PORT OF CALL : MYKONOS TOWN

POSTCARD FROM MYKONOS

Our port of call was Mykonos Town, which is picture postcard perfect.

I woke up to views of whitewashed Greek buildings from my infinite veranda cabin on Celebrity Beyond.

Mykonos

Its the first time I’ve visited the Greek Island of Mykonos.

Although I’ve heard of its reputation as a party island for a long time.

That said we were only in port for a day, so that was not something I was going to be experiencing.

Even so I had my plan to get off the ship and see what else this small part of Mykonos had to offer.

Going ashore

I had checked Google maps beforehand and it looked like it would be a 45 minute walk from the cruise port into Mykonos Town.

That would have been fine with me. I do like a bit of a walk in any port of call and despite being hot Mykonos looked to be a nice enough place to explore.

As it turned out though we were actually tendered in port, rather than docked at a pier.

That meant going ashore in tender boats. Also fine with me, as that’s a bit of excitement you only get on a cruise.

The tender boats took us from our anchor point right into a tiny harbour area in the centre of Mykonos Town itself.

I would have to save my walking for exploring the town.

Tourists

Now I’m going to be a hypocrite here, but this would be a really lovely place if it wasn’t for all of the tourists!

Mykonos Town is a popular port of call on the Greek Island cruise circuit. In fact as well as Celebrity Beyond, its smaller sister ship Celebrity Constellation was also docked in port on our day there.

That meant there were a good few thousand tourists descending on this town for the day. And that’s not counting the tourists who fly to this popular Greek Island holiday destination.

In my opinion it was just a bit crowded and the streets were too small for all the people trying to get through them.

That said I wasn’t going to miss the same sights they were visiting, even though it was almost impossible to get a decent photo without people posing, totally oblivious to everyone else’s photos they were ruining.

Rant over haha!

All moans aside the tourists don’t ruin this as a destination, but I can imagine it is even nicer when the cruise ships sail away.

Narrow Streets

Mykonos Town is a maze of narrow streets.

Those surrounding the harbour are full of little souvenir shops, with local crafts and quaint art stores. Its a pretty little place to do a bit of shopping.

But follow the streets inland a little and they branch off in all directions.

Like many Greek islands the buildings are all whitewashed. Even the paving stones of the roads were edged in white mortar.

Here the splashes of colour came from blue or red painted shutters. Or the pink flowers of bougainvillea bushes.

Lovely!

Wandering in the opposite direction to the crowds you could find some quiet places, to just stand and appreciate the beauty of a small Greek town.

Windmills

The must see landmark if Mykonos Town is a port of call on your itinerary are their famous windmills.

Six virtually identical windmills sit in a line overlooking the sea.

Once again whitewashed, these round towers are topped with conical thatched roofs. Wooden arms mark the arms of the windmills, although there were no sails attached.

A monument of practical, everyday history, that now attracted myself with the other flocks of tourists.

They are an impressive site to see mingled into Mykonos Town’s bright white skyline.

And actually the island was really windy the day we were in port. You could imagine they would be well powered.

Churches

Another feature of many Greek Islands are the tiny, and sometimes not so tiny, chapels and churches that are dotted everywhere.

Mykonos Town is no exception and as I wandered around this port of call I saw more than a few.

In fact there was a small fisherman’s chapel right next to the harbour where the tender dropped us off at the start of my visit.

I saw a few blue domes that reminded me of Santorini, although here there were pinkish red coloured domes too, as well as simple white bell towers.

Exploring Mykonos Town

Once I had seen the main sites of the town I just carried on exploring the tiny streets to see what was to be seen.

Overlooking the coast were ruins of traditional houses that maybe were just too close to the sea.

Here right on the edge of the water I could feel the splash of spray from the waves.

The views across the bay for that cruise ship selfie here were ideal too.

I don’t often stop for food, but there were lots of packed restaurants, filled with people having a meal and a drink in the sunshine. Its an option if you want it.

Back to the ship

All in all I spent about three hours in town.

I think that was quite enough to see what I needed to see.

Mykonos Town is not the biggest port of call, but it is certainly worth a visit.

And of course being in the Greek Islands the weather is generally beautiful, so I caught the tender back to the ship.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon on deck, relaxing on a sun bed, in the beautiful sunshine.

The Mykonos breeze made it a bit windy, but I was on holiday.

It was great to add Mykonos to my list of Greek Islands I have visited.

I shall always remember those beautiful white buildings, shining brightly above the sparkling waters of the blue Aegean Sea.