Abandoned
I have always liked old abandoned places. I have seen some excellent images of abandoned places. One of my classmates from college did a portfolio on abandoned places. It was really good; I was very jealous. As I remember, none of the places in the portfolio were local. Anyway, I always have my eye out for a really cool abandoned place. The other day I stopped to check out an old abandoned building. I got some nice photos, but I wasn’t happy with the images from that day. I stopped by the building a second time. It had rained the night before. There was a huge puddle of water covering the floor. The floor was totally dry the first time I had stopped. The puddle of water created some amazing reflections. I can’t pass up photographing a good reflection, no matter where it is.
I was using my Fujifilm X100V. The X100V works really well in low light situations, like the inside of old abandoned buildings. It also has a flip out LCD screen. I was able to flip the screen out and hold the camera really low, just above the surface of the water. The low camera angle enhances the reflections. This was a really cool abandoned place. Keeping my eye out for the next one.
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Tabgha Church of the Multiplication
Tabgha, Church of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee in Israel. This is the place where Jesus preformed the miracle of the loaves and fish. He turned a few loves of bread and a few fish into many to feed thousands of hungry people. The rock under the alter is where Jesus stood to preform the miracle. It is also where Jesus appeared for the 4th time after his resurrection. He tells Peter to take care of his sheep. So I thought it would make a good post for Easter. Happy Easter!
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A Day At The Beach
My wife Robbie and I packed a lunch and headed to Playalinda beach at the Canaveral National Seashore. It’s always a good day on the beach listening to the crashing waves and the seagulls. I took my camera for a short walk to see what I could find. The texture of the images was speaking to me, so I decided to do black and white conversions.
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SpaceX Starlink L21
SpaceX Starlink L21 from the A. Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville Fl. I didn’t frame this photo correctly. The plan was to be able to see the rocket coming up under the bridge. I wasn’t paying close enough attention after a repositioning and missed the target. I will try this one again sometime.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 23 Part 4: Elevador da Gloria, the Finale
We took in the sights of the beautiful city of Lisbon Portugal for most of the day. It was after dark and we were in the Parca Rossio. The Rossio is a large plaza with two beautiful fountains. It is paved with a wavy mosaic. Our group was ready to head back to the hotel. We had a flight back to Miami in the morning. I really wanted to see the Elevador da Gloria. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was, but I knew it was pretty close to the Rossio. So as Robbie and the rest of the group started back to the hotel. I set off to find Gloria in the direction that I thought it might be.
Lisbon has several fairly steep hills. They have several ways of getting to the top of the hill to the Barrio Alto. We passed the Elevador de Santa Justa earlier, an ornate iron elevator to Barrio Alto. The Elevador da Gloria, also known as the Ascensor da Gloria, is a trolley/funicular that carries people up the hill to and from Barrio Alto. Gloria is actually two trolleys that are designed to climb the steep hill. One trolley goes up as the other trolley comes down. They pass in the middle of the hill so there is always one at the top and one at the bottom. A new group of passengers climbs aboard and the process starts all over again.
After leaving the Parca Rossio I passed the Rossio train station. It was a beautiful building and I wasn’t sure at the time that it was actually the train station. I continued past the train station and only a few blocks farther I found Gloria. It was totally worth the extra walk. Gloria was amazing! I spent quite a bit of time watching Elevador da Gloria making the trip up and down the hill several times. I was able to get one of my favorite photos of the trip. I set up my tripod and camera and pointed it at the empty tracks waiting for Gloria to make the return trip back down the hill. A cute couple in orange coats stopped on the corner under a streetlight also waiting for Gloria. The guy was looking at his phone, and just as Gloria appeared the girl nibbled on his ear. I took the photo. It was one of those fleeting moments in time that unless captured, go unnoticed and unseen. I doubt that I could have setup the image any better. It’s possible that she did the ear nibble for my benefit. I had a big camera set up on a tripod pointed in that direction. I’m pretty sure they knew I was going to photograph Gloria. I had lots of fun photographing Gloria. I probably could have stayed longer, but it was getting late and I thought I should get back to the hotel.
Robbie and I woke up early the next morning and packed our bags for the last time. One of the perks of cruising is that you travel to all of these wonderful places and you unpack and pack once, while you’re on the ship anyway. We checked out of the hotel and met everyone in the lobby. Sandy hired a van to get us all to the airport. We got a box breakfast from the hotel that we ate while we waited for the van. The van arrived and we loaded our suitcases into the back and made the short trip to the airport. The Lisbon airport is bigger than it seems. It was pretty far from the front desk to the gate. We were a little early so we got a little more to eat on the way to the gate. Once we were at the gate, once again, we needed to take a bus out to our plane on the tarmac. Just like on our previous flights to and from Lisbon. We boarded the plane and found our seats. This plane was a little bigger and more comfy than the one we had on our first flight from Miami. Robbie and I were in the middle row with 4 seats. Luckily we had all 4 seats to ourselves, whoo-hoo! The flight to Miami was good, well as good as a long flight can be anyway. We picked up our rental car, Robbie, Barb, and I drove back home to Titusville. Sandy, Jerry, Marcia and Jack had another rental. Sherry and Jeff were not going to Florida, they took different flights out of Venice and were not with us in Lisbon. Kris and her sister Kim made other arrangements out of Venice as well. Everyone made it home safe and sound.
Wow, what an awesome trip! Robbie and I had an amazing time! I know everyone else did as well. This was a trip that we will always remember. A huge thank you to Sandy and Jerry for inviting us to come along with them! Sandy did an awesome job arranging flights and the trip! We had a great time with everyone. What a great group of people to travel with, we had fun, it wouldn’t have been the same trip without all of you! Stay tuned, we have been making plans for our next trip after Covid in 2022. It’s going to be full of lions and leopards and giraffes, OH MY!
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 23 Part 3: Lisbon at Night
Robbie and I along with our other traveling companions explored Lisbon all afternoon. We really enjoyed this beautiful city. The sun was setting and it was time for a break. We moved off of the main street to find a restaurant for dinner. We found a quiet little Portuguese restaurant. Although we were quite hungry, it was still a little early by European standards, for dinner. That was good for us, we had the place to ourselves. We had the undivided attention of the owner and staff, we were treated like kings! We had a really nice Portuguese dinner and relaxed with some refreshments. We were all refreshed and ready for more of Lisbon.
Lisbon really shines after dark. It becomes even more charming, almost fairy-tale. The lights of the city were beautiful. We meandered down the mosaic sidewalks. There were chestnuts roasting on an open fire, adding to the charm. As we were walking, someone would see a shop they wanted to go into. While they were doing a little shopping, I would take the opportunity to take a few photos. We found ourselves at the beautiful Santa Justa Lift. Lisbon is by no means flat! The old town area where we were, the Baixa Pombalina district is in a valley, surrounded on three sides by large hills. We in fact had a bit of an uphill climb to get back to the hotel. The Santa Justa Lift was built in the early 1900s as an easy way to get to Barrio Alto on the top of the hill. It’s a beautifully ornate iron elevator. The lift was designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, an engineer from Porto who was a student of Gustave Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. You can see the similarities in the ornate iron work on both towers.
We continued taking in the beauty of Lisbon after dark. We then found ourselves at the Rossio (town common). Its official name is Parca de Dom Pedro IV. The centerpiece of the huge plaza is the bronze statue of Dom Pedro IV, king of Portugal, on top of a tall column. An interesting urban legend about the statue says it is actually a statue of a Mexican king who looked like Dom Pedro and was purchased at a bargain price. The statue is flanked by two beautiful fountains. The plaza is paved with a wavy tile mosaic. It’s meant to mimic waves, highlighting the seafaring explorers of Portugal’s past, as are many of the mosaics. If you stare at them, you actually feel like you are on the ocean. The beautiful National Theater and the Rossio Train Station are at the far end of the plaza. The group was ready to head back to the hotel. I wanted to try to find the Elevador da Gloria. So Robbie and the rest of our group set off for the hotel, I went in search of Gloria.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 23 Part 2: The Trams of Lisbon Portugal
Lisbon is a very old city with lots of character and charm. I really enjoyed walking around this charming old city. It was amazing to walk down the beautiful mosaic sidewalks and admire the architecture of the buildings. I think it was one of most fascinating and photogenic cities I have visited, that includes Paris. Aside from Lisbon’s beauty, one of the things that gives Lisbon its character and charm are the iconic old trams. Lisbon has had trams since the 1800s. They were originally horse drawn trams. Around the turn of the century the trams were electrified. To this day they refer to them as the electricos. The classic old trams in use today are from the 1930’s. One of the favorite things to do while visiting Lisbon is to take a ride through the city on one of the classic old trams. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to take a tram ride. Lisbon does have new, sleek, modern trams in the more modern areas of the city. I photographed some of the classic old trams.
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Foggy Winter Morning Part 3
I ended up at the A. Max Brewer Bridge to finish my foggy morning photos.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 23 Part 1: Lisbon Portugal
After a very full itinerary of cruising the Adriatic, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas, Robbie and I spent a relaxing evening in Mestre, Italy. We were up early the next morning. We had a morning flight to Lisbon, Portugal. Sandy found very inexpensive flights with TAP Air (Air Portugal). They want you to spend time and money in Portugal. You have the option of laying over up to 5 days in Portugal before going to your destination. We opted for one night in Lisbon before heading back to Miami. Sandy arranged transportation to get the group to the airport. I always have a little airport anxiety. Are we on time, are our bags overweight, getting through customs and security, it’s all a bit nerve-racking for me. Once I get to the gate I can relax. Everything went smoothly, our flight was on time and we were on our way to Lisbon! After taking off we could see the snow capped Alps on the horizon. We had a nice flight to Lisbon. We flew over the city before landing. Our plane was on the tarmac again, so another bus ride to the main terminal. The trip through the airport went well. We hired some taxi-vans and loaded our luggage. It’s amazing how much luggage you can get into those vans. We had a short trip from the airport to our Lisbon hotel.
After we all got settled in to our hotel rooms, everyone met in the lobby. We decided to take a walk into downtown Lisbon. We walked from the hotel through Lisbon taking in the sights along the way. The mosaic cobblestone sidewalks were amazing! It was hard to know where to look. I kept looking between the sidewalks and the architecture of the buildings. We walked through the huge Arco da Rua Augusta. The arch was built to commemorate the reconstruction of Lisbon after a huge earthquake. Walking through the arch takes you to the Praça do Comércio, a large plaza along the mouth of the Tagus river where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. We took in the view of the plaza and the river as the sun was setting. All of this walking and sightseeing around this beautiful city made us hungry. We set off looking for a nice Portuguese restaurant. We found a nice out of the way place and had a very tasty meal.
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Foggy Winter Morning Part 2
We had a foggy morning the other day. I really like photographing the fog. I started at a small lake. After photographing around the lake, I moved to the Indian River Lagoon in Titusville Florida.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 22: Return to Venice
It has been said that all good things must end. Sadly our cruise came to an end. Early in the morning on the last day of our cruise we returned to Venice. The night before we needed to have our bags packed and ready to be picked up. They were taken to the lower deck to be unloaded at the dock in the morning. This helps get everyone get off of the ship more efficiently. It’s sort of a strange feeling. It’s a big sign that the cruise is coming to an end. Also there is a bit of anxiety, wondering if you packed something you need until you get the bag back again, or if you didn’t pack enough and have too much stuff in your carry-on the next morning. I woke up early the next morning. I wanted to see Venice as we sailed past. I went to the upper deck to get a good view. Venice is an island that’s sort of shaped like a fish. Ships enter the curvy narrow waterway around Venice at the bottom of the tail of the fish. They continue winding their way along the belly of the fish between Venice and some smaller islands. The cruise port is at the mouth of the fish. This path takes the ship right past St. Mark’s Square. I wanted to see St. Mark’s as we passed. From the upper deck I could see a lot of Venice as we sailed by. It was a beautiful clear morning. The fog that delayed our cruise on the first day did not appear. Cruise ships for their size are very maneuverable. Typically they can get into any port on their own without any help. I have seen them do some amazing things. Sailing into Venice, our ship was tethered to several powerful tugboats. Several months prior to our trip, a cruise ship sailing into Venice lost power and collided with a docked river cruise ship. This elevated the existing campaign to have the cruise port moved away from Venice. Also, this is why we needed the tug boats.
The weather for our trip was amazing! We sailed in the fall. The cruise started at the end of October and ended the second week of November 2019. We had summer-like weather for the entire cruise. It only rained a small amount the morning we were in Dubrovnik. The northern Adriatic sea was not so lucky. We were sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. I heard there were some nasty storms that caused other cruise ships to miss some ports. That happened to us on our first cruise, it was not good, but that’s another story. On the upper deck there was a definite chill in the air. Fall temperatures had returned. I was taking in the beautiful city as we sailed by. As we approached St. Marks, I noticed the square was flooded. They were experiencing an acqua alta. This is when Venice is flooded by an exceptionally high tide. The water retreats at low tide but tends to return again with the next high tide. A few days after we left at the beginning of the cruise, there was a record breaking acqua alta. The highest in over 50 years!
After watching the beautiful city of Venice glide by, I met up with Robbie. We went to the dinning room for our final cruise breakfast. One thing about cruising, there is no shortage of good food. I gain 5-10 pounds on every cruise. After breakfast, we went back to our cabin for the last time to collect our things. They wanted us out so they could start getting the cabin ready for the next passengers – in just a few hours. We were assigned a group number and time for disembarking the ship. We made our way to one of the nice lounges to wait for our time. They called our number and we exited the ship for the last time. We met up with Sandy, Jerry, Marcia and Jack on the dock. The rest of the group had made other arrangements to get back home. We shared a cab to our hotel in Mestre. Venice, as I said, is an island. Mestre is a small town just on the other side of the causeway that connects Venice to the mainland.
We had a flight the next morning to Lisbon Portugal, so we had the evening to spend in Mestre. We had not planned on going back to Venice due to the limited time. After we all got settled into our hotel rooms, the group wanted to go to lunch. Robbie and I were a bit tired so we decided to rest for a while and go out later. Also there is that Italian thing I mentioned before, where some restaurants are closed for what we call “lunch time.” After we rested and relaxed for a while, Robbie and I ventured out. The woman at the desk told us where we could get a good pizza, so we set out to find the restaurant. After one or two wrong turns, we found it. You can’t really say that you’ve properly seen a new place unless you make a few wrong turns. We ordered a pizza, beer and wine, it was amazing! No worries, we did eat the whole pie. We need to remember to get a photo before we dig in. There was an awesome dessert as well. We stopped at a grocery store for some supplies on the way back to the hotel. It was nice getting to see a little of Mestre before moving on.
Authors note: We took this trip in Oct./Nov. of 2019. I took a gazillion photos. It takes me a long time to sort and edit my photos. My plan was to write most of the posts about this trip before I started to post them. I am not the fastest writer by any means. It’s surprising how long it takes to write 500 or so words when you choose your words carefully. So I knew from the beginning that it was going to take me a while to start posting about this trip. Anyway, I’m ready to start posting and BAMM!! We find our self in the middle of a global pandemic! Cruise ships are stranded at sea and people are dying onboard! That sort of took the wind out of my sails. I didn’t think this was an appropriate time to start posting about a wonderful cruise. So I shelved my cruise posts. Time flies when you’re not having fun. It’s now been a year since we departed on our trip. What a year it’s been! I’m not sure what the future holds for the travel industry. I was hoping to be traveling again in the spring of 2021. Now it may be longer and even longer yet for the cruise industry. For now I hope that you will enjoy reading about our Italian, Aegean Sea cruise.
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Foggy Winter Morning
I have been waiting for a foggy morning to go out and take some photos. The other day we finally had a nice foggy morning. I started at a small lake near my home.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 21 part 2: Dubrovnik Croatia
Continuing to work our way through the Dubrovnik, we ended up in the old east port. The old east port was a waterfront area that had restaurants with a beautiful view. If you wanted to, you could catch a ferry to the island of Lokrum. Here, you could see the actual iron throne. We didn’t make that trip.
After a great morning exploring Dubrovnik, it was time to take a refreshment break. We picked one of the many nice sidewalk cafes along the Stradun. Ordering some cold beverages and relaxing for a while. It was also time to take advantage of the cafes WiFi. Robbie and I were using Google fi, so we always had good service. Everyone else depended on WiFi where ever it could be found. It was nice to see that the Zvonik clock tower was still standing. It was seen dramatically crumbling to the ground in the GOT finally, as was most of the city.
Feeling all relaxed and refreshed we continued on with our tour of Dubrovnik. I wanted to see the Minceta Tower. I really like the scene in GOT where Daenarys is looking for her dragons in the tower. She is walking around the base of the tower looking for a way in. She is followed by Jorah, as they circle the tower, Daenarys vanishes into the tower. Jorah is unable to get into the tower to help her. Anyway the visual is pretty cool looking. The reality is that you cant actually walk all the way around the tower, more Hollywood magic. The tower is at the highest point in the old town. I totally chose the wrong way to get there. We had to climb a very steep and long stone stairway to get to the tower. We kept going up and up and up. It was quite the climb. We should have gone the way Jerry wanted to go, it was a longer but more gradual climb. The view at the top was amazing! Unfortunately we couldn’t see as much of the tower as I had hoped. You need to do the city walls tour to see it better.
Taking the longer more gradual decent on the return trip, we past a very interesting restaurant called, Lady PiPi. It gets it’s name from a statue/water fountain of a lady going PiPi in front of the restaurant. You wont find a more interesting fountain anywhere. I was looking at their website, it looks like a really nice restaurant. They were closed for the season when we were there.
It was time to do some shopping, so we all split up to find something amazing. After dong some shopping some people went back to the ship. Robbie and I did a little more exploring before returning to the ship. We had a great day in Dubrovnik. It was really nice seeing all of the GOT filming locations. It’s no wonder that they chose Dubrovnik as a filming location. It really is a beautiful medieval city. When you are cruising sometimes you really only get a small taste of a place. This is when you need to plan another trip to see more. I think Croatia would be a great place to plan another trip.
When sailing in or out of a port, a fun thing to do, is to go to the upper deck, to watch the sail away. It’s a great way to say hello or goodbye to a port. We went up on deck to say goodbye to Dubrovnik and take one last look.
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SpaceX Starlink L19 Night Launch
SpaceX launched another flock of 60 Starlink broadband internet satellites. I stayed close to home this time. I took this photo from my driveway in Titusville Florida.
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 21 part 1: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our next port of call was Dubrovnik, Croatia. A port that I was looking forward to for several reasons. Foremost, it is a beautifully preserved medieval city. I really like exploring old places like this. Secondly, Robbie and I had become Game of Thrones fans. This beautiful medieval city was a prominent Game of Thrones filming location. Also Croatia is one of those Slavic countries that you hear of but really don’t know too much about. I was curious to see what it was like.
Dubrovnik is a great city to explore on your own, so there was no need to pay extra for a cruise line shore excursion. The cruise port is however about two miles from the old walled city. Not super far, it would be an easy cab ride. The cruise line did hire a bus to take passengers to and from the city. There were several people in our group that wanted to see the city together, so we opted to pay the small fee and take the bus. We woke up to some light rain showers. This was the first and only rain of the trip. The weather for this trip was amazing! It was unseasonably warm and sunny for pretty much the whole trip. It wasn’t until we returned to Venice that it cooled down to normal fall temps. It was lightly raining when we boarded the bus. The bus dropped us off just outside of the old walled city. Before entering the city we visited the old West Harbor. The weather was starting to clear. What a beautiful little harbor. There is a stone pier jutting out through the rocky cove. To the left there is a great view of the stonewalls of the city that was built on the rocky cliffs. On the cliffs to the right is Fort Lovrijenac. The harbor was a beautiful place to visit, which is probably why it was used several times as a filming location for the Game of Thrones. Almost all of this little harbor was used in GOT at some point. It’s not hard to imagine the Red Keep CGI-ed on the old city walls or Cersei standing on the stone pier as Jamie’s boat returns with the body of their daughter.
We entered the old walled city through the Pile gate, another GOT filming location. The old stone walls and cobble stone streets are truly like strolling through a medieval city.
Exiting the Pile Gate puts you on the Stradun, the wide main boulevard through the city. We strolled down the Stradun taking in the beauty.
At the end of the Stradun, we made a right turn that took us to the famous Jesuit staircase. The staircase was used several times in GOT. Notably, Cersei’s walk of shame. Looking up the staircase you need to imagine the huge Great Sept, CGI-ed at the top of the stairway. We walked up the staircase to Saint Ignatius Church. The actual real Catholic church at the top of the staircase. Once at the top of the stairway, turning to look down, you see all of Kings Landing Dubrovnik in front of you.
Winding our way through the cobbled streets, Robbie spotted a sign that read “Cold drinks with the most beautiful view.” This we needed to investigate further. The arrow on the sign pointed to literally, a small hole in the wall. We went through the hole in the wall and were treated to the most beautiful view! The bar was not open, it’s called the Buza Bar. Standing on the rocky outcrop, we had a nice view of the city’s stone wall. Below the beautiful Adriatic Sea was lapping at the rocks.
After visiting the amazing view of the Buza Bar, we made our way through the winding streets of Dubrovnik. We passed by many medieval stone buildings through narrow cobblestone streets. There were several churches, the Church of Saint Stephen and the Cathedral of the Assumption. The Rector’s Palace is the home of the Rector who was the head authority of the town. The palace has been beautifully restored and is now a museum. It was also a GOT filming location.
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SpaceX Starlink L18 Night Launch
Another flock of SpaceX Starlink satellites launched into space last night. Photographed along the Indian River Lagoon in Titusville Florida. If you follow the dock to the horizon. The small light is another SpaceX Falcon 9 ready to launch at 5:14 am!
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Our Venice Cruise Chapter 20: The Greek Island of Mykonos
One of the things I like about cruising is that your floating hotel takes you from place to place. After an awesome day in Rhodes, we arrived back on our ship, the Lirica. As we were freshening up and getting ready for dinner, the Lirica’s crew prepared to head out to sea. It’s fun to go on the upper deck and watch the sail away from port. We usually ate dinner as a group in the main dining room. After dinner, we would watch a great show in the main auditorium. As we were sleeping, the Lirica would take us to a new and exciting port.
Today we woke up on the Greek Island of Mykonos. If you like, the cruise line will plan your whole day for you. This does come at a cost though. Wherever possible we liked to do some exploring on our own. Mykonos is a great port to explore on your own. It does, however, require a small ferry ride to get from the cruise port to the town. The cruise line hired a ferry to transport passengers to town. They made it very convenient and quite easy to charge for this ferry. It pays to do a little research about each port. I found out that you could buy a ticket directly from the same ferry company for considerably less. Not only was it less expensive, they used a different ferry. The ferry was not as jam packed full as the cruise line ferry. A side trip we could have taken while visiting Mykonos, is a trip to the ancient ruins on the nearby island of Delos. The cruise line has a shore excursion to Delos. This same ferry company also goes to Delos for less. We decided not to go to Delos. Robbie and I and a few of the others spent the day in Mykonos. There were a couple of people in our group that did do one of the Mykonos shore excursions. Disembarking the ship was quick and easy. We found the ticket booth for the ferry and purchased our tickets. On the way to the ferry, there were several brightly colored, old wooden fishing boats. I really liked these old wooden boats.
Getting off of the ferry in the old port of Mykonos, we were greeted by a reminder of our old friend again, Agios Nikolaos (Saint Nicolas). St. Nicolas is the patron saint of sailors and fisherman. Agios Nikolaos, the small whitewashed church with its bright blue dome has a prominent place in the old port. Locals would enter the church to light a candle and say a prayer for their sea going friends and family. Mykonos is dotted with dozens of small whitewashed churches with brightly colored domes. Each ancient local family was required to build a small church to worship and celebrate religious holidays. The small churches also housed the bones of family members. There must have been lots of families on Mykonos back then.
Strolling through the giraffe patterned stone streets of Mykonos is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. The narrow streets are lined by whitewashed buildings, with blue or red trim, laced with colorful bougainvillea. There are lots of shops selling everything from souvenirs to high end clothing, jewelry and art.
