The final stop of our full day excursion organised by Princess Cruises was to a beach. Leaving the village at the centre of the island, Ano Mera, our coach took us eastwards to Kalafatis. Parking up we were then given two simple pieces of information about our half-hour stop:

  • the sun loungers on the beach were not free,
  • anybody who was wet would not be permitted back on the coach and would need to phone for a taxi.

This last point in particular got some people grumbling as they’d apparently expected they’d be able to swim in the water and drip all over the place and on the seats of the coach immediately afterwards. Entitlement is a common trait amongst cruisers. As for us, neither was a big deal as the beach held little interest for us. I suppose that for people who live far from the sea then any chance for a splash in the water is one to be taken but we’re naval port-dwellers and a stretch of coastline in which you can paddle or swim as you see fit is ten minutes away; beaches are not draws for us.

The actual location we were dropped off at along the beach was by the Thalassa restaurant. There was a small gift shop and a large, concrete area on which chairs and tables were set (and probably many more could be added).

A stone sculpture of a boat (white, like almost everything on Mykonos) provided a point of interest for photographers. In particular, it caught the attention of a group of Asian tourists (not part of our group) who proceeded to take – from memory, and this is just approximate – five hundred million photographs of themselves posing in front and on top of it. Meanwhile, I stood nearby, camera in hand, hoping that maybe, just maybe they might spot that someone else wanted to take one photo and that perhaps twenty minutes of hogging that single location was excessive. I’m not exaggerating about the twenty minutes. They finally fucked off with just a couple of minutes left before we were due to return to the coach.

Back on board the Royal Princess we showered and changed for the evening and I grabbed a last couple of photos of Mykonos as we headed out of the port and one shot of the sun starting to sink towards the horizon as the ship set course for the last port of call, Athens.

The excursion we’d taken was a full day one with the highlight being the boat trip to Delos. If I were to return to Mykonos I’d be happy to return to that islet and spend the rest of the day in Mykonos town, exploring it more fully as I’m sure there was far more there than we got a chance to see.

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