Mykonos 16 to 18 June 2013

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Greek Islands 16 to 23 June 2013

1. Mykonos 16 to 18 June 2013

We are in heaven! Perfect weather (hot, cool breezes), hill-top views, killer sunsets, beautiful food, fantastic restaurant, waterside dining for people watching, southern beaches for partying, ATV motorbikes for travelling around (Euro15 for 24 hrs), lovely Greek people, and magnificent accommodation. Do we need anything more – yes, to have the family and friends around would be perfect!

We organized our ferry and accommodation after we arrived in Rafina. For anyone who doesn’t want a cruise, fly to Athens, organize the ferry to the islands you want to go to at the Rafina Port – much cheaper! Even if you don’t organize your accommodation on bookings.com before you go, there are many sales people touting for your business re accommodation. So easy.

After booking ferries to 3 Greek Islands (Mykonos, Santorini and Melos) at the Port (such an efficient way to do it) and booking accommodation through booking.com, using the Ferry Terminal’s WiFi, we were off for 8 days.

We left our Camper at a paid carpark near the ferry terminal.

The weather was beautiful. It was absolute mayhem at the port, with 100s of people, truck, cars, motorbikes coming off the ferry and 100s going on. The Greeks are so interesting when you watch them in their excited, loud way.

We found a seat (we learned, 1^st in best dressed) and sat and relaxed.

The trip to Mykonos took 5 hours. We left at 5.30pm on 16 June. Our 1st stop was on the island of Andross. This is a beautiful island. We were there for only 30 minutes.

We sat next to 2 Greek families who lived on Tinos. They had 4 little children, one of whom was intently watching Dora the Explorer. I thought of Gemma. They live on one of the Islands.

After arriving at 10.30pm, we found a taxi who took us to the Ostraco Suits up on the hill. Beautifully accommodation – white of course!

We were given a welcome drink and 11.45pm it was time for bed.

The next morning we got up and had a beautiful fresh breakfast and went for a walk into the town of Mykonos where the new and old harbor is, as well as walk around the little streets of Little Venice – fascinating (see photos).

We then decided to hire an ATV motorbike (instead of a scooter or car). There were 100s of outlets to do this. For the next 5 hours we hopped on and off the bike, looking at beaches, having lunch, visiting the southern beaches, the central town of Ano Mera and riding up north for more views of the dam (some of their water supply but most is from a desalination Plant on the Island). Riding around the Island was lots of fun, despite some bumpy roads and an ATV that got up to 15 k.p.h full-throttle!!! I didn’t use a helmet (most people don’t) and the top speed we travelled was 32 kph. It was so much cooler riding a motorbike than being in a car. Great fun.

We had lunch at Paradise Beach Resort (southern coast).

Back to our hotel, we had a swim in the pool and Tom even got me to stay still for about 1/2hr, lying by the pool. Beautiful!

After that we got ready to go into town by motorbike. We parked near the new port and walked along the waterfront and found a nice breezy spot to have one of the beautiful Greek coffees and later, an icy cold Mykos beer. After awhile we walked further along the waterfront and chose a restaurant for dinner. We had fresh bass cooked beautifully, a Greek salad and oven-cooked eggplant – beautiful (see photo). We had one of their dry white wines (couldn’t read the label).

The aim of tonight was to watch a sunset. We ended up sitting on the cliff near the famous Mykonos windmills to watch the sun. There were 2 big cruise ships in port so there were stacks of people. Several times we saw massive numbers of big groups coming from the port. They were like ants!! Some ships arrived at 10.00am and left at 6.00pm. One stayed overnight.

The sunset was beautiful and there was a perfect breeze – very pleasant. We stayed after sunset and found another restaurant to have coffee.

We had a really good look around Little Venice with its narrow streets, multiple restaurants and little shops, buildings all white and all the edges of the pavement stones were painted white. It’s amazing what you see when you wonder. The main town is called Chora of which Little Venice is a part.

We went into several of the many, many churches (some say there are 700 on the Island, others say 400) and talked to a few of the locals asking them how they thought things were going in Greece. One Greek guy said many Greeks are lazy that is why they are in the present situation!!!!

The next morning (of our departure day), I went for a run and we packed and then had a very leisurely breakfast. Tom dropped the motor bike back and we went for another walk into Chora before returning to our hotel to catch a taxi to the Port to catch the See Jet 2 ferry to Mylos (sometimes spelt Milos) after 2 lovely days on Mykonos.

We had seen everything we wanted to see except the Island’s mascot, Petros the Pelican. We were walking along the waterfront on the way back to the hotel and then I spotted him. He had stopped to have a drink at one of the water fountains. A number of years ago, Petros landed on the Island injured. They nursed him back to health and he has never left the Island. Great story.

So this part of our Greek Island time was now complete.

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