Mykonos... opa!!!

Wow. The Greek Islands are amazing. So gorgeous.
On Tuesday, July 21st we docked in Mykonos.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the pier in Mykonos Town. I am in love with Mykonos--and Mykonos Town specifically. This is what I think of when I think of Greece. Whitewashed buildings, lots of pretty blues on the shutters, doors and roofs and surrounded by miles of ocean and sandy beaches. Sunny sunny days. Paradise!

Below at the pier there was everything from little one-man fishing boats to glorious yachts. The houses on the hill look simple, plain even, but when you get close to them they are wonderful, with beautiful little gardens, infinity pools and unbeatable ocean views. Many of them are little hotels.

Below is one of the 500 churches on the island. With a population of approx. 10,000 that is a lot of churches per capita. Many of them are very small and family owned.

When we were in Rome, Joey was on a mission to find himself a Panama style hat. We ran around at the last minute on the streets near our hotel but were unsuccessful in finding the style and fit Joey was looking for. In Taormina Sicily we stopped into a hat shop but the sales lady was not at all interested in selling Joey a hat. He tried on one style that did not fit his head at all. There were some beautiful hats in a case, but the sales lady refused to even entertain the idea of showing us any of those hats. Perhaps she thought we would not want to pay the whopping price of $150-200 for a hat... and although we thought her a bit rude at the time--she was right!

Mykonos town is just full of great shopping. Joey was not in town for more than 10 minutes when he found a little hat shop and the perfect hat:

Not only did Mykonos Town have the most amazing shopping, but it also had the cutest residents...

We all just fell in love with the great architecture and the wonderful little town with its winding alleys and SO MUCH SHOPPING!

Above: taking a break before heading to the beach.

Below: Something tells me someone drove this car to the beach in Mykonos and decided never to return to wherever they came from...

Mykonos is famous for its gusty winds and windmills. They were built hundreds of years ago and originally used for power to crush grain. Today they are not functional, but many have been converted to museums.

We walked to a little beach just south of Mykonos Town and hung out there for a bit. The beach was a little rocky for my taste. I could have used some water socks. It didn't seem to bother anyone else. Apparently the best beaches are on the other side of the island, but the taxis are notoriously unreliable and we were warned many times not to get caught on the other side of the island with no transportation back to the ship. Next time I would consider renting a scooter and venturing to the other side. I would not have wanted to miss any of the time we spent in town shopping, so again, next time....

The boys had fun doing some of their required summer reading for school in this beautiful location!

Chris and Akiko had fun searching for shells and rocks.

We stopped at a little restaurant and I believe we were all thinking there can't possibly be a bad place to eat on this beautiful little island... but we were wrong. The location was not to be beat, however, the food left a lot to be desired. Next time I will research the restaurants a little more closely!

On our original shopping trip in the morning, I stumbled upon a little jewelry store owned by a Greek gentleman from Athens and his Japanese wife. They had some murano glass beads that I really really wanted. I promised them I would be back.

On the way back, Michael purchased a bracelet and five of the beads as an anniversary gift for me. (I will include a picture of the bracelet in a later post). The beads are all greens and blues and remind me of the ocean.

We also received the most beautiful Mykonos olive wood salad bowl and serving utensils from Grammy and Grampy as an anniversary gift (pictures appeared in an earlier entry titled mini harvest).

Like I said, Mykonos Town had great shopping!!!

Below I am eyeing those beads while Grammy is trying to squeeze past the owners...

Funny thing... later in the day, we ran into the very same Japanese lady and her very wide and coloful pants, taking photos of a newly married Japanese couple out by the port. Apparently she is quite talented and diversified. Although some of the poses she was having the couple get into were a little strange:

What a great day. Happy Memories... and on the way out of town Joey grabbed some Baklava from a little coffee shop, which I later put to use in my own photo shoot :).