We had elected to go on another tour today. This time Delos.

We arrived at Mykonos just before breakfast and those not on the Delos trip could have free time. There were about 5 cruise ships In Mykonos when we arrived.

Mykonos is like Santorini on steroids and without the climb. The prices and merchandise reflect the clientele.

To go to Delos we took a sea bus into the old port and then boarded a ferry to nearby Delos. It is a giant archaeological site protected by UNESCO and was originally the centre of worship to Apollo. Our guide (Alexandra) explained why but it sounded a bit like good marketing at the time if you ask me. It was the home to about 30,000 people back in the 7th century BC in its heyday.

It’s a huge but barren site that is partially excavated. There is almost no shade so it was a bit of a struggle and again our guide unloaded a huge amount of information although this time she was very articulate.

We saw rooms of some wealthy houses, the remains of marble tables from shops and saw the drainage and sewer systems. They got fresh water to the houses by having a huge holding tank under the floor of the atrium that got filled by rain water. This was visible at the site of the theatre, which can seat 4000, and the underfloor reservoir was huge and supported by a series of arches.

Our guide noted that these arches predated the Roman occupation and are evidence the Greeks had arches but didn’t use them for decorative purposes. There are also the remains of 3 giant temples dedicated to Apollo and an elaborate long colonnade that was like a main street.

After the tour we retreated to the cafe for a coke before heading back to the ferry. Barbara and I had already seen a lot of the original frescos, artefacts and sculptures as they are house in the archaeological museum in Athens. I think that’s a sore point for the archaeologists working on Delos, which has its own small museum.

We headed back to Mykonos just after noon. Joseph gave us an orientation briefing and warned about the labyrinthine streets that stretch back from the 2 small bays. He warned us to stay close and headed off to the windmills. Mike didn’t stay close enough. I looked back to check he was following and then he headed off behind another group going the other way. Luckily another Kiwi in our saw he’d gone the wrong way so darted after him and one of the women but by the time the 4 of us got reunited we had no show of finding Joseph and the rest. We got some directions and moseyed along for about 10 minutes until we found the windmills and there was Barb coming up the hill.

She had just sent a txt also and the group was mostly just down below near the expensive cafes by the port.

It was good to find each other amongst the throng of people.

We didn’t see anyone rich or famous (not that we’d recognise anyone if we fell over them) and eventually found a shady cafe where we enjoyed a very nice but very expensive salad each.

Mike and I headed back to the boat for some down time and Barbara set forth to explore a bit more. It’s seafood night tonight on the Galileo. Yay.