Friday, May 12th, Delos, Greece

Greetings!

Greek mythology dominates life and place here.  Everywhere there's some family stories about the twelve gods within the family of Zeus.  And most involve his son Apollo, or his daughter Athena.  Yesterday's visit to the Acropolis and the Parthenon was a day with Athena.  She is clearly the favorite child.

In today's adventure, we took a ferry from our port in Mykonos to the island of Delos, a sanctuary dedicated to his other top child, Apollo.  Both sites are spectacular, and contain more stories and view than I could ever present.  While we have to await another time for my thoughts and some other people's photos on Athena's wonders, I did have my camera back for today.

First, I have to thank Dora and Amaryllis, two of the best local tour guides ever.  The knowledge and skills that it takes to move through an enormous site, imparting at the right moment complex content, to a straggling group of differently-mobile and inconsistently-present travelers - is awesome.  

And these two women dazzled us.  Passionate and careful, colorful and accurate, their ability to cooperate with other local guides present onsite, and deliver a timely and consistent body of information to us was impressive.   Once again, the gods gave us great weather.  With plentiful rain last winter, there are more wildflowers than anyone can remember,  An arid island, we were prepared for more desert, less bloom.

We also weren't prepared for the enormous city we found on the island.  Truly full of tributes to Apollo, the island is a who's who of the 7th to 4th century BC.  Claimed by all around it, a neutral haven of commercial superstars, the island was a showcase of houses and shops.  

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Friday, May 12th, Delos, Greece.