Greek Island Cruise Part 1 ~ Where are the Jays

We did a 10 day Greek Island Cruise with Azamara starting in Athens ending in Istanbul, Turkey. In between, we visited Mykonos, Paros, Patmos, Santorini, Agios Nikolaos Crete, Rhodes, and Kos plus Ephesus in Turkey. Mykonos and Santorini are well known and thus quite touristy islands many of the others were much quieter. This cruise is heavy on all the history that abounds in this part of the world. Jeff and I enjoyed some of the history, some of the beaches and some of the food! We are following this cruise with a Greek, Turkey Intensive Cruise so there will be a couple of posts with Roman or Byzantine ruins and beaches. This part 1 will have the first 4 places we visited.

Mykonos

As I said above Mykonos is a popular tourist spot. Like all of the islands it is gorgeous! It really is whitewashed buildings against deep blue water. We are currently in the Cyclades set of islands. We explored it on our own in the morning and then did a walking foodie tour in the afternoon. One of the iconic pictures for these islands but especially Mykonos is the windmills so of course we had to walk over to look at them. Oh one thing up front. These islands tend to be windy and Mykonos is in a league all of its own so windmills make a lot of sense. We took pictures of them and we got to go in one and walk up the circular stairs to the second floor.

Fabric sails catch the wind

Inside Windmill

Another popular area in Mykonos is little Venice. There is a small area of the old town where the houses are literally coming straight up out of the water. We learned they had been built that way in ancient times so that it was harder for intruders to enter the area. Protection from intruders is also why all the houses look so much alike and are attached to each other. The intruders had less walls to try and enter, harder to tell one house from another and the locals could jump from house to house as needed. One group of intruders surprised me; pirates. I never thought about pirates in this part of the world.

Venice Beach

Then after lunch it was time for our food tour. We started off with a dish with the nickname of submarine. It is a white sweet made from the same tree that gives them mastic and it is in a little cup of water. You use the water to soften the sweet and you lick it. It is very sweet! Then we went onto another sweet that was a jellied fruit slice and we were getting worried it would be all sweets after we had bought a cookie to ward off hunger. Happily we moved on to other types of food. Next we had a chicken soulvaki skewer and piece of pita. Unfortunately we had to eat it standing up and blocking a business' s doorway. From there we moved onto a taverna where we did sit down and enjoyed ouzo and a small plate of mezes such as the grape leaves wrapped around a rice mixture, some olives, and a couple of other things. Then we went back to the shop where we got the submarine and this time we had the mastic alcoholic drink. We were done for the day, but the bars were just starting to clean up for the nightly party that starts around 11pm and goes till early in the morning - hey might as well party while it is comfortable outside!

Paros

Another island in the Cyclades; more white buildings and gorgeous blue water. These islands do not get much water for long periods - made us think of Sacramento, California where no rain from spring till fall. We went on a walking tour along the Marathi Marble Quarries and to the town of Lefkes. So we walked along a road that was built in 1000AD of marble - well mostly rocks these days. The scenery was pretty and we learned about their native botany along the way. We saw date trees, olive trees, wild sage, wild oregano and learned about how they grow tomatoes and other plants in an arid climate. The marble is special here because it is the marble that was used in most of the well known statues from antiquity. It is extremely white - no veins of any color going through it. Unfortunately it has been mined to basically extinction (if it were a plant or animal) so it is no longer allowed to leave the island for projects. Oh back to the plants that are cultivated. They only water them when they are first planted so they get established and then the plants are on their own. Now unlike California there is moisture in the air so maybe the plants get water that way. Anyway they do grow and produce a product but it is very small so according to our guide the flavors are very intense. She also gave us some baklava that was coated in powder sugar which she said is a common wedding sweet. We ended in the small town of Lefkes in the middle of the island so very few tourists (or people on a work day) allowing us to see a typical small town. She taught us more about the houses. Seems it is now a law on at least some islands that the houses must be white to keep the traditional look. However, originally the houses were white because they were whitewashed with a limestone mixture to help disinfect and keep the homes cleaner. We finished in a little taverna where we had a wonderful concoction of greek yogurt with sweetened fruit. So Jeff who hates yogurt loved this stuff because it had no odor and a completely different texture to it. The fruit is a traditional dish where they take some of the early dates and use twice as much sugar to date ratio and soak it for awhile and then put it on things like the yogurt. It was quite nice.

Lefkes

Look back at Lefkes

Ancient road

Olive trees can live for 100s of years, note the trunk on the close one

Patmos

We opted to explore Patmos on our own and not take any tours. It was a lovely relaxing day.

Jeff had to checkout the sailboats

Yellow flag with Double Eagle is flag of Eastern Orthodox Church

Greek fishing boats

Cabaret Lounge

That’s chocolate

Santorini

We pre-arranged an independent tour sailing and swimming trip for Santorini. Santorini is volcanic, so we saw incredible rock formations and colorful beaches. We sailed on a large Catamaran with a fun group of passengers. The tour advertised swimming in the warm waters of the Caldera. We enjoyed the swim in the crystal clear water, but it was cold. Afterwards we had a great Greek lunch prepared on board followed by another swim stop.