Mykonos. Blown away.

No lie. We were blown away. I haven't felt winds like this since our last visit to Alaska. Fortunately the winds were heaviest around the docks, and much lighter in town.

The ship docked just before midnight the previous night. We could have gone ashore then, but chose to get a decent night's sleep instead, and wander through Mykonos at a more reasonable hour the next day. Which turned out to be around noon.

Hey, we didn't have any tours booked, and it's a small town.

There really isn't much to the place. It's pretty, with tiny car-proof streets through most of the town, and we loved the white-washed buildings with touches of blue on doors, windows, gates and banisters.* But it's basically shops by day, and nightclubs by night.

Most of the shops are aimed at tourists, especially tourists with deep pockets. Lots of jewellery stores, designer clothing, stuff like that. Not exactly something I need to travel halfway around the world to see.

As for nightclubs, I wasn't big on them when I was younger, and I can easily resist the temptation now I'm in my fifties. We did run into some Australian women we met earlier in the cruise who did come ashore at midnight. Since we're out of tourist season most of the nightclubs are closed. The only one that was open JackieO's, and they were almost trampled in the crush when the crew from the Ruby Princess hit the bar.

(Trivia note: Mykonos is spotless, which isn't the case in most party towns. Every morning the cleaners hit the streets and scrub it spotless. Considering how hard some people like to party I it must get ugly in peak season. I'm hate to be a vomit cop in August.)

We had coffee in a cafe in the water, served by the grumpiest-looking waitress I've ever seen. Imagine a face modelled in plasticine, put your fingers on the forehead and under the chin, and pinch. Factor in coffees at five Euros each and her chances of getting a tip went from slim to none.

Still, the coffee was ok, and it was entertaining watching people dodging the seaspray as waves crashed against the sea wall along the narrow walkway along Little Venice.

Speaking of Little Venice, we have no idea how anybody would think that part of Mykonos looks like Venice. Maybe it's because the prices are absurdly high, which is very Venetian.

After that we walked past the famous windmills on the hill, which are - windmilly. Then inland and back down the hill, wandering through the residential areas. 

After three hours we'd exhausted Mykonos town. As I noted earlier it's a nice enough town, but if we come back we'll leave Mykonos party-central and see the rest of the island. Better still head off to the nearby island of Delos. Forget all that beach-and-nightclub nonsense, the entire island of Delos has been declared an archeological site. Awesome.

We caught the shuttle back to the ship, past the security guards bundled up against the cyclone-force winds.

After dinner in the dining room we finally made it to the Princess Theater for a live show. "Mercury Rising", a tribute to Freddie Mercury performed by New Zealander Steve Larkins. He can't duplicate Freddie's top notes, but in the low to mid-ranges the impersonation is uncanny.

At the end of the show Dan Styne, the Cruise Director, closed the show summing up the next day's activities in Kudsadasi, Turkey, home of imitation goods and the ancient town of Ephesus. "Who's going to the bazaar? Tomorrow you'll be coming back on shore with bags and bags of shit. Who's going to Ephesis? Enjoy your rocks and scaffolding."

Fair summation of most Mediterreanean ports, really. Tomorrow I get to experience both. Hopefully missing out on the bags and bags of shit. 

* Sometimes they use other colours - we saw bright orange on one building - but blue is the preferred colour.