Al & Anita enjoying lunch overlooking Paradise Beach
I’ve fallen further behind writing here than I usually do, largely perhaps because I’ve been having more fun with family than I usually do. I guess that’s not altogether a bad thing.
Mark & I were joined on our last three stops in Greece by my brother Al and his wife Anita. Last year they joined us at Lake Como for what was supposed to be a week-long stay, but on the first day we learned my Dad had died. So that one didn’t work out so well. We were hopeful that this trip would turn out a little better and I can happily report that it did: no one died!
Sunset over the iconic windmills of Mykonos with our hotel in the foreground. Built by the Venetians in the 16th century when they controlled the island, they were used to mill grain into the 20th century.
Our first stop was the island of Mykonos. As Mykonos lies just a mile away from the ancient religious site of Delos, and as the Cyclades Islands are defined as forming a circle around Delos, we’re pretty much right in the center of the Cyclades. Mykonos has a permanent population of a bit over 10,000 but it’s famous – and sometimes notorious – as a major party destination for the well-heeled. Along with Santorini, which Mark & I have visited on two previous occasions, Mykonos is probably the most famous of the Greek isles. Mykonos is also famous for being a gay-friendly island, though I’ll admit I didn’t see any great evidence of that.
Anita took this picture of Mykonos’s narrow but colorful streets
At any rate, our four days there were pretty great. The main town on the island is a warren of gorgeous winding whitewashed streets with sprays of color everywhere. It’s a bit more crowded and touristy than I would like but we’ve had plenty of opportunities to enjoy more sedate islands, too. We rented a car so we could try out a couple beaches and that worked out really nicely. The fist beach was nice, but the second beach – the aptly named Paradise Beach – was, well, a paradise. It’s funny, on previous trips to Greece Mark and I haven’t really experienced great beaches but this time around we’re finding some of the best in the world. Nothing to complain about there!
Paradise Beach!
In addition to beach time, Al & I did a day trip to the island of Delos. Uninhabited today, in ancient times Delos – legendary birthplace of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis – was a religious site second only to Delphi for the Greeks. As its religious prominence grew all graves were removed from the island and it was decreed that neither births nor deaths were permitted to occur on the island, though one suspects that enforcement was not perfect. After the Greeks’ war with Persia in the early sixth century BC, Delos was the center of the Delian League, sort of an early NATO pact of small Greek city-states who agreed to provide joint defense against a Persian return. Eventually Athens came to dominate the Delian League and even moved the treasury from Delos to Athens but that’s a story for some other day.
Al had been to the famous Temple of Artemis in Ephesus so he wanted to see the Temple of Artemis in Delos. Here it is!
So that was our fourth island on this Greek journey, the first for Al & Anita. We have one more to go but so far these Greek islands are living up to their reputations and more.
Me and Mark in a riot of red in front of the windmills
Anita and I enjoying the Mykonos waterfront
Anita posing with a pelican who seemed to make his home in the parking lot to our hotel. In 1958 a wounded pelican was taken to Mykonos where he recovered and became an island icon. Killed by a car in 1985 he was replaced by three other pelicans who apparently wander around the town. Strange.
Paradise Beach
A reasonable approximation of how I spend my time on Greek islands
Here are a few other shots of the ruins of Delos
We’ve seen better examples of ancient theaters
And here I am atop the highest point of Delos
Finally, Al & Anita enjoying dinner at Nico’s where we had an excellent table for people watching