World Cruise Blog – Days 28 and 29 – At Sea, Santorini and Mykonos, Greece

Day 28 was another Sea Day. Nothing special, just a must needed day of rest. The next day we went to Santorini and Mykonos, Greece – 2 places on my Bucket List of places to visit.

Santorini.

Santorini was first on the agenda. For both islands, we needed to tender out to shore since the ports are too small to dock the big cruise ships. We got in line early to get our tender number so we could be first off the ship. We were in the first group, which was the first time ever. Anyway, we took a smaller boat to the island. You can see our cruise ship, and the path down from the city (we would end up taking the cable car rather than walking down the path).

A bus picked us up to go to the town of Oia, which is known for their famous blue domes. It was a nice, quaint town, and I loved it! We had some free time to roam around, which was great, because it is such a good place to take photos.

We hopped back on the bus, which took us to the Santo Winery. On Santorini, they grow their grapes different than anywhere else in the world. They twist the vines and wrap them in a circle on the ground to form a basket. This way, the grapes grow inside the basket and are protected from the wind. The pumice stone ground absorbs water when it rains, and only provides water when the grapes need it. I couldn't get any good pictures of the vines from the bus, so no pics, sorry. Santorini is known for its white wine and a sweet wine used in Russian churches that they squeeze out of the dried white grapes.

The winery was beautiful, with a great view. We only had 25 minutes to drink our 3 tastings and it was 10:30am. Quite an experience!

The bus then took us to the central city called Fira. We walked through the streets and shops to get to the cable car to ride down to the boats that would take us back to the ship. There was a long line for the cable cars. Many people walked down (about 20 minutes) or took mules.

At the bottom, we took our tender back to the ship, had some lunch, and took a nap (probably because of all that wine).

Mykonos.

I love Mykonos! We got in line at 5:00pm (an hour early) to get our tender ticket for Mykonos, so that we could maximize our time there. We wanted to be first off the ship. Luckily, we were first off and got on our tender (they used our life boats) at 6:15pm, and arrived on shore at 6:45pm.

I love Mykonos! I could live here. The streets, restaurants, and shops are so quaint, and the cobbled streets are so charming. I bought a cute scarf, blue hat, and shirt on our way to get a cab for dinner.

I love Mykonos! We had reservations at a place that Leslie and I found on Trip Advisor called Karavaki. It got really high ratings and looked like it had an amazing view. We invited our new friends Bob and Lauren to go to dinner with us.

The following pictures are the view from our outside table at the restaurant.

The food was amazing (and not cruise ship food). We started out with more wine, and the cheese platter. Leslie and I ordered the ‘special’, which was beef and mushrooms, with wild rice. The others ordered mushroom risotto with truffle oil, and beet risotto. Everything was delicious!

Sunset and after….

The owner of the restaurant really took care of us and gave us blankets for those that were chilly, the best mango sorbet for dessert (on the house) that I’ve ever had, a free postcard that I will be mailing to my godchild, Lucy, and gave each of us homemade dried oregano in a small jar as we were leaving as well. I highly recommend this place for anyone going to Mykonos.

By the way, have I mentioned that I love Mykonos? We took a taxi back to the town, walked around and found some other friends from the ship to have a celebratory shot of Ouzo, and headed back to the ship.

Tomorrow is Athens.

p.s. I love Mykonos!