our last island :-(

well here we have arrived at our last island - Syros, home to the capital of the Cyclades... the lovely town where we docked is called Ermoupolis.  this is a real island home for its citizens - not a touristic spot.  the town is alive with commercial activity but no souvenir stands and as far as I could tell - no t-shirt shops....

we arrive around dinner and stroll along the quay in the evening.  the next day we tour the town and are treated to an amazing breakfast pastry filled with custard (I know - in the photo it looks like cheese but trust me - this is better than a Dunkin Boston Creme when it comes to morning treats!)

most of our touring is through working markets and local stores.  no beach on this side of the island- just regular folks leading regular lives.  so on to some photos:

from the balcony of our cabin:

along the quay at night:

looking up to the top of the town in the evening:

the next day touring the market area of town:

above the sign for the pastry place- with the name of the pastry in the list (who knows which one?) and the pastry shown below - waaaay yummy!- remember - CUSTARD not cheese! (although come to think of it cheese would be a good lunch time treat...LOL)

the few souvenir style items we spied in the market:

a lone sun worshipper on his concrete "beach"-

one of the lovely cafes on a side street-

Scrabble in greek letters anyone???? LOL

our little ship in port on Syros island:

and finally- just to give you a better feel of the size of our little ship- here is a photo from last fall - the large ship docked next to our (circled) small ship was only a modest size cruise ship and you can see how it dwarfs the 26 cabin ship we have now been lucky enough to cruise on twice....

so with this we end our island touring but move on to the mainland for Athens, Arachova, Delphi, Itea, Meteora and then back to Athens for flights home- so stay tuned...