After the "season" the whole Island shuts down???

Mykonos ... is a small Greek island that attracts the rich "jet set" types from around the world in the months March through November ... after that the cruise ships stop coming and the island essentially "closes" for three months.

We are one of the very last ships expected to dock this year and it was evident that the island shop owners were preparing to close up for the winter.  Since today was Sunday we expected to see several closed shops but for the most part things were open ... in virtually every shop we entered (and we entered many) we were given the same "end of the season special sale price" spiel ... every thing is 1/2 price.

It seemed to me that the predominate items for sale were gold jewlery ... there had to be 30 - 40 "gold shops" all pretty much with what looked to me like the same goods.  The jewelry  is all apparently made in and around Athens and then sold on Mykonos because of a significant tax break.  Or so we were told.  Since Carolyn really doesn't  wear much jewelry I was happily surprised when she bought a lovely "Greek" necklace.

One of the most striking things about the island is the cube shaped homes, apartments and stores that dominate the sea shore and steep cliffs overlooking the sea.  Virtually all of these structures (99% easily) are painted stark white from top to bottom and they typically have blue trim on shutters, doors and window trim.  It gives the whole island a very ordered and clean look.

Although Carolyn and I did not make the short hike to see them the island is also famous for its windmills ... as early as the 16th century windmills have been a constant landmark on the island.  In the glory days these windmills were used to grind grain to make it easier to ship.  The island was on a main shipping lane and had an abundance of wind year round so an entire industry of grain milling grew up there.

Our travel companions all spent more time site seeing on the island than did Carolyn and I ... I think after the necklace buying experience we were both a bit in shock and caught a fairly early shuttle back to the ship.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way South to the Egyptian port Port Said ("Sah eeed").   There we will disembark very early and be transported to Cairo, tour that area and then spend the night in Cairo and be bussed the next day to Alexandria.  It is unlikely I will be posting until we get back on the ship in Alexandria.  But we should have some tails and pictures of that part of the trip.

The Grand Princess looks exactly as it did in 2006 when we sailed her in the Caribbean.  We have a smaller stateroom than we did on that cruise but still a nice balcony.

The demographics of the passengers (all 2600+ of them) is about what you would expect for late season cruisers.  The significant majority are retired couples, mostly able bodied ... I have seen only a handful of children onboard.  There are some 20 and 30 somethings but not many.  When our docking time has allowed or we have a sea day I have managed to hit the jogging track and am so far the only person foolish enough to actually be jogging at the time.  The track is 1/10 mile (so bigger than the Alaska trip) and has a nice "padding" around most of the track.  I encounter a small handful of "walkers" but well less than 10 at any given time.  I strolled through the gym today and was surprised to see every treadmill, bike and stair stepper in use ... mostly by those 20 & 30 somethings ... but as on the previous ship it was hot and stuffy in the gym and I don't understand why there aren't more people using the track outside.  We have been blessed with picture perfect weather in all ports of call ... hope  that holds up.

We had a very nice dinner in the ship's steakhouse tonight and all agreed it was a great meal.

We have at this point only one small concern and that is as yet we haven't nailed down how we will get back to Rome from the port ... I've  been in email contact with one shuttle service that will accommodate the two drop off points we need since Carolyn and I are staying over in Rome and the other two couples fly out back to Germany very late on 11/22 ... the cost is fairly steep and we haven't yet settled on exactly how we are going to work that detail.


I'll post a few pics of Mykonos after my massage tomorrow ... yep life is tough out here on the high seas ...

Bade