Thursday, May 25
Temple lions on Delos
Today we’re on the island of Mykonos. We hired a guide to give us a semi-private tour, just us and a family of 3. We took a boat to the nearby island of Delos, legendary birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and hence the site of a massive temple guarded by marble lions. What was a surprise was the extent of the city, an ancient Greek city. There were mammoth statues and a huge stoa to shade the many pilgrims, but there were also houses, a butcher shop, a fish shop, a wine press and other remains of a workaday Greek city. The whole island is an archeological site, the largest in Europe if they dug it up, but they’re leaving most of it buried for preservation.
We returned to Mykonos and explored its charming streets, met the local pink pelican and ate huge baklava in an ancient bakery.