We are trying out a new Blogger template so bear with us as we try and figure out how to get the header in the middle. We were getting sick of all the white on the other template. What do you think?
Moving along with our Summer snapshots here are a few of the Greek Isles we visited:
Mykonos
This was the beautiful beach we got to enjoy for about four hours.
Walking all the city and it was just what you thought. Full of white houses with blue shutters and it looked really cool.
Church of Panaghia Paraportiani- the most photographed site on the island
The whole view of the church
This was one of our favorite sights on the island.
Petros II the mascot of the island. Right before this picture was taken a crazy Aussie grabbed the neck of the bird out of nowhere. I don't think the bird knew what hit him, but after being let go he just continued on his merry way.
One of the many narrow pedestrian streets of Mykonos. We actually got a bit lost since all of the buildings are bright white with blue shutters and the streets aren't systematically planned. We found out later that the people of Mykonos originally designed the streets to be confusing in order to protect them from invading pirates - historically, the pirate Barbosa actually did stop by this island. The islanders hoped to be able to lead the invaders into dead ends and be able to surround them.
The Greek islands have a lot of fresh seafood - take this octopus for example, being dried in the sun along the boardwalk.
Enjoy a little video!
Rhodes
Rhodes wasn't one of our favorite stops, but it offered a fortified wall around the city (circa Crusader era we think) which was neat, but the island just seemed a little too touristy for us.
The remnants of the Temple of Aphrodite - we were able to find it, even though Marisa asked a local where the "Temple of Aphrodisiac" was............he seemed to get the idea
A view from the port - not too bad. The water was blue and refreshing. We did manage to lay out on a beach here for a few hours and got to experience our first topless beach. Europeans really don't care and let it all hang out.
Santorini
It took a lot of effort to make it up the high cliffs, but this is the view we enjoyed - you can see our ship in the water below.
Again, characteristic of the Greek islands, we see the cool concrete houses, mostly painted white, along the side of the cliffs. We enjoyed just sitting at a cafe and taking in the fresh air and views.
Santorini Sick View #28
This is the shot that you may have seen of Santorini before - it shows up on a lot of postcards (I'm not saying that this one's postcard worthy, but I mean, maybe)
Enjoy this little Greek Jam Session-don't worry we left a tip!
We spent a couple of ours on this black sand beach called Kamari. That's right........black sand. Santorini was formed by a volcano, thus there are volcanic beaches with white, black and red sand.
For a small fee you can pay to ride a donkey up the cliff instead of walking or taking a gondola. We gondola'd up that bad boy and walked down and there was seriously a couple hundred donkeys on that trail. It was rather tricky dodging all of the poo on the way down as well as the donkeys going up the trail.........we were nearly trampled...........twice! I wish I had PETA on speed dial though because we really felt bad for these poor animals trying to stay out of the heat without shade and being forced up these steep inclines all day.
One final glance at the island of Santorini as our boat pulls away.........it was definitely our favorite of the three.
-- Marisa and Justin
