Greece - Paros

You can't really get enough of Mykonos but we were here to have a look round a couple of the islands. Soooo, let's go to Paros. After all, it's just down the road...

View from the hotel balcony - a cute little boat.
More of that view.
The hotel where we stayed and our personal windmill. If we ever wanted to mill anything, of course.
The old part of town is all dinky lanes much like Chora.
Church of a Hundred Doors - because it really has that many doors. Why not Church of a Couple of Thousand Roof Tiles was not explained.
This was as far as we got trying for a look inside. Inconveniently, someone died and had their funeral just when we wanted to get in. These people really should check in with the tourist board first.
See what I mean about the tiles?
This is an ancient graveyard which has now found itself below sea-level, thus the pumps.
Night over the harbour.
This was a port town we found having hired another bloody 'cute' car - i.e. a heap of crap.
The old harbour defenses.
Some fishermen doing whatever fishermen do with nets.
Just about the prettiest church you'll find anywhere and these are dotted about all over the place.
Looks like an Aussie dropped in and couldn't resist putting up a 'Big Cactus'.
The current heap of crap - as it goes, viewed from a wonderful harbourside cafe wherein spagbol was ordered and avidly consumed.
A marble quarry, apparently containing some of the best marble to be found in the whole of Greece. They use this to make a lot of the ancient statues and buildings and, by the look of it, are still getting rock out.
The quarry is perched on the side of this valley.
There is a medieval fort in the centre of town and, it seems, rather than go running around getting rocks to build it, they just knocked down a handy temple and used that instead.
That's it for Greece. The ferry back to Athens kindly reminded us that not all ships stay on the top of the water - or perhaps it was some sort of troublemaker warning. Anyhoo, cheers.

So, it's goodbye to Greece - and what a lovely place it is. We're officially on our way home now so it's a flight to London for an overnight stay in Paddington to pick the luggage up and then a long-haul out of Heathrow to KL. See ya there.

Greece - Mykonos

Having done the beautiful town of Chora, it's time to hire a bomb and see the rest of the island.

One of the beach resorts. Two weeks ago, this would have been wall-to-wall nudists and homosexuals - some of whom would not have been a pretty sight.
The same white-cube architecture is all over the island. This is looking down a valley to a beach.
The owners of this house have really gone to town.
Some cactus / cactii? Those red bits, I believe, are edible but I wasn't going to find out the hard way.
Aha, a chocolate shop.
After a hard day eating chocolate...
A couple of mental dogs on the beach.
After the disaster of the last boat - which wouldn't go over rocks (a design flaw, methinks) - I got this one.
Another peaceful beach.
Done a poo!

Greece - Delos

If you thought we would be ruined-out after the stint on the mainland, you'd have a point. However, there was a half-day trip to a nearby island - Delos - that contained nothing but ruins and it's all famous, a great place to go, etc, etc.

Fearing 3 hours of busted-up rock and some tatty signs, we ventured forth anyway and were happy to find a very interesting place with stuff that actually looks like it was something.

This place WAS Greece at one time. The center of the ancient Greek civilisation before they relocated to Athens when the island became impossible to defend. Primarily a trading centre with significant port facilities, it later became the Westie's BMW of Cyclades - has little practical use but fun to show off anyway. Consequentially, lots and lots of absolutely top temples litter the place along with great statues and a well-preserved town.

Let's go...


I bought this before discovering that it's not one of the goes-over-rocks boats.
A fancy roof giving some idea of what this place used to look like.
Temple up on the hill fronting a cave. Caves, apparently, were all the rage for temples.
This site is famous for it's lions. The explanation of why it doesn't look much like a lion at all is that they weren't exactly roaming around the place so not many people had actually seen one. Bit like weapons of mass destruction - you can make them look like anything you want.
There's the rest of the lions with a bit of a tiger in front.
A pretty ugly lizard sunning himself.
Well, he's seen better days.
Inside one of the houses in the old town. Yes, that is the dunny.
Another temple with a really good mosaic floor.
Good pillars, too.
The main cistern. It's a very small island - about 5km x 1km - so they wouldn't have had much water.
Bit more of the town.

Greece - Chora

Mykonos at last. We stayed in 'Chora' which is the local name for the town of Mykonos on the island of Mykonos - presumably to avoid confusion.

We also got there 2 weeks after the end of the tourist season, which was perfect. Most of the tourists had gone but most of the businesses were still open. Apparently, the town is more than mental during the season, to the point where it can get very unpleasant indeed. Lucked out again :-)

On opening the balcony doors, we found this. Yay.
Nice pool in the hotel - which didn't get any use because it wasn't that hot when we were there.
There just HAS to be a cafe called 'Zorbas' somewhere. And there are the famous windmills.
Found a nice place for lunch. Behind Kim are a few buildings they call 'Little Venice' which looks not at all like Venice, but there you go.
Typical street in Chora. The town is a maze of little lanes like this and, in the summer they are really packed. Navigation is a bitch 'cos they don't run anything like in a straight line and, looking at this, you would have thought they would have excluded traffic. Think again. There are a whole load of little vehicles charging around.
Shot of the harbour with a chapel. The town has over a hundred chapels, or so they say. The story goes that the local tradition was to bury your dead in the outhouse and these became chapels over time.

The pelican. Well, one of 3 pelicans. Rumour has it that a sick pelican adopted the town and everyone went out of their way to look after it. When it eventually died, they got some more because they like them so much.
Sunset from our balcony.
And night over the harbour.
Greek grub! Yum.

Bit more of the town. Almost all the buildings are made up of white cubes put together in different ways - and there seem to be only a small number of colours that you can paint the wooden bits. The overall effect is just brilliant.
I managed to order meze at this great little restaurant. That's 'mixture' to you and it consists of a massive dish of all different stuff. Twice.
A really nice place to hang out, eat and drink.
There's the chef and the name. Politika Kortiva, which, according to the owner, has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with a certain bunch of chefs who knew a thing or two about food.

Greece - To Mykonos

Right, that's the end of mainland Greece. It's time for a change of scenery so we jumped on a ferry.

By this time we were ruined-out and I was hoping to never see another crap car again. Wrong. On both counts

Despite our desire to put to sea on an ancient Greek war galley with pointy sticks, we were told that this was quicker and you could get a nice cup of tea.
We had to drop a few people off on the way and this is Syros. The hill to the right has a famous church.
Here is a close-up of said church. Apparently, when you are sick, you get off the ferry and make your way up to be cured. On your knees. ON YOUR KNEES! If you weren't sick when you started, chances are you would be by the time you arrived.
A quick look at Tinos on the way through.
And here we are approaching the port of Chora on Mykonos.