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...

we're off

again tomorrow- because we have been home too long (LOL) only kidding-

anyway- by this time tomorrow we will be winging our way to Istanbul and by this time Wednesday we will be there.... the more I read in preparation for the trip the more excited I am to see everything.  even the return to Istanbul should be a nice brief review of the highlights.

I am especially excited to be able to see the perched villages with their whitewashed walls and blue roofed buildings- oh and windmills- yes I do actually recall wanting to visit the Greek islands as far back as when I was 9 or 10 when I saw the 1964 Hayley Mills movie The Moonspinners! it looked so foreign and exotic and I was a HUGE Hayley Mills fan-

later I learned that the movie was mostly filmed in Pinewood Studios in Great Britain (how disappointing) but I was already long smitten with the idea of the windmills- I am 90% sure they were supposed to be on Crete (which remains on my "to be visited" list even after this trip) but I think I will still get to see windmills on one or more of the seven islands we have on our itinerary.

here are a few perfect pics - to give you and idea of why I am finally getting to the Greek Islands

something tells me - now that I am more savvy about science than I was at eleven- that the windmills will be found on the hilltops rather than the beach as shown in this photo above- but who knows.... will keep you posted- LOL

here by the way is the plot summary of the complex Disney movie (from the IMDB):

Young English girl Nikky and her aunt arrive at the Moon-Spinners, a hotel on Crete, to a less than enthusiastic welcome. The coolness of the owner is only out-done by the surliness of her brother Stratos, recently back from London. But then there is nice English lad Mark to make friends with, at least until Stratos and his pal take a shot at him one night. When Nikky helps him hide she finds the Greeks are after her too.

LOL and here- I find I am not he only 11 year old that was enticed by the Moonspinners-

check out this blog post of someone else altogether--

http://expect-to-fly.blogspot.com/2011/06/crete-windmills-and-moonspinners.html

wonder who she is... have to book mark it for further investigation- LOL