Mykonos

Mykonos was everything I had expected of a Greek Island - the narrow cobblestone streets with white and blue buildings, gorgeous colours and bright flowers. We got completely lost down the maze of little lanes which are filled with cute gift and clothing shops.

Downy with one of the friendly local felines

This part of Mykonos is called Little Venice - as you can see the houses are just about floating on the water

Rhodes

Downy on the back deck as the sun begins to set with Santorini in the background.

Next stop was Rhodes town - lovely beaches and a gorgeous old town. It was so hot we could only explore the old town for about an hour before heading to the beach to cool off. We had a great day swimming, baking our white bodies and wandering through the old town.

The Old Town - lots of Greek history and museums

Town beach - the walls to the old town are next to this beach and you can see our ship in the background.

Santorini

Santorini was the second port for us on the Calypso cruise and is certainly the picture postcard Greek Island. We had to get into small boats to be transfered to land and then catch a cable car up the cliff to the main village (the other option is a donkey). We caught a bus to Oia - known to be one of the most beautiful towns on the island and famous for watching the sunset which we unfortunately missed out on as we had to be back on the ship. All the photos below are from Oia.

The Calypso Cruise - Greece & Turkey

We flew to Thessaloniki in Greece where we boarded our Thompson Cruise ship - The Calypso. We were just about the youngest people on the cruise and we felt like grandma and grandpa but it was a great way to see some Greek Islands in a short time. We had 7 nights onboard, visiting a new port each day and spending most of the day off the ship. We had a nice cabin which was serviced twice daily and at night they turned down the beds and placed a chocolate on your pillow. We made friends with an Indian barman who was very generous with the cocktails - not so good when the ship is wobbly on some rough seas the next morning!

The Calypso in Aghios Nikolaos (1st port of call in Crete)


Back deck of the ship where we ate breakfast. The swimming pool is filled daily with sea water - it was very small and we didn't swim in it.

The Calypso docked at Santorini:

1st Port: Aghios Nikolaos (Crete), nice town with a lovely beach and our first taste of sun and sand in such a long time. We swam in warm water and lazed the day away on the beach. Our white bodies almost went into shock as the harsh Greek sun began to burn and we couldn't actually handle the sun for more than a few hours. The ship didn't sail until 10pm so we had dinner on land.

Races in Killarney

After several days in Killarney we decided to stay longer instead of driving to Galway as we realised it was too far to go for only 1 night. We found out about the local race meeting so off we went on a lovely Irish summer day to the Killarney Races. The racecouse must be one of the most picturesque in the world with a stunning backdrop of mountains and the greenest track we have ever seen. We had fun betting on horses ridden by an old jockey (about 60) who seemed to ride home a winner or place getter in every race.

the mounting yard

The next day we drove back to Dublin and stopped in Kildare at the Irish National Stud. There wasn't much happening as it is not the breeding season but we saw the famous VINTAGE CROP (Melb Cup winner) who is happily retired at the stud. He wasn't up for looking at the camera.

Ireland - Killarney

The highlight of southern Ireland was Killarney and the surrounding areas. We took a boat ride across the Killarney lakes and arrived at the cottage below where we hopped on bikes and rode through the Gap of Dunloe. The first half of the ride was uphill and we had to walk most of the way and in total we rode about 25km! The Killarney lakes were gorgeous, they reminded me of Milford Sound in NZ.

Having a break once we had reached the top in the Gap of Dunloe bike ride.

The Gap of Dunloe

The Ring of Kerry -

Ireland

Our trip began in Dublin where we attended the WSAVA vet conference along with Ben & Corinne and a few other aussie vets. We spent 5 nights in Dublin at the worst hostel we have ever stayed at - cold showers which flooded the entire room and smelly breakfast with off milk, all for 80 euros a night! Dublin was really expensive and we found it really dirty and uninspiring. We also had some terrible Irish Stew. We went to the Guiness storehouse which was just a building with displays about how they make Guiness, a real tourist trap. So overall Dublin was not a highlight for us.
Ben & Downy sampling the local Guiness.




We said goodbye to Ben & Corinne as they headed for Greece and we headed for the south of Ireland with a hire car. Everything was green, beautiful and old but is unfotunately combined with bad weather most of the time! We visited Kilkenny, Cork, Killarney, The Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsuila and all sorts of countryside in between.

This is Blarney house which is near the castle, of course we did kiss the Blarney stone.