Med Cruise - Mykonos and Athens (5)

Another day another Greek Island - A whole day of sailing and the following morning we were moored outside Mykonos. Another idyllic island with narrow meandering streets and lots of tourist shopping and restaurants. Greece is supposed to be in a financial crisis. Not in Mykonos! prices were high, though one old lady in a patio outside a typical house tried to explain to me that the things were really bad. I tried to sympathise, but it turned out that her woes were not financial but with the rise in crime and theft.

We looked around at the tour guide spots, such as the wind mills, which were not in the best of condition, and the little Venice, which was also a bit run down and not really anything like Venice. Still in a small island where there is nothing much to write home about, the little things become important.

However it was a very pretty island, but we were soon back in the boat, the sun deck, jacuzzi, the cocktails, entertainment and a nice dinner.

The last stop was Athens and we had another excursion booked. After the experience at Istanbul this was again a good idea as we were able to pack in a lot of sightseeing in eight hours.The tour guide was a very informed man, who tried to give the tour party a thorough explanation of aesthetics and mathematics associated with the Acropolis and other mythical buildings, boring many to tears but fascinating all the same.

Olympic Stadium - Athens

 Aesthetics at the Acropolis

He was also very critical of Elgin (as one would expect since Elgin literally carved out the marble panels in the Acroplis and transported them to England) for his criminal activity, and to further annoy him (and the Greeks) one of the boats on which the marbles were being taken, sank and many of those priceless panels were lost for ever.

Marble panels at the Acropolis

If I remember correctly, there were some 60 or more panels and just one of them came up for auction, and fetched something like 50 million Pounds! Not surprised that they are now asking for them to be returned.

It was a thrilling experience to see all these monuments that we had heard so much about.