Thus began a week or so with five of us flying out to Greece, there picking up regular ferries to hop around five Greek islands before returning to Athens and flying home. We took backpacks but no tents and spent the entire time sleeping outdoors in dedicated sites. It never rained, fortunately.

I knew two of the other four people who went on the trip: Jason Roberts (who organised most of it) and Matthew Kopinski. The other two were friends of Jason’s but their names escape me.

Travelling outside the country without parents was exciting, from the flight there to picking up the various ferries jumping between island and island and finding the correct buses to get us to camp sites. Ferry travel was very memorable for the uniformly dreadful conditions of the toilets on board and the extreme tilt most of them had when battered by the wind.

One memory from one of the ferry trips was finding ourselves seated behind what appeared to be gorgeous Greek women, trying to encourage each other to approach them, only to have one turn around and us all catch sight of a pretty thick moustache.

The five islands we hit were Ios, Naxos, Paros, Syros, and Mykonos.

The island featured in the image below holds a special memory for me as one evening before heading out to the nearby bars and clubs we experienced an earthquake. It’s the only earthquake I’ve ever felt and the best way I’ve got to describe it is like a juggernaut thundering past your room only in complete silence; there were vibrations and a feeling of swaying from side to side but no noise at all. It was interesting to see how many other people in the camp site suddenly looked around at each other with the same expression of “Was that a…?” on their faces.

Other memories of the Greek islands holiday:

• Waking up with a rash on my leg one morning I had to visit the local hospital as it was Sunday and there was nothing else available. There, in a room with the door open to other people in the waiting room and in front of a group of three doctors, all smoking, I was gestured to drop my trousers and then given a prescription without a word. I took my pills. I went out drinking. Later that night I don’t remember very much at all other than being told to get off the bar I was laying on by a barman and walking back to the camp site on my own, pausing for a while on the beach to stare at the Milky Way. On my return to England my doctor informed me that I’d been prescribed strong tranquiliser. For insect bites.
• One morning I awoke to find a woman undressing directly in front of me. I pretended to be still asleep but caught the eye of one of my trip companions who smiled at me as we secretly enjoyed the strip show.
• On one of the islands our camping area backed onto a stone wall and we discovered at night that it was home to a large number of rats. One of my companions tried to block up the holes in the wall with containers of jam which the rats took great pleasure in removing.
• We met up with a pair of American doctors at one point who persuaded us to engage in some special dance moves in an otherwise Greek-filled club; most moves were ignored – the fly fishing dance, for instance – but when we all pretended to be Raymond Burr getting shot at the beginning of Ironside and all fell down to the ground as one we found ourselves the centre of a ring of very puzzled-looking people.
• We got boisterous in a bar and started dragging other people up onto the dance floor. I have a vivid memory of dancing to Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds with two Danish girls. I also was thanked profusely by a man who’d wanted to dance, and wanted to dance with one of the girls in particular, but hadn’t worked up the courage until I dragged them up together.
• We walked off the beaten path into a local bar at one point where everyone turned to look at us as we entered. Not wanting to appear scared and back away we asked for drinks from a surly, silent barman – Bacardi and Coke was popular with us – where we discovered local Greek measures away from the tourist areas leaned towards the 20:1 ratio in favour of alcohol. We got very, very drunk.

We finished our trip with a few hours in Athens before flying home.

The architectural design was intended to represent an ancient Phaecian palace. The building, with the classic Greek statues that surround it, is a monument to platonic romanticism as well as escapism and was, naturally, named after Achilles: Achilleion.

With timezone changes we arrived at the port of Corfu before the sun had risen. Breakfast downed (after some poor service from the buffet area staff, a common theme on this particular cruise with Princess), we met up with our tour group and made our way to the waiting coach as the sky began to lighten.

Achilleion is set on the top of a hill with commanding views out over the island of Corfu; indeed, the location was the reason for building the palace there in the first place. The road to Achilleion is narrow and winding. Coaches are wide and inflexible. This made for an interesting and somewhat concerning trip up the hillside. Cars coming the other way often had to reverse suddenly as we approached and there were numerous examples of chipped stonework and scrape marks along the walls of houses and other buildings we passed indicating that not every vehicle made the journey without damage. I’m happy to report, remarkably, that our driver had no such incidents although the occasional gasps from other passengers on the bus said it was a close-run thing at times.

Our guide bought tickets and we entered the palace grounds. Us and maybe two dozen other tour groups at the same time. There was a bit of a wait to get inside the building but the temperature – as it was still early – wasn’t too bad, the skies were bright, and the chance for some photographs was appreciated by me.

Once inside the palace it was even more crowded and very noisy. It was practically impossible to hear the tour guide with all the other tour guides speaking too; some were using radios to talk to the groups but others were simply speaking loudly in a variety of languages. As we shuffled from room to room we would occasionally gather close to hear a description of what we would see and then disperse briefly to muscle our way amongst the many other groups, have a nose at what had been described, then return to move off to another room. The crowded insides didn’t make for the greatest visual experience but it was still fairly interesting to hear about the history of the place.

The gardens were far more relaxed and far more photogenic. There were some wonderful, bold colours on show and some great examples of architecture in the Pompeian style which was a nice connection back to our first stop on the cruise in Naples. The gardens had some lovely views out across the island of Corfu.

The German sculptor Ernst Herter‘s famous statue Sterbender Achill (“Dying Achilles”) was bought by the Empress of Bavaria and forms the centrepiece of the gardens at Achilleion.

Time for a rant intermission…

Taking a picture of the statue of Dying Achilles took a long time because I’ve found that people on cruises are, by and large, really, really inconsiderate. I’m not, which is why before I take a photo I look around to see if I’m in someone’s way or, like on this particular day in Corfu, I move out of the way to let other people take their photographs first so that I can, if possible, take a little bit of extra time to compose the shot (I don’t often get a chance because of time constraints but I do my best); most other people taking photos on holiday take a snap and move on. Great. However, some people don’t. Can I make a request? If you’re taking a photo of something then take the photo and take a look around to see if someone else wants to do the same, and if they do then please, please, please move the fuck out of the way. I shifted back from the picture I wanted to take to let a small group of Americans shuffle along in front and take their shots first. They then proceeded to just stand right there, right in front of the statue, listening to the tour guide without a second’s thought for anyone else. People, eh? And if I clubbed them out of the way with a nearby rock somehow I’d be to blame.

Anyhoo…

Another large statue of Achilles guarded the gardens, looking northwards, and it formed another point to gather as a group and hear some more about the location.

We finished our visit to Achilleion with a walk back through the gardens and briefly into the top level of the palace. We then had a few minutes to wait for those who needed to empty their bladders before leaving the palace and hunting down our coach. There was a bit more of a wait as some people had got lost between the toilets and the coach. There was a bit more of a wait after that as our coach was blocked in by numerous other coaches. But eventually we headed off down the terrifyingly narrow and twisting road towards the city of Corfu itself.

Our walk took us past Spianáda park and along the wide Kapodistriou Street with a couple of stops along the way to point out buildings of note and remark on the history of the town. The clear, blue sky and cleanliness of the town gave everything a really nice feel.

The entrance to the bazaar of Corfu town was where we parted ways with our guide. Looking down the bustling alley lined with shops and stalls a very noticeable construction was the church of Saint Spyridon.

But we didn’t just get to see the church. Our timing was impeccable (your view may differ after watching the video (removed for now)) in order to hear the bells ringing. And ringing. And ringing. I don’t know that I’d like to work near Saint Spyridon’s church in Corfu, to be perfectly honest.

From here we were on our own and with a couple of stops to hunt down some souvenirs my wife and I went for a wander down alleys and roads at random in a roughly circular route that would eventually bring us back out to where we would need to pick up the coach once more.

I’m very fond of narrow lanes and tall buildings so Corfu Town didn’t disappoint in this respect. I find it fascinating to be among a throng of tourists in an obvious tourist destination as well as close to simple signs of everyday life going on such as washing hanging out on lines over the streets or clothese on the backs of chairs on balconies.

Our meeting point was pretty close to the Old Fortress which had been offered as one of the excursion options. Were we to return to Corfu we would certainly check it out although our general view of the island and town that we saw was that there wasn’t a massive amount to see and do there. We could be completely wrong and if we were hitting the area again we’d definitely research the place a bit more for places of interest. Corfu was pleasant enough but it didn’t fill us with that “must go back sometime!” factor we look for.

After a short stay in the shade by the coaches as we waited for some latecomers to arrive (surprise!) where we saw people – tourists, I think – pouring water into the palms of their hands for local, stray-looking dogs to get some respite from the heat (which was nice) we were dropped off back at the port entrance where we had the choice of taking a shuttle bus back to the ship or walking the rest of the way. We chose the latter in order to snap a few last shots on Corfu soil. There were three other ships in port alongside us: a Costa, a TUI, and Cunard’s Queen Victoria that we’d previously seen in Montenegro.

A few final shots of Corfu from our balcony as the Royal Princess departed completed our first Greek stop on our Mediterranean cruise.

The time difference and time of the year that we cruised with Princess meant that waking up at a sensible time for our bodies was more-or-less at around dawn. This was too early to see Crete yet but we got to watch some of the early moments of sunrise on the Mediterranean from our balcony.

We had time after breakfast to go for a walk around the top deck of the cruise ship under the early morning sun; many of the photos can be seen in the review of the Royal Princess.

A couple of hours later we approached the port at Heraklion on Crete which would form the base for our planned excursion to Knossos later in the day. Aircraft taking off and landing at the nearby airport on the island flew over the ship practically every five minutes making for quite a noisy arrival.

Knossos was very popular. On our arrival at Heraklion we’d seen a fair number of other cruise ships in the port and it was a fair bet that each of them had sent some passengers to the ancient site with numerous others probably on holiday on the island doing their part too. Walking around the excavation was a slow affair as we frequently waited for other groups to go ahead or move on from where our guide wanted to take us and point something out. We were using radios so that we could hear what he said and this allowed some of us to wander away from time to time to take photos away from the crowds.

Knossos was something we were looking forward to on account of its age and historical importance and there were bits of it we liked – its general layout, for instance, and the scale of the location were pretty impressive – but overall we ended up coming away from this excursion a bit disappointed. It took a while for us to really work out what we didn’t like about the place and it wasn’t that it was rammed with people or extremely hot with very few locations to get out of the direct sunlight (although both of those points are true that’s nothing that is really the fault of Knossos); it was the restoration work. There’s probably a good argument that parts of Knossos look very much how they would have thousands of years ago but the jarringly straight lines of wooden blocks or stone plinths in places against the older stones from the site seemed to be a very unsympathetic approach to presenting the area to tourists. We came away from Knossos thinking that parts of it looked like a childish Disney recreation rather than an adult archaeological site and it was the latter we’d hoped to see.

While Knossos was not as good as we’d hoped the excursion was generally handled well. As I’ve mentioned, the heat and exposure was an issue and we went through the water we’d brought along very quickly indeed and needed to top up on our sun block a couple of times. At one point we queued to venture into a structure to see a throne. This took about twenty minutes under blazing sunshine as every other group was trying to do the same thing. The resulting ten seconds to look at the object before being forced out by the crowd made for another disappointing part (and no photo from me) but it was busy; these things happen.

Knossos is definitely worth one visit, but I’m not sure about two. I would recommend it if you’re on the island because no matter what else it’s still a major historical location but it’s possibly the least favourite site of its stature we’ve ever been to. If the day is warm and cloudless then bring lots of water and sun block and if you can time your visit away from tour groups then do so.

Our walking tour took us in as far as Lions Square where the early-17th century Morosini Fountain was located. There were a few street entertainers here (of the “human statue” type) who would hilariously trap people or take items off them until our tour guide told them in Greek what I suspected to be “Fuck off and leave my group alone!” Generally, though, I’d have to say that all the Greek people we met on our Mediterranean cruise were some of the friendliest locals we’ve encountered on our travels. One of our guides explained at one point that they realised that for as poor a country as Greece is tourism is absolutely vital so good humour and manners were equally required assets.

During our free time period my wife and I broke with our tradition of immediately going off for a wander and headed for a café instead to get some beers and something to eat; the heat of Knossos had really taken it out of us. It wasn’t too long, though, before we did stroll around some of the streets off the centre of Heraklion in search of anything architecturally appealing. We didn’t have a huge amount of time, though, and we’d decided earlier that we’d head back on the coach, again, because it had been so hot.

The last point of interest as we made our way back to where the various coaches were parked was the Venetian era Bembo Fountain, built in the mid-16th century and the first time the citizens of Heraklion would have seen running water in the city.

Hey! Remember me saying that the tour guide wanted people to tell him if they were making their own way back to the ship so the coach wasn’t waiting beyond its due time? Well, funny story… We ended up waiting around for twenty minutes after we were due to meet. Ten of those were for a couple who couldn’t tell the time. And the other ten were for another couple who decided to head back to the ship on their own and didn’t tell anyone because it’s their holiday and they’ll do what they like and who cares about other people, right? Nice, eh?

Back on board the cruise ship and after some much needed showering and rehydrating we saw a very pleasing dusk sky beyond the hills surrounding the port of Heraklion.

Boat Trip To Delos

We’d booked a full day excursion with Royal Princess which started with a gathering on the dock under scorching early morning heat and a not inconsiderable wait to board the boat that would take us onto Delos. We sat on top as the boat made its way out from Mykonos which left us exposed to the sunshine for the voyage, something we decided we wouldn’t repeat when coming back as it proved to be quite uncomfortably hot.

The Island Of Delos

According to Greek mythology Delos was the birthplace of both Apollo and Artemis. This was likely because Delos had already been a place of significant importance in the Cyclades group of islands for a millenium beforehand with its history including some time as the home of pirates allegedly later expelled by King Minos, then as a holy sanctuary. It also functioned as an important centre of commerce, possibly coming through a need to import nearly everything for its inhabitants, then because it was made into a free port by the Romans looking to undermine the trading influence of Rhodes. Think of its planned location and importance as being what Brexiteers think Britain will be like and its current, barren, empty condition as what will come of that.

From the dockside we walked as a group up a slow incline, stopping at the ruins of various houses and important buildings that had been close to the shoreline where we learned a little of the history of Delos as well as what had been found by archaeologists to suggest the functionality of those places we peered into.

Delos Theatre Quarter

Over the top of the incline from the dock area on Delos we entered what was described as The Theatre Quarter with a fair number of fancy houses given over to the arts and the remains of the theatre itself, around which we sat, impressed with the size of what we were experiencing for the first time.

The House Of Dionysos

From the theatre we retraced some of our steps into a location we’d passed on the way up: The House of Dionysos. One of the more complete buildings on Delos it was easily identifiable from nearby by the presence of several, tall columns but inside its walls it was the impressive floor mosaic that attracted the eye. As we walked around the artistic floor decoration we stopped to look into many of the rooms off the courtyard area of the house, some of which retained some of the original plaster and faded wall paintings too.

Temples

Our tour took us back through the marketplace of Delos then onto the more religious centre featuring wider avenues and the remains of numerous temples. Many of the stones in this area bore inscriptions indicating their history or pointing to some part of the history that the rulers of the island at the time wanted to impart to the locals and visitors; religion has always been a political tool.

The Terrace Of The Lions

At this point on our Delos tour we were given free time to either explore on our own (with some pointing out of locations of interest by our guide) or head off to the shop and café. We watched as a huge portion of our fellow cruisers set off immediately for the shop. Despite the heat, despite being almost out of water, we didn’t want to waste any time at the fabulous archeological site so made for the Terrace of the Lions. Only seven of the original nine-to-twelve lions remained but were in position as they would have been two-and-a-half thousand years earlier forming an avenue very much like the sphinxes did in ancient Egypt. Either the artists responsible for the sculptures had never seen lions before or there’s been a huge surge of evolution in the intermediate years but they still formed an impressive sight.

Delos Wildlife

I’ve already said that Delos was practically silent during our visit once you moved away from the tour group and that was what alerted us to the fact that there initially seemed to be no wildlife at all. Admittedly, the island was pretty desolate so didn’t seem to have much that would attract living creatures to its landmass but we remarked at one point that we’d not even seen or heard any birds during our visit. As we looked a little closer, though, we did pick out a few moving things in the form of some lizards and a dragonfly that led me on a merry chase for a while as I tried to get a photo of it. We even spotted a single dove sheltering from the sun at the House of the Trident.

Stoibadeion

From the stone lions we walked among the stone ruins of the agora and past the Minoan fountain, numerous impressive columns, and some fairly intact sculptures on our way towards the Stoibadeion which had a certain piece of statuary that attracted the eyes from quite a distance.

From Wikipedia’s entry on Stoibadeion:

The Stoibadeion contains a rectangular platform containing a statue of Dionysos […] Two pillars, one on each side of the platform, each support a huge phallus, the symbol of Dionysos. […] Three sides of the southern pillar have relief representations: the central scene shows a cockerel whose head and neck are elongated into a phallus, on either side are groups containing Dionysus and a Maenad, with a small Silenus on one side and a figure of Pan on the other. The southern pillar bears an inscription that it was erected ca. 300 B.C. by a Delian named Carystios in celebration of a victorious theatrical performance he sponsored.

Conclusion

We concluded our visit to Delos by heading back towards the boat through the temple area and past the Portico of Philip V of Macedonia. As I’ve mentioned before, this cruise around the Mediterranean provided some highs and lows with the service on the ship and the less-than-impressive historical site of Knossos falling in the latter category. The visit to Delos was most definitely one of the high points of the cruise, though, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re staying on or visiting nearby Mykonos; the disparity in its grand scale and my feeling of insignificance in its history is something that will live long in the memory. I wouldn’t hesitate to revisit Delos and simply retrace the exact same route we took through its streets and buildings but there was plenty we still didn’t see in our time there anyway so if we’re in the area we’ll be back.

The boat ride from Delos took around half an hour and afforded some pleasant views of various bits of the island of Mykonos as we passed with occasional congregations of the typically white-walled Greek buildings along the fairly barren-looking shoreline breaking up the landscape.

As we got closer to Mykonos town it was possible to see many of the places that we would next be experiencing close up on a walking tour through it. It was quite interesting to see the sights from the water – the famous windmills and Little Venice, for instance – as the images you typically see of Mykonos are from a totally different perspective.

The first stop was Panagia Paraportiani, a Byzantine church, whitewashed like almost every other building on Mykonos. This was a popular spot for tourists to congregate with many people grouping together and posing for shots or taking selfies. As our tour guide explained a little of the history of the building I made use of the time to perform a half circuit of the church and snap a handful of photos featuring fewer people in the way.

After only a few minutes we all set off again at a reasonable pace through often congested alleys and somehow nobody managed to lose track of our tour guide which when you’ve been travelling on as many cruises as we have is a minor miracle. With the sky being clear, the sun being high, and those white walls of the Mykonos buildings reflecting a lot of light everywhere it was fairly easy to take fast photos at a reasonable aperture size and with low ISO as we made our way through the town. For the most part I simply lofted my camera up and clicked at random in the general area of buildings as we passed trusting to chance to take some shots with interest in the lines and contrast between the sky and structures.

Our second chance for a short rest and the opportunity for some photos was just between the famous locations of the Mykonos Windmills and Little Venice. The windmills point back to the island’s history of producing bread and both locations, being so close together and facing west, are popular spots for watching the sun set on the Mediterranean.

Our next stop would be the coach which was due to take us off to a restaurant for lunch followed by a visit to one of the island’s beaches. With the coach being to the northwest of Mykonos Town in the direction of the cruise ship this meant retracing our route for the most part. Again, amazingly, nobody got lost.

Mykonos Town had its fair share of churches. Whether they were all still in use I couldn’t say and the photos I took probably only represent a small percentage of the ones around.

Nearing the coach pickup point after negotiating our way through the town was a narrow strip of beach as well as a small port for some fairly expensive-looking yachts.

We sat outside but in the shade where we could get some breeze to help cool us down. Plenty of water, some wine, and some very reasonable food was then taken in before we had a bit of time to explore the village.

We had been told that we would be able to visit the adjacent Monastery of Panagia Tourliani, built in the 16th century and restored in the 18th, but a funeral service was being held at the time of our trip. While our tour guide said they probably wouldn’t mind if we entered in ones and twos for a look around so long as we were quiet it didn’t seem to be very respectful so we declined and I’m happy to say that everyone else in our group did as well. I made do with a few shots of the surroundings before we hit the coach for our final stop on our full day excursion.