Sailing the Greek Islands

The past couple of weeks we have been on the adventure of a lifetime.  One of Mona's friends, Chris, has a sailboat ( a Lagoon 39 catamaran) which he has been keeping in the Mediterranean.  Each spring and fall he goes over and spends a couple of months exploring new areas.  His wife, Pat,  is still working so she can only come for just a few weeks each season.  For this fall's trip they invited Mona and her companion, that would be me, to accompany them for a couple of weeks while they cruised the Greek Islands. 

We met up with the boat on the island of Tinos after taking an early morning ferry from Athens.  Our shipmates included the “Younger Generation”, Chris's two kids, Tyga and Taran with their friends Mikey and Kara.  Actually, Mikey is way more than just Tyga's friend.  Kara is their friend from Sand Point who used to work with Tyga.

While on Tinos we visited The Lady of Tinos church.  The church is on a hill above the town center.  Each year some of the faithful make a pilgrimage to the island and then climb on their hands and knees up the hill to the church, hence the red carpet that runs all the way down to the harbor.

The two streets leading up to the church are lined with shops selling all sorts of religious articles.  Mona found out from this shopkeeper that the long candles are to commemorate a lost loved one.  The size is to approximate the size of that individual when they passed.  The candle are lit and place next to a special alter in the church.

When I think of sailing the Greek Islands, I imagine sunny sky and great sailing weather.  While we got plenty of sunny weather the wind god's were not kind to us the entire trip.  The winds were usually 30 knots plus with just a couple of exceptions.  The day we left Tinos the winds were steady 40 knots with some gusts around 60.  Fortunately we were headed downwind and on a boat that could easily handle the sea conditions.  We never really got to sail but that would have been only icing on an already delicious cake.

Captain Chris and Admiral Pat

Our next stop was the island of Delos with it's ancient Greek ruins.  It was once one of the most important ports in ancient Greece if not the Mediterranean.  Mythology has it that Apollo was born there.  Since we were at the very end of the tourist season we had the entire place to ourselves with the exception of the staff.  I could have gone home from there and considered the trip a complete success.  To say it was awe inspiring would be an understatement.  

This is the entrance to one of the many buildings along the main street.  Can you imagine putting those stones in place?  I wonder what kind of business was housed here.

This mosaic was inside a rather large structure.  It's crazy to think that this was done hundreds of years before Christ.  

It's nice to see that the columns are still being used by the birds as they must of been in ancient times. 

Further up the street the buildings transition from what appears to be businesses to homes.  One of the homes had this living art display.  I wonder what the ancients would have thought of this display on their front porch. 

I really didn't realize how large this community must have been until we came upon the amphitheater.

Mona and Pat on the bluff behind the amphitheater overlooking the town. 

This temple (?)  was further up the hill from where Mona and Pat were standing.

There was a museum which held many of the statues and other artifacts.  It wasn't much different than other museums except when you realize that everything in it came from the ruins you just walked through.  

CATS!  What is it with the ancient Greeks and cats?  There were large cat statues, cat mosaic's, and cat paintings.  Even the modern island Greeks have this thing about cats, they were everywhere.  

That's it for now.  I'm writing this blog about a week after we returned home.  I managed to catch an international travel bug, not the kind where I want to travel to far off lands, but the kind that lands you in bed for a week with a metal bowl close by.  Fortunately, it didn't manifest itself until we got home.  

I'll submit the next blog in a day or two.