Day 21 – May 6 Friday

A very late start today, 9.15am departure for the Athens port of Piraeus.  We boarded the ship, the Louis Majesty, around 10am & found our little two bed (instead of the big party beds, king size beds we had in the hotels) cabin on deck 4.  We explored the ship until casting off at 10.30, then lifeboat drill, a briefing by Anne, our tour director for the cruise, then lunch at 1.15pm.  The voyage to Mykonos was very windy, the ship was ploughing up & down through the waves & the strength of the wind had the ship sailing with a noticeable lean.  We sat on the back sundeck, out of the wind as much as possible, warming ourselves in the occasional sun shine & watched the islands pass by.  For most of the time we had the entire sundeck to ourselves, it was that windy (we were rugged up in our wind jackets, we looked like we were going to Antarctica, not cruising around the beautiful sunny Greek Islands).  We arrived at Mykonos a shade after 5pm & disembarked for the short bus trip into Mykonos & a walk around town.  All of the houses are whitewashed & most have blue window & door paint, there are a few rebels making a statement with a red, yellow or green window colour here & there.

Mykonos is a lovely little town right on the seashore, with some old fishing boats tied up in the same harbour as multi-million super-yachts.  We explored the town, there are so many little churches, every fourth building seems to be a church.  We walked to little Venice & had a look at the houses dating from around 900 years ago, the sea actually washing right up to them, then walked up the hill to look at the old windmills overlooking the town.  It was very, very windy up here & very cold, we were so glad we had our wind jackets on, including hood – I had always thought the Greek islands were supposed to be sunny & warm.  We wandered back down through the very narrow twisty alleys, along whitewashed cobblestones & past tiny nooks of all sorts of shops.  We got back down to the main beach & headed back to the bus & the ship, we had seen enough in the cold.  We would have stayed a lot longer if it was more pleasant weather.

Back to the ship by 8pm, straight to dinner in the a-la-carte dining room where we met two couples & had a lovely chat & a great meal. The waiters were so friendly, polite & aimed to please.  Bed by 10.30pm.