13th September - Delos, the centre of the Cyclades

 Up early again so we could be down to breakfast when it started at 7:30am. This is our first hotel with included breakfast and we were expecting just a regular continental breakfast. The spread was amazing I only wish I could have had all the lovely baked goods, but David made up for it. 



After breakfast we set off down to the old port to catch the ferry to Delos. We were quite early as the boat didn’t leave till 10am but we wanted to check out Mykonos town before too many people were there. We managed to wander around and get a few nice pictures of the windmills with no one in them.


We were the first on the ferry and chose to sit on the top deck so we had the breeze, but by the time we were close to Delos it was way too windy so we went downstairs out of the sun and wind. Once we docked we set off and bought our entrance tickets for €8 each and then into the bookshop where we bought a book that we thought would help us through the site. We ended up not needing the book as there were sign boards located throughout the site.

We followed the blue walking trail and visited The area of the sanctuary of Apollo, the area of the Lake, the museum that houses all the artefacts found on the island, the area of the stadium, and lastly the theatre quarter.
Blue arrow showing the way to walk along the sacred way

Agora of the Italians

Avenue of the Lions (replicas as real ones in the museum)
There were originally 16 now there are only nine with one in Venice (taken in the 17th century and now stands in front of the arsenal of the Serenissima republic)
The establishment of the Poesidoniasts

David giving perspective to the size of the hand of the Colossus of the Naxians

Standing in front of the real lion statues in the museum
The Colossus of the Naxians was built during early 6th century BC and was approximately 9m high. In around 1665 a Venetian governor cut off its head and it was lost. They tried to remove the rest but it proved too heavy. The statues toros and pelvis are still near the original site, the hand is in the museum at Delos and a section of a leg is in the British Museum.

Mosaic floor in house of Dionysus

The theatre, built in 3rd century BC

Sanctuary of the Syrian Gods

David in a window at the old port of Mykonos
We went back to the hotel for a siesta after our half a day at Delos and headed out around 7:30pm to get some dinner and people watch. We are looking forward to the next segment of our trip as we are off to Athens tomorrow.


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