Wow! What a difference a day makes. We woke to sunny skies, warm temperature and no wind - a complete contrast to yesterday. Up at 7:00 and breakfast at 8:00, we boarded a bus to drive the short distance into town to meet the 10:00 ferry to Delos for our day trip. We heard that the ferries were canceled yesterday afternoon because of the high winds and rough seas, but today was very calm and pleasant.
Our Ferry and the Harbor
We left the ferry along with dozens of other tourists (including the pink lady) and met our island guide. Danae took us on a 2 hour tour of the site which is famous as the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. There are many stories about Delos and its various inhabitants including the Naxians, Romans, Egyptians and others. It was a large city of 30,000 at one time with theaters, agoras, temples, sphinxes, a hippodrome, etc. The city is about 1/5 excavated with mostly unremarkable reconstructed buildings, temples and other sites. It does, however, give us a good representation of what the city looked like at its prime in the 5th century BC. Danae emphasized the political and commercial activity on Delos whose legendary beginning was beneficial to the coffers of Greeks and later Romans. The tourist traffic before controlled excavations was partly responsible for the decimation of the ruins here. Some things never change.
Sphinxes Guarding Apollo's Birthplace and Overall View of the Ruins
We caught the 1:30 ferry back to Mykonos and ate yummy gyros in a Greek deli. Then it was a stroll back to the hotel where Ann took a swim in the beautiful but cold salt water swimming pool.
Dinner was at a taverna in town after a short bus ride, a quick stroll and a stop at at unusual church to view the sunset. It was too early for the sunset, so we went directly to the taverna. A highlight of the meal was a nicely seasoned fish soup. We also had an experience with a pelican. We walked back to the hotel.
The Church
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