Mediterranean: Mykonos!

We did a tour of the Greek island of Mykonos. It is most famous for its windmills which have been featured in some familiar movies. The island is about 40 miles square and we saw a lot of it.

Here are some views of the island as we were arriving:

The windmills:

In ancient times the island was about halfway between destinations for trading corn.  That would really weigh down a ship.  If three ships stopped at Mykonos for supplies, they could use the power from the windmills to grind the corn they were carrying and put it all in one ship and send two back for more.

A small restaurant that we stopped at:

The monastery...outside:

 ...and inside:

This is one of their world famous beaches: Kalafati Beach.

In the summer this beach is covered with umbrellas and you rent an umbrella and two chairs.  There are 3 rows and the most expensive row is the one nearest the water.

There are small churches everywhere.  We learned that cremation is not allowed on the island and so each family buries their dead but because there is not a lot of room, they exhume them after a couple of years and put them in these churches.

The houses and buildings have thick masonry walls and a thick coat of plaster and are all white washed.  This keeps them cool in the hot weather as the white reflects the sun and the plaster is porous and absorbs the moisture which then evaporates.  Here is a great description: "the aesthetic effect of the blinding white buildings against the azure Aegean sky is magnificent."

Mykonos is also a favorite spot for the jet set who rent villas there during the summer.  Our guide named off numerous movie stars who have stayed there.

We also did a walking tour of the town with its narrow streets. Our guide was a Canadian man who wanted to pursue being an artist after some study and went to the island as a young man to paint and never left. He has been there over 40 years. So he had some interesting perspectives on our culture and the culture of Mykonos.  We were just a small group of 11 people so he was able to show us some unique things that would have been harder in a larger group. After the tour we had a late lunch in a restaurant he recommended and took a water taxi back to the ship. I was very interested in the history of the island which included tales of the Venetians and Ottomans and even some Pirates!

We learned something interesting: hundreds of years ago water was what the Internet is to us today. It was their way of communicating and finding out what was going on in the world, so these islands are a central part of the history of the Mediterranean.  Gargle vs Google!