Italy/Greece : Day 14 - One day cruise

A bus picked up our group of 14 at 6:50am for the one day - three island cruise. We stopped at 5 other hotels picking up people. We were the last ones there. As soon as we boarded, we cast off! We managed to find a table near the rail... a PRIME SPOT!


They called for the lifeboat information meeting. Jim and Cheryl went below deck to attend the meeting. Chris and I guarded our table, and listened to the lifeboat information in Chinese. We eventually gave up our table and hung out at the bow. What a BEAUTIFUL day!

Welcome to Hydra!


Hydra is interesting in that there are no cars. People get around on donkeys. Here's a donkey ready to tote some luggage to a local hotel.

The first thing we did was try to climb to the highest point of the island to get a view back down into the harbor. This is the best we could do:

We got much better views from the fort. You can see it on the left below behind out boat.



Oh, and this is one of Chris's favorite photos, so I MUST put it in!

Our ride to Poros went fast. We were served a nice sit down lunch on the way.

Welcome to Poros!

This is the island of stairs. They don't have alleys that you can drive down. Their alleys full of STAIRS!

We took those stairs all the way up to the clock tower with great views of the island.



And then we took those stairs all the way back DOWN!

And DOWN...

And DOWN...

Whew after all those stairs, it's time to head back to the boat for naps...

On our way to Aegina! Oh, look another little port town and another clock tower.

Well, we have had our fill of walking around little island port towns, and climbing to clock towers. Time for something FUN and EXCITING! How about taking a speed boat...

Across the channel...

To a private island...

For swimming!

BTW, they don't recommend swimming on Hydra, Poros, or Aegina. The water is dirty with all the boat traffic... but Moni Island is different. It has beautiful clear waters.

And peacocks and deer.

Ahhh... this is the LIFE!

I have one more short story... After spending hours in the sun at Moni Island, we decided to sit below deck and watch the Greek show. Do you think sitting in the back saved us? NOPE! I got pulled out of the audience to dance with the Greek dancer. Want to see me dance?



Hahaha!!! Being spun around on a boat can sure make you dizzy! I'm glad I got to sit down after that or I would have fallen over!

A bit of wisdom from a Greek Dancer: Don't just sit there... ENJOY LIFE!