CRUISING THE GREEK ISLES

Monday, November 5^th, 2007 Greek Isle Cruise….first stop: Mykonos

Woke before the wake up call and dressed for breakfast. Checked for our cruise tickets as I was repacking and could not find them! After a frantic five minutes I found them on the floor between the wall and the luggage rack; I was sure they’d disappeared at the airport. About 8 am we walked across the street and waited for the Pharmacy to open and purchased cold medicine. No Dayquil, but I did get a bottle of homeopathy Organic Syrup with Echinacea and Propolis? Have my doubts on the effectiveness but will continue with the Sudafed and this new stuff. Also found some ointment with Eucalyptus and Echinacea that I’ll put on my chest tonight, similar to Vicks Vapor Rub. Sure do hate getting a cold on a trip.

Taxi arrived right on time and took us to the port city of Piraeus and the Cristal Cruise Ship; part of the Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines. Lots of tour buses expelling volumes of tourists for the four day cruise. Many of the guests are American so English is probably the most common language spoken on the ship. We have a nice inside cabin on the third deck; gives us the opportunity to climb more steps throughout the day.

The life boat drill was held at 11 am and then we departed for our first destination: the island of Mykonos. After looking at the different tours available we’ve decided to only pay for the shuttle bus into town and explore on our own. We arrive at Mykonos about 5:30 pm and will be in port until 9:30 pm.

We have decided to take the time to eat our meals in the dining room instead of the causal food on the pool deck cafeteria style. We walked to the dining room early and introduced ourselves to Spiro, the manager in charge of the La Scala Restaurant on Deck 8. He has promised to attempt to find us seating during the early dinner; especially since Miss Julie’s name was mentioned in our conversation. For today since it was noon we stayed for the wonderful lunch. We were at a mixed table of Americans: mother/daughter from Texas, two young single girls who met on the tour they are a part of and a husband/wife on a Grand Circle Tour from North Carolina. It was a very pleasant lunch with lively conversations about travel. Two of us at the table were suffering from colds. After lunch we submitted our credit card at registration and also registered for the tours that we are doing. Right now we only selected three tours but may also do the one in Crete.

The only access to the Internet on board ship is on the three computers in the main lobby. You purchase an hour’s worth of time for ten euros and wait till one becomes free. Surprisingly, the wait is rarely very long, and we’ve been able to connect to aol.netmail.com through the web fairly easily. Not quite as good as wireless and using our own computer but we’re able to read emails and send a few.

Arrived in Mykonos at dusk and by the time we departed the ship it was already dark. The famous windmills on the hills could barely be seen and definitely not photographed. We took an hour and walked through the town and back to the bus for the return trip to the ship that was parked in the new port. We plan to return during the day next week from our next home away from home on Paros. At that time we will also go see the nearby island of Delos, an archeological site. Mykonos is full of shops and many restaurants. We were surprised at how many of the people stopped and ate instead of returning to the ship for the dinner provided as part of the cruise.

Dinner was at 7 pm, open seating and casual. Since we’d eaten on the upper deck for lunch we enjoyed our dinner on the lower deck at the Caruso Restaurant. Then off to bed early as the alarm is set for 5:40 am so that we can finish breakfast before our 7 am departure in the morning in Kusadasi; we will sail there through the night.

My new medicine seems to be working well; I definitely am feeling better.