October 2008 - we went back to Greece. This time we did some island hoping.
Starting from Athens - we took the early morning flight to Mykonos from the ever efficient Aegean Airlines (they differentiate themselves from Olympic by actually running flights!).
Mykonos was bright and brash and full of international shops and expensive restaurants. It was also full of cruise ship passengers - 3 or 4 ships a day even at the end of the season. When the two big italian ships were in port we had to take refuge in a nice cafe there were so many people about. That said - it was actually very nice at the right time of day (about 7:30 in the morning).
The main reason for going to Mykonos was to get to Delos - which we did. The guidebooks say that 2 hours is a good visit time for Delos. I cannot see this myself- there is so much to see. We took two days!! That did include the little visited stadium and a long trip around the museum - also two trips to the Grotto which is Mycenean in my very humble opinion!
From Mykonos - we went to Naxos by catamaran. Naxos is nice, quiet and has an old town and castle that I could explore for days. It is also a very large Island and we spent a whole day driving around temples and sites.
Leaving Naxos was harder than we thought - we were booked on the cat to Iraklio but that was cancelled due to bad weather - so the next day we took the Blue Star ferry to Thera and changed to the cat there. The ferry was a blessing - modern,fast and very stable. The Cat frm Thera should why you should not take cats if you are at all seasick - as we left Thera across the deep water to Crete the swell deepened and the boat took on an impressive wallowing motion at high speed. Result - everybody on the boat was sick (except me - of course - thanks to the famous Harwood Iron stomach). Particularly impressive was the tour group from Singapore - I have never seen any group as miserable as them when they left the boat!!
Final - we spent some days back at Zakros - which has been mentioned in this blog before. Click on the thumbnails for the pictures.
Starting from Athens - we took the early morning flight to Mykonos from the ever efficient Aegean Airlines (they differentiate themselves from Olympic by actually running flights!).
Mykonos was bright and brash and full of international shops and expensive restaurants. It was also full of cruise ship passengers - 3 or 4 ships a day even at the end of the season. When the two big italian ships were in port we had to take refuge in a nice cafe there were so many people about. That said - it was actually very nice at the right time of day (about 7:30 in the morning).
The main reason for going to Mykonos was to get to Delos - which we did. The guidebooks say that 2 hours is a good visit time for Delos. I cannot see this myself- there is so much to see. We took two days!! That did include the little visited stadium and a long trip around the museum - also two trips to the Grotto which is Mycenean in my very humble opinion!
From Mykonos - we went to Naxos by catamaran. Naxos is nice, quiet and has an old town and castle that I could explore for days. It is also a very large Island and we spent a whole day driving around temples and sites.
Leaving Naxos was harder than we thought - we were booked on the cat to Iraklio but that was cancelled due to bad weather - so the next day we took the Blue Star ferry to Thera and changed to the cat there. The ferry was a blessing - modern,fast and very stable. The Cat frm Thera should why you should not take cats if you are at all seasick - as we left Thera across the deep water to Crete the swell deepened and the boat took on an impressive wallowing motion at high speed. Result - everybody on the boat was sick (except me - of course - thanks to the famous Harwood Iron stomach). Particularly impressive was the tour group from Singapore - I have never seen any group as miserable as them when they left the boat!!
Final - we spent some days back at Zakros - which has been mentioned in this blog before. Click on the thumbnails for the pictures.
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