Mykonos/Santorini...

The next set of pictures, starting with Mykonos:

The view from our ship...


We went into town with Nick and Cindy and stopped at this little cafe for coffee and gelato...


I tried a traditional Greek coffee, which was good until I had finished off about two thirds of the cup -- Greek coffee is made by grinding the coffee beans until they resemble coffee-colored powder, and then pouring water directly over the grounds. Nothing is filtered out. So after you've consumed most of the coffee, you're left with a cup full of sludgy, powdery coffee grounds...


One of the snow-white buildings on the island (a church perhaps?)...


Nick in front of Nikos Tavern...


Me, looking... perplexed? Confused? Annoyed? I can't tell... :)


Mykonos apparently is known for its pelicans, but we didn't see ANY near the water (where you'd expect pelicans to hang out). We DID, however, round a corner in the middle of town and see this one, preening itself on a cafe patio...


And now, Santorini:

Here's a view of the town from our ship -- looks like a typical Greek town, right?


Panned out a little farther, you can see that it's situated on a bit of a hill...


And panned out even FARTHER, you can see that the entire town is actually perched on top of a CLIFF. In fact, Santorini is built along the caldera of a volcano -- our ship was anchored in the middle... so if that volcano had erupted again, our ship would've been in trouble. :) Santorini is also one of the theoretical sites of the legendary city of Atlantis...


There are three choices to get into town -- cable car (which is what we chose), a long walk up a winding, steep path, or a donkey ride (up the same winding, steep path... I felt really sorry for the donkeys... :)). I would've happily walked the path, except for the fact that even on the cable car you could smell those donkeys... I don't even want to know how bad it smelled on that path...


The view of our ship from town...


One of the many narrow, cobblestoned streets -- this one was much less busy than most of them...


A slightly busier street, lined with shops. The crowds really started to disipate after we'd been wandering around for a while, because there'd been THREE other cruise ships anchored in the caldera when we arrived. But by afternoon, our ship was the only one left...


Me on the streets of Santorini...


We visited a museum in town with lots of ancient artifacts -- Cindy and I were quite impressed with some of the circa 1700 B.C. coffee mugs in the collection (actually, I can't say for sure that they were used for coffee, but I would've bought those mugs TODAY and used them... I looked all over Greece for some modern replicas, but couldn't find any...). Anyway -- THIS was the view from the bathroom in the museum. I took a picture, because I felt like I had such a lack of privacy in there -- I could see people walking back and forth, and kept hoping they wouldn't get too close to the window...


Back at the bottom of the cliff, we stopped at one of the only cafes near the water and ordered some iced cappuccinos... NOT Greek coffee... :)