We got up at 7:30 this morning and went down to eat in the dining room. We didn't leave the room until after my morning muffins had arrived, so I just brought them along with me. We had a nice big breakfast. Eggs, bacon, hash browns... the works. We still hadn't heard and announcement from the bridge, so we were unsure if we would be able to go ashore.

As we were eating, the announcement was made, and we made our way down to the other dining room to take a number and wait . They have an agreement with local boats that will tender us in to shore even in the wind and choppy water. It was a bumpy ride, but we were happy to get to visit the island.

It looked much more like what we had been thinking when we decided to take a "Greek Isles" cruise. The water is deep blue, the Greek flags whip proudly in the wind, and the buildings stand, white and clean, along the hillside rising up from the harbor. Apparently, the city was designed to confuse attacking soldiers. This means that it is intentionally laid out is such a way that you will get turned around and lost. But it is a very pleasant place to be lost. :)

Although the buildings are uniform in that they are all painted white, each home and church uses a different color for their window shutters and stair railings. Blue, green and red seem to be the most popular. Throughout the area we walked there were occasional flowering vines, creating bright colors against the white background. The shops along the way were filled with colorful scarves and billowing dresses. The alleys were narrow and often shaded. The wind from the ocean blows through those that are perpendicular to the beach. So even if it is easy to get turned around, the wind provides a strong clue as to which way the beach is.

We wandered around taking it all in for a while. We managed to come up on the windmills (that we had planned to seek out later) from behind . There are five of them on the hill. We snapped a picture and then continued down the hill. When we found a cafe by the waterfront that claimed to have WiFi, we sat down and sipped 7 Ups while watching the water become increasingly choppy. The view was absolutely stunning! We took a pic and posted it to Facebook. We tried to FaceTime, but the connection kept going in and out. The app I am using to update these blog posts lost all my pictures from yesterday, so I went through and added them all a second time. When we had finally lost all signal, we got up and continued wandering around some more.

We had considered going swimming, but our information told us that the beaches are "clothing optional" and, in the end, we decided that wouldn't be a very enjoyable atmosphere for us. Not to mention, by this time, the water was so choppy it wouldn't have made for very good swimming anyway!

Before we left, we wanted to try again to post our Athens blog, so we found a gelato place along the waterfront and ordered some gelato while we sat and used the Internet again. I got dark chocolate, and Bryan got milk chocolate. Yum! We had to hurry, because despite it feeling somewhat cooler with the wind, it is still hot today and our ice creams were melting quickly. The WiFi here seemed to work better, and we were able to update the blog and share it with you all.

Since it was now noon, we decided to head back to the boat and eat some lunch . We had tried to take pictures of the shoreline while we were on the island, but the wind was so strong we couldn't hold the camera still, and they came out very blurry. So when we were done eating our lunch (on the back of the boat today, since the AC wasn't such a big deal) we went up to the top deck and snapped a couple photos of where we are.

I have enjoyed our lunch routine that we have developed over the past few days. When we make it back to the ship, hot and thirsty, we get our lunch and make our way to the very back of the eating area. We've been able to get a table by the window every day and look out at the shore. And the AC works better back there, because the doors aren't opening constantly to the swimming area. The area isn't crowded at all. It has been great. :)

There was a change to our shore excursion for tomorrow. It will actually work in our favor. The later time (when it will be hotter) was significantly less expensive, so it is the one we booked . But it didn't fill up, so they have moved us to an earlier excursion. Bryan went down to the desk to make sure that we weren't going to have to pay more, since they changed the time on us. Turns out, we won't. :) Then he sat down in the international cafe with the iPad and read over the information for tomorrow. We will be visiting Ephesus. I'm very excited!

While he was in the cafe I finished up my nap and freshened up. Then we went out on the promenade, and watched the waves. We had planned to go back over to Mykonos, but the captain had to restrict passengers from going ashore that late in the day, due to the high winds and safety considerations. The wind was pretty impressive at this point, actually. So we watched them bringing people back to the ship. The wind was picking up the water and raining it down on the waves. Spray was collecting on the life boats above us, and occasionally dripping down on us. Eventually, we came back inside. I did some reading before dinner, and Bryan played games on the iPad .

Dinner was good again tonight. I had the duck and Bryan had more salmon. We were both able to try the fruit of the Prickly Pear Cactus. It was surprisingly tasty. All of our table mates were present once again. We had an enjoyable evening of conversation.

Afterward, we were prevented from going out on the promenade, as it had been closed off due to the wind and the deck being slick. So we made our way to the Princess Theatre instead. The show tonight was a good one. It was more Broadway style, and had a cohesive plot and characters throughout. I was especially impressed that they were able to do a full tap dance routine with the movement of the ship. I watched the Mylar above them swaying, and then watched them dancing, and was impressed.

The wind has certainly created more movement on board than there has been previously on this cruise. The captain warned that we would hear the ship creaking some, and that it would list to one side as he navigated us away from shore and on towards our next port.

And that is about it. I liked today's stop, and I'm looking forward to our tour in Ephesus. Thanks for following along!

This stop was really fun. It really felt like the Greek Isles that you picture in your head. It was really windy, which we actually enjoyed quite a bit. On our first cruise, the weather and rough seas had prevented us from landing at one of our ports. I'm glad that didn't happen here as we would have missed out on a really cool stop. We had toyed around with catching a bus out to a beach for swimming, but the bus systems in Greece are chaotic at best and I'm happy we just stayed near the port.