first off ship and we did not have the town to ourselves. Still in the early morning there were relatively few tourists around and still fewer the further away we moved from the shore-side cafes.

The winds were quite strong, blowing sand in our faces as we walked the “main street” along the waterfront. Ellen found some stairs leading away from the wind and up we went. Mykonos is beautiful. Walking the stairs through the white houses with blue or yellow or red doors was fun. Finally we came upon a narrow two lane thoroughfare. There were motor scooters, vespas, ATVs, small trucks, large trucks and even a bus at one point, all going somewhere on this road. There was no sidewalk. We walked in the street dodging traffic or watching traffic dodge us as we walked down, back to the shore.

We arrived at the west end of Mykonos on the shore. There are public WCs there. One was clean with TP. The other not so much. We turned back toward the center of town, with the breeze at our backs snapping photos as we went.

When the Seabourn Odyssey arrived at Mykonos, there was one large cruise ship at the port some distance from town. It was a huge ships, though I could not make out its name or country of origin. The Odyssey anchored offshore and used its four tenders to bring travelers ashore. While we walked up the steps to the thoroughfare, another massive cruise ship arrived and anchored quite close to the Odyssey. That ship dwarfed the Odyssey. Two things crossed my mind: how nice to have booked with a small intimate cruise line and Oh crap, we’ll be inundated in the nest few hours with hoards of tourists walking streets of Mykonos.

There was absolutely nothing we could do, the die was cast. As we walked closer to the town center, the crowds grew. Ellen saw steps heading up-hill and motioned me back as I had gone ahead. She was standing beside a shop that sold only white garments. The shop’s name: “Pure White”. The steps just to the left of this shop lead up, but not so steeply, to a view overlooking Mykonos and to a single windmill. Also near the windmill is one of the most beautiful hotels on the island or at least in Mykonos proper. The “Boutique Hotel” has views to die for. We stopped in to ask the room rates which run from budget at $50 US per night to high at $320 per night. The expensive rooms have expansive views overlooking Mykonos. We asked to see a room, but they were busy and could not or would not show a room. The hotel has a website showing each room category, we were referred to the web site. We asked if they served lunch. With their view and limited clientele, it would be a perfect place to eat a bite. No, no lunch. They did server breakfast for hotel guests. The reservation desk did recommend that we go to Raya for lunch if we wanted authentic Greek cuisine.

The views from the hotel and from the lone windmill were stunning. Any reservations I had had about Mykonos vanished. There were very few people at either the hotel or the single windmill. The modest climb up the stairs dissuaded most tourists; there were very few people around. I highly recommend the walk should you find yourself in Mykonos. We took photos of the “famous” four windmills at the east side of Mykonos and agreed that we did not need to walk there to see them.

As we walked back down the hill, we found an increasing number of tourists. Not necessarily a bad thing, after all we are tourists too. However, when we can we like to avoid crowds. Rather than making our way down to the waterfront, we took a left, a few streets behind the waterfront esplanade.

We found ourselves in a very high end shopping area. Versache, Sophia, YSL, an seemingly never ending stream of very high end shops. I heard one clearly American woman complain that the prices here were much too high. Of note, I had not packed a belt and purchased one on board. As we often do, we started a conversation with the sales gal, who suggested that we AVOID shopping in Mykonos as Kusadasi has very much the same things but at much lower prices. Mykonos is one of the jet set’s favorite hangouts. Kusadasi is relatively unknown and prices reflect that.

Anyway, we walked well behind the seaside thinking we would turn in to find Raya for a bite. We took photos of things we found interesting as we walked and lost track of where we were going. After some time enjoying our walk, we discovered we had walked to the four windmills at the other side of town. Mykonos is a very small town. There was one older Greek fellow with many missing teeth and a typical Greek hat who was playing the Greek version (continued…)

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