.
What a day we had ahead of us, absolutely beautiful and most interesting and scenic . First we did our tendering again because of low water level. Then the bus took us to the quaint villages of Ioannis, Ornos, Kalafatis and we visited the most traditional village Ano Mera and ended up at the Monastary of Panagia Tourliani, dedicated to the protector of Mykonos.  . The monastery looked very stark in its simplicity of its white walls. However, once inside the church of the monastery you are overwhelmed with all the riches, icons, etc. See pictures. Of course, the monastery cat made her appearance. By the way, in Greece the cats are everywhere to be seen. So are dogs. .  At the local restaurant we received a typical Greek snack and the welcoming drink, which tasted like cough medicine with 50% alcohol. Needless to say we asked for plain water to wash down the food, which was ok but not really our cup of tea.  We returned in the pm to the town Mykonos where I couldn't resist strolling the narrow winding cobblestone alleys and explore the town.  I climbed up the steep hill to the windmill overlooking the town. On the way I was astounded with the beauty of this place. It has wild growing flora. The jumble of those alleys made me loose directions and all of a sudden I found myself in a plaza right in front of the famous old windmills. Of course that was another Kodak moment. In order to make it safely back to the pier I kept to the path near the beach. Jim decided to skip this outing, because he over did it with all the steps the day before. His knee was acting up. At 6pm we departed Mykonos and sailed into the sunset. Yes, next stop, they tell us, will top all other ports. The port is Santorini. Can't wait!!!

Mykonos (/ˈmɪkəˌnɒs/, /ˈmɪkəˌnoʊs/;[1] Greek: Μύκονος [ˈmikonos]) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos . The island spans an area of 85.5 square kilometres (33.0 sq mi) and rises to an elevation of 341 metres (1,119 feet) at its highest point. There are 10,134 inhabitants (2011 census), most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also known as Chora (i.e. the Town in Greek, following the common practice in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town).

Mykonos' nickname is The island of the winds.[2][3] Tourism is a major industry and Mykonos is well known for its vibrant nightlife and for being a gay-friendly destination with many establishments catering for the LGBT community.

Herodotus mentions Carians as the original inhabitants of the island.[7] Ionians from Athens seem to have followed next in the early 11th century BC. There were many people living on the neighbouring island of Delos, just 2 km (1.2 miles) away, which meant that Mykonos became an important place for supplies and transit. It was, however, during ancient times a rather poor island with limited agricultural resources and only two towns. Its inhabitants were polytheists and worshipped many gods.[8]

Mykonos town (Chora)

Mykonos came under the control of the Romans during the reign of the Roman Empire and then became part of the Byzantine Empire until the 12th century . In 1204, with the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, Mykonos was occupied by Andrea Ghisi, a relative of the Doge of Venice. The island was ravaged by the Catalans at the end of the 13th century and finally given over to direct Venetian rule in 1390.

In 1537, while the Venetians still reigned, Mykonos was attacked by Hayreddin Barbarossa, the infamous admiral of Suleiman the Magnificent, and an Ottoman fleet established itself on the island. The Ottomans, under the leadership of Kapudan Pasha, imposed a system of self-governance comprising a governor and an appointed council of syndics. When the castle of Tinos fell to the Ottomans in 1718, the last of the Venetians withdrew from the region.

Up until the end of the 18th century, Mykonos prospered as a trading centre, attracting many immigrants from nearby islands, in addition to regular pirate raids. In June 1794 the Battle of Mykonos was fought between British and French ships in the island's main harbour .

Portrait of Manto Mavrogenous at the Aegean Maritime Museum in Mykonos

The Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire broke out in 1821 and Mykonos played an important role, led by the national heroine, Manto Mavrogenous. Mavrogenous, a well-educated aristocrat guided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, sacrificed her family's fortune for the Greek cause. Greece became an independent state in 1830. A statue of her sits in the middle of Mando Mavrogenous square in the main town.

As a result of sailing and merchant activity, the island's economy quickly picked up but declined again during the late 19th century and especially after the opening of the Corinth Canal in 1904 and the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century. Many Mykonians left the island to find work in mainland Greece and many foreign countries, especially the United States.[9]

Tourism soon came to dominate the local economy, owing a lot to the important excavations carried out by the French School of Archaeology, which began work in Delos in 1873 .

In the 1930s many famous artists, politicians and wealthy Europeans began spending their vacations on the island and Mykonos quickly became an international hot spot. Temporarily suspended during the Second World War, tourists once again rushed to Mykonos' luxurious shores in the 1950s and have not stopped since.

Mythology[edit]

In Greek mythology, the Mykonos was named after its first ruler, Mykons, the son or grandson of the god Apollo and a local hero. The island is also said to have been the location of a great battle between Zeus and Titans and where Hercules killed the invincible giants having lured them from the protection of Mount Olympus. It is even said that the large rocks all over the island are the petrified testicles (or, in bowdlerized versions of the myth, the entire corpses) of the giants; this portion of the myth is the source of the slang term "stones" attested in most major European languages .[10]

Country    Greece

Region      South Aegean

Capital      Mykonos (town)

Area

 • Total     105.2 km2 (40.6 sq mi)

Population (2011)

 • Total     10,134

 • Density                    96/km2 (250/sq mi)

Time zone                   EET (UTC+2)

 • Summer (DST)      EEST (UTC+3)

Postal codes               846 00

Area codes                 22890

Car plates                    EM