Mykonos, Greece

If you ask my kids what their favorite stop on the cruise was, they will emphatically tell you that it was Mykonos!  

We promised the kids we would go to the beach but not before checking out the old town of Mykonos.  We took the cruise ship's boat from the new port to the old port.  It's kind of crowded and touristy right at the port, but make your way into the old town area and get lost in the winding streets and back alleys.

Grant was freaking out that there were pigeons on the beach.  In his world, the pigeons and the seagulls are in a war against each other.  We are all team pigeon. 

Grant getting ready to do a little shopping in Mykonos, with my too-big sunglasses on and his father's too-big hat on.

Eeeek, all my favorite colors wrapped into one!

So just when you thought these super narrow streets were "pedestrian only" - small trucks make their way down these incredibly narrow roads.  It's really the only way some of the shops can have deliveries made.  When they come through, you have to hop up on people's doorsteps to avoid being hit.

Yeah that's no problem.  There's plenty of space.  This guy actually hit the stand to his left!

I liked the doorway to the stairway, but especially liked the bright pink flowers growing on the tree.

My Zeta sisters will get a kick out of this one.

I love this blue color so much!  Cerulean and/or cobalt are probably my favorite blues and are plentiful in Greece.

More of the pretty Greek island flowers.  I promise I didn't filter these pictures - they really are this vibrant!

Cats of Mykonos.

I tried looking everywhere to find out if I was seeing a superlative, but alas, it wasn't the winner for narrowest alleyway. It measures 34 cm (13.38") on one end, and a wider 64 cm (25.2") on the other end. It's only one Natalie wide!  There's an alley in Reutlingen, Germany that holds the record at 12.2" wide at it's narrowest point.  This is certainly close! To find it, go to the front of the Panachra Church and it's just to the right of the church building.  

The other end of the narrow alleyway is approximately 1 Natalie and 1 Grant wide.

This was so pretty, the owners knew they had to put a gate up (to my left) so people wouldn't be taking pictures on their front doorstep!

The island of Mykonos is only 33 square miles.  The Chora (or town) of Mykonos is home to most of it's over 10,000 inhabitants.

Hanging clothes outside - it's not just for Italians anymore.

One of the most interesting things to see in Mykonos are it's famous windmills.  Construction started in the 16th century and continued into the 20th century on the windmills, which face north to capture the strong northerly winds.  They were used to crush wheat during their time, but are no longer operational.

Although there are windmills all around the island, the Kato Mili which is Greek for lower windmills are probably the most well known.  Today, there are 7 remaining windmills in Kato Mili, with a total of 16 on the entire island.  One has been transformed into a museum and several are privately owned, with some people even using them for as a home!  Who knows... maybe our next home will be a windmill on the island of Mykonos!

Hey kids, do you want to live in a windmill!? 

The windmills sit on a hill where the town meets the sea.  

You know I can't look at this picture and think of anything except, "What happens when the waves come crashing into these homes during the winter cyclones?" 

We had a great little meal at Mamalouka where I was able to scratch one of the Greek meals off of my scratch off food map!

Pomegranates grew above us as we had a lunch of Greek delicacies and moussaka. 

Originally painted white to reflect the sun, the plaster homes are now rumored to be white and blue due to a government order for uniformity by the prime minister-turned dictator Ionnis Metaxes in the 1930s.  Not sure if this is true, but these Greek Cyclade islands certainly do match their flag. 

Tree trunks are painted white to kill bugs. Turns out it's not really white paint, but a mix of water, chalk and lime.  We know it as whitewash and it's the same product used to paint the homes.  It also can act like an SPF 50 in that it can help prevent the tree from cracking in the absurd Greek summer heat.

As you can see, the entire structure isn't required to be blue and white.  Each spring, the homes are re-whitewashed to keep them looking bright and clean.  

We headed back to the shuttle boat that would take us back to the port so that we could hit up a nearby beach that was within walking distance of the ship.  Even in the town, the water was incredibly green and clear.

You're damn right we had to bribe them with something to get them to walk up this hill without complaining!  It's actually a quick 10-15 minute walk to Agios Stefanos Beach but most of it is uphill. And there's no sidewalks. So I'm sure that was safe. (Honestly though, there were plenty of people walking up and down this hill.)

View of the front of our ship from near the top of the hill.

View of the back of our ship from near the top of the hill.

Yes and please and thank you.  That water color isn't filtered, I promise!

We spent a glorious afternoon at Agios Stefanos beach.  It wasn't crowded at all and there are plenty of restaurants to grab a bite to eat or a beer.  That water tho… it was cold.  Too cold for this Florida mama.

But my three New Englanders enjoyed it! 

That's a private house on the point there.  Must suck to own that one.  (Also come on dude... paint your house white!)

Ok this one was filtered for Instagram.  This was the BEST DAY, according to my babies.  

Mommy thought it was pretty good too.  Gotta try all of the beers in all of the countries!

I mentioned it before, but Mykonos is a VERY windy island.  This is how they keep the check at your table without it flying away.  Crumbled up and under a shot glass.

We liked these beers because they were bottles with pull tabs.

Playing in the Greek waters with our imposing ship looming in the background.  Do they know how lucky they are? I think of this often.

The view behind our spot on the beach.  We only saw a few topless ladies to which Grant said, "They're just body parts!"  (That's my boy!)

If we can't be in Florida this summer to make dribble castles with Daddy, at least we can do it in Mykonos!

Very proud of their fortressed dribble castle!  Could they be any cuter!?  I think back to this day and wish I could bottle it up.  So, so happy.

Until next time, Mykonos!

Olympia, Greece

Grant was looking forward to "running" at the site of the very first Olympics in Olympia, Greece!  The boat docked in Katakolon, and we took our only excursion of the trip on a bus to Olympia for a kid friendly tour of the place where the Olympics were held between the 8th century BC and the 4th century AD.

We had two guides who did the tour in two languages - Italian and English.  

We started out our tour in the ruins of the Palaestra, which was the gymnasium used to train athletes for the Olympics.  The athletes that trained here were mostly boxers or wrestlers.  This "building" dated from about the 3rd or 2nd century, BC. 

Little known fact:  Back in the day, the Olympics only consisted of men and they ALL performed their sport naked! In fact, the word gymnasium comes from the Greek word "γυμνός" (which kind of sounds like "yim-nos" and is spelled gymnos in the non Cyrillic alphabet) which means naked!

The gymnasium was the building on the far left in the upper left corner near the entrance of the area.  I always find it helpful to see a picture of what it might have looked like!

Grant was thinking about which room he would like to stay in at the "hotel Olympia."  The Leonidaion was a place for the athletes to stay when they were competing in the Olympics.  It was designed by Leonadis of Naxos, hence it's name. 

This my friends, is where the infamous Temple of Zeus stood.  The Statue of Zeus that stood here was over 12 meters high and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I remember being a child and thinking I would never see any of the original Seven Wonders because they seemed so far away.  I honestly can't believe I saw one!  Of course, it's long gone, having been destroyed by Theodosius II in 426 AD during his persecution of the pagans.  The Romans felt that the Olympics were a pagan festival, and since they conquered Greece, that's when all of the original Olympic fun ended.

It is said that the statue was carried off to Constantinople and then destroyed by a fire in 475AD.  Meanwhile, even after the pagan persecution and the removal of the statue, the temple itself was officially destroyed in a series of earthquakes in 551 and 552 AD.

Awwww.  My kiddos are kinda cute.  They were super sweaty today though.

Finally, one of those important spots for us to see was the stadium where the track and field events took place.  Even in the 2004 Olympics, the men and women's shot put events took place here!  That's pretty cool, considering women were NOT allowed to watch the Olympics back in the time of ancient Olympia. 

OK here we go!  The kids are ready to run!  The track was 192 (and change) meters and Grant could have run it all day long.  If he had been around in the days of ancient Olympia and had won his track event, he would have won an olive branch crown!  There were no gold, silver or bronze medals back in that time!

Daddy, despite having plantar fasciitis, was a VERY good Daddy and took on Grant's challenge to a foot race at the site of the first Olympics.  Notice Grant is looking at Todd... something we tell him not to do when he runs in his track races.  Focus ahead!

Of course, Daddy's foot hurts and it didn't take long for Grant to take the lead.

He was so jacked that he beat his dad in Olympia!

Even though women were not allowed into the stadium to watch the Olympics, there was still a Temple to Hera, Zeus's wife and sister (ummm….)  It is here that every four years the Olympic flame is lit using a parabolic mirror and sunshine.  

Walking back toward the exit from the Temple of Hera 

The Philippeion is the only structure in Olympia dedicated to a living human being.  It contained statues of Philip II of Macedon, as well as Alexander the Great (his son) and Olympias (his wife and mother of Alexander the Great.)

The objective of the day was to find out where the sacred fire that was (back then) lit elsewhere and brought to the Temple of Hera to start the Olympic games.  The kids had clues that they had to find throughout the day to figure out where that spot was so they could help Zeus and save the day.  In the end, it was the alter of the Prytaneion that contained the sacred fire of Hestia. 

After our incredibly hot day at Olympia, they gave us about 30 minutes in the town of Olympia.  We got our magnet and shot glass (mandatory in the Bailey family) and stopped for some ice cream and beer to cool our internal organs.  I'm not sure the kids have ever been so happy to have ice cream.  Can you imagine what the dirty clothes section of the wardrobe in our ship cabin is starting to smell like????

The drive back to Katakolon and the ship was really pretty with it's many fields, bushes, random hollowed out buildings left over from the 2007-2008 financial crisis and beautiful blue skies.

Until next time, Olympia!

Bari, Italy

The first port on our MSC cruise was Bari, Italy.  The kids, declaring they had been to Italy TOO many times, decided they wanted to stay on the ship and go to the Kids Club, leaving Todd and I to have a nice day ALONE in Bari! 

We took the bus that the cruise ship provided into the city to stroll around. I appreciate being greeted by a street lined with palm trees.  Natalie, who wasn't with us said later of this picture, "It looks like Los Angeles!"

The old town of Bari has many narrow, pedestrian-only streets.

I wonder what the story is here.  Maybe two families had children that got married and instead of having to go downstairs, go outside and cross the street, they just built this to avoid all of that!  Or maybe long ago, some guy worked in one building and lived in the other!?

The Piazza Mercantile has been around since the 14th century.  It's named this because long ago, debtors would be tied up and whipped here.  Don't forget to pay your bills!

Italy has THE BEST vending machines.  This one had beer!  Of course, Todd didn't fit in the entryway...

The highlight of Bari is the Basilica of St. Nicholas.  Yes, THAT St. Nicholas!  The Basilica, while nothing to look at on the outside, took 110 years to build, and it was completed in 1197 AD.  

It was Sunday, so they were in the middle of mass.  After we visited the grave of St. Nicholas in the crypt, we stuck around for part of the mass, trying to translate it from Italian to English.  Once we figured out where in the mass, we just continued on in English!

Fearing access to St. Nicholas's tomb in Myra would be prevented by the Turks, Christian sailors stole the relics of St. Nicholas from Myra in ancient Greece (now Turkey) and brought them to Bari as this is where St. Nicholas had once predicted his body would be buried.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, travelers, the falsely accused and of course, the most well known - children.  Interestingly, he's also the patron saint of broadcasters and brewers!

St. Nicholas's relics lie in the basement crypt.  Interestingly, this basilica is home to both a Roman Catholic congregation and an Eastern Orthodox one.  The Eastern Orthodox mass occurs here in the basement, as a favor by the Catholic church since St. Nicholas is one of the Orthodox church's most important saints.

St. Nicholas's body (or at least parts of it) are still in the crypt.  The remains continue to ooze out a substance they call myrrh or manna.  People consider the liquid to have healing powers, so each year on May 9th (the Feast Day of the transfer of St. Nicholas to Bari), the crypt is opened up and the myrrh is extracted, bottled and sold.

Some say that because Bari is at sea level, and the crypt is in the basement, the liquid produced by the relics is really just seawater seeping into the casket.

After our tour of the Basilica of St. Nicholas, we went back out into the hot sun.  I'm not sure he would even fit in this little car!  It's fun size (like me!)

Here we are outside of the front of the Basilica with a statue of St. Nicholas.  He holds three fingers out as a way to show one of his supposed miracles, the resurrecting of three children who had been murdered by a butcher.

Time to do some strolling on the streets of Bari!

Letting the clean clothes dry on the line under a sunny sky.

Phew. Visiting one church was exhausting.  Let's stop and have a drink in the shade!

YES! I HAVE FINALLY WON THIS BATTLE!

Nope.  No I haven't.

A rare quiet street in Bari.  At first I thought, "Oh hey, they're celebrating the World Cup!"  (But wait... Italy wasn't in the World Cup this year!)  The Italians are always celebrating something!

After we grabbed some great sandwiches for lunch, we strolled over to the harbor area and the fish market to try to grab a drink.  I love the little boats in the foreground.

There is a little restaurant with a rooftop terrace at the fish market where you can grab some really fresh seafood (we didn't... we had just eaten) and/or a drink.

Me:  WAIT.  You have Bulleit bourbon here?  I'll take that please.  The bartender:  Here is an entire cup full of bourbon.  This is how you drink it, no?

We had a nice time relaxing, enjoying the breezy salt air that smelled of fresh fish.  There were no kids fighting with each other or laughing about nonsensical things.  It was SO nice.

 After our drinks, we headed back to the ship.  Breakwaters help protect the coast from Adriatic Sea waves (queue eye roll from the floodplain manager!)

Until next time, Bari!