Ancient Delos

Saturday Sept 24^th

The sun had already set by the time the Transat rep finished the extensive orientation tour of Mykonos.

  Sitting on a small balcony outside a 4^th floor room in the Pelican Beach hotel, the ocean has lost the brilliant blue colour of this afternoon. Roosters are kicking up a bit of a racket in the adjacent gardens. The hill to the west is dotted with homes and small hotels, all cubic in structure and all the same lime white colour.

 A cool breeze is ensuring that no air conditioning will be required tonight.

  The ferry from Santorini was a tri hull which made the trip in just over 2 hours including a stop at Paros. The shuttle ride from the main harbour to the beach area took a little over 10 minutes.

  Located in the small beach area known as Platys Gialos it consists of about 15 smaller hotels (5 to 30 rooms) as well as 2 convenience stores and about 8 bar/restaurants, mostly located along a short boardwalk directly on the beach.

  The woman operating the hotel’s front desk already gave us a complete rundown of the best places to eat and the Air Transat rep. reinforced those suggestions.

  A short distance away, one beach over, is an area frequented by the European jet set and movie/music related celebrities. So we have been warned that even the cost of renting a chair and umbrella on that beach can run you 30-50 euro a day.

Sunday 25^th

 Dinner last night was at the one island not on the beach-Nikos Gallos. Decent food but rather slow service lead to a rather ho-hum experience.

Temple at Delos

 Today we caught an early bus into town in time to board a boat to the island of Delos. Inhabited since about 1300BC and the supposed birthplace of the Greek Gods Apollo and Artemis, it became a key trading centre for several hundred years-  from 600MB to 88 BC it had a status as a major commercial site as well as a religious sanctuary. Hosting a population of 25000 people, it was eventually attacked in 88BC by King Mithridates  of Pontus and the inhabitants driven out. Occupied sporadically till 400 AD it was finally abandoned and stands that way today. Excavated in the mid 1800’s it is now a Unesco site with only a few caretakers and archeologists living on the island.

Delos Panorama showing theatre and residential area

 The site consists of some 90 buildings and structures, many with walls intact. others with just remnants. A small number have been partially rebuilt using modern methods (beam and concrete supports) to provide a scope of their height. A guided tour provided insight into the history of the place. Then when the majority of the visitors left on the 1:30 boat, the rest of us- perhaps 45 in number- had the next 2 hours to enjoy the place in relative peace and quiet. It is quite an experience to walk alone along streets 5000 years old and to walk through temples that last had ceremonies in the same time period.