2025_0918 Mykonos, Greece...

Thursday, September 18th, was a day of rest. The Viva was anchored in the Mykonos port area. We would stay on the Viva all day. I woke in the morning to the sound of the speakers in the hallways announcing the tenders leaving times and where people should be. They do not play these announcements in the staterooms. Just in the open areas and the hallways. However, my mother senses kick in and I hear these announcements and they wake me up. The Viva would be in Mykonos from 7am to 7pm. 

Mykonos looked like the prettiest island from our balcony. But it was a cool morning and a bit windy. I decided to wear long pants this day. 

I had something new at lunch in the Surfside Cafe. I was going to their salad bar for lunch each day. There was the lots of things to make a tossed salad and there was always some other kind of salad like chicken salad. This day they had a cheese salad. I talk to myself and said out loud, "That is interesting. I have never had a cheese salad before." Standing next to me was one of the officers. He looked at me and said, "It is one of my favorites." It was an interesting salad. I told Claude he could simply take the leftover bags of shredded cheese, combine them, add mayo and whatever flavorings and that would make a little side dish for the two of us. 

We spent our afternoon in Observation Lounge reading. And ice cream cone was picked up on our way back to our stateroom to read. There was something magical when the sun was at just the right place in the sky. The water sparkled like diamonds were tossed over it. So fun to watch.

A letter was placed in the mail slot in our stateroom number reminding us to be sure our account was set to automatically charge our credit card for any incidentals at checkout. This would help everyone's checkout go more quickly. I was pretty sure that was the case for our account. To be sure, Claude and I stopped by the Charge Desk and asked if she could be sure that was the case for us. She looked up our account and had to chuckle. We had a total of $8 in incidentals. I don't think she ever saw that low a balance as someone neared the end of their cruise. We don't drink, we didn't shop in any of the stores on the ship, the only charges we had were for Claude diet Cokes at dinner each night. It was amusing.

There was time before dinner. We found seats on deck 7 in the center of the Viva. In the center of Deck 6, one of the crew was holding a line dancing class. She was having a great time with ladies learning the steps and then trying the routine to different music. My favorite was ABBA's Dancing Queen. 

The Hudson was our choice for dinner. Sandi: Caesar salad, Hungarian beef goulash, and milk chocolate mousse. Claude ate Caesar salad, Hungarian beef goulash, and strawberry shortcake. We had a great laugh over dinner as I asked Claude how his brother, Cordell, got the nickname Corky. He was not sure but they all called him that as a child. Then I shared with Claude my observation that he was named after the hired hand, Claude Iverson, and Cordell was named after Evan's (Claude's father) horse, Corky. We had tears from laughing so hard.

After dinner, we went to the Observation Lounge to watch the tenders returning to the Viva and the ship leaving port. 

The sea was very rough this night. First time for this trip. Claude watched Beauty & the Beast.

2025_0917 Iraklion, Crete, Greece...

Wednesday, September 17th, we had an 8:15am meeting in the Viva Theater for our tour in Crete. we would visit the ruins of Knossos. This meant a quick breakfast at Surfside Cafe. We were one of the first to arrive at the theater. I was able to ask the man who directs us when it is time for our shore excursion to leave the theater about the man we lost the day before on Santorini. He assured me the man was found and made it to the port. Hallelujah!

Sebastiana was the guide. She was easily the most knowledgeable guide of the entire trip. We learned she has been doing this tour for 40 years!! Yep, she knew her stuff. Yani was the coach driver.

This is a map of Crete. The Viva would dock in Iraklion, the capital of Crete. It is underlined in blue. Just below that is a blue dot that is where the city of Knossos is located and the ruins of the Knossos Palace are located there. The drive took about 30 minutes. 

Knossos is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. Once again, I watched several documentaries about this site which piqued my curiosity to see the site. The site was a major center of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. Knossos is considered by many to be the oldest city in Europe. Knossos is dominated by the monumental Palace of Minos. Like other Minoan palaces, this complex of buildings served as a combination religious and administrative center rather than a royal residence. 

In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelt in a palace at Knossos. His wife, Pasiphae. gave birth to the Minotaur after mating with a bull. King Minos had Daedalus construct a labyrinth, a very large maze in which to retain his son, the Minotaur. The myth of the Minotaur tells that Theseus, a prince from Athens, whose father was an ancient Greek king named Aegeus, the basis for the name of the Greek sea (the Aegean Sea), sailed to Crete, where he was forced to fight a terrible creature called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half man, half bull, and was kept in the Labyrinth – a building like a maze – by King Minos, the ruler of Crete. The king's daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with Theseus. Before he entered the Labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread which he unwound as he went into the Labyrinth so that he could find his way back by following it. Theseus killed the Minotaur, and then he and Ariadne fled from Crete, escaping her angry father. 

This is a diagram of the ruins of Knossos. We did not follow the line that is the suggested route as we toured. Sebastiana knows the place well and led us on the route she felt was best for us. We actually entered and went first to the place with three circles on the left center of the diagram to begin our tour. The site has a left side of buildings and a right side of buildings with a central courtyard in the middle. We toured the left side first, then we toured the right side and ended up at the 'Theater' which is #12 at the top.

Let's walk through Knossos. First we will tour the left side of the diagram. This side of the site had building two and three stories tall. The buildings would have have gorgeous frescos on the walls. Many of these are in the museum. 

Trees had tall thick trunks that were excellent for making the columns in the palace. 

Several altars were found along this wall. This would have been a grand hallway to enter the palace complex.

This are hard to see but behind these people is a monument with bull horns. Bulls played significantly in their worship and belief system. It was a symbol of strength and fertility. The bull horn monument is located on end of the central courtyard. 

On this left side of the palace complex was the storage area for the town, not just the palace. It was a couple of stories tall and had many individual stalls with storage containers in them. 

Sebastian is showing us the base of what would have been a column.

This is the best view I could get of the central courtyard. 

The Throne Room is made up of an outer courtyard when the wooden chair is located. The interior room is where a stone throne made of one slab of stone is located. There is also a purple bowl in front of it. 

Now we will walk through the right side of the diagram. This section housed the rooms for the queen and the king. This side was also four stories high. 

Located here is a spiral staircase. It is not like the circular ones you envision when you hear 'spiral' staircase. Instead it is stone steps that goes down four floors. They are evenly spaced around a central pillar and made it an easy walk up and down. You can see part of it in these two picture. 

The Queen's Room (#6 on the diagram). 

The King's Room (#7 on the diagram).

This is the workshop area (#9 and #10 on the diagram). 

A good example of the water system that was in place. There is a spout above to channel the water to a certain area. The grate at the bottom of the picture is a cistern for collecting the water. It even has a fig tree trying to grow in it today. 

Customs House (#12 on the diagram).

Road from the Customs House back into the palace complex.

A cat for Bailey.

We stopped outside of where the Theater (#13 on the diagram) is located for a final talk by Sebastiana. Note the road in front of us. There are two raised paths on the road. 

After about 1 1/2 hours of walking, Claude and I headed to the coach. Then to the Viva. 

We would enjoy lunch at Surfside Cafe before headed to our stateroom for a brief nap. Then we enjoyed our balcony view of sailboats and airplane shadows and our Snickers bars. There was an airport on the island. You would hear a big plane coming but your couldn't see the plane as our balcony faced the water, not land. Before you ever saw the plane, you could see a shadow that looked like a big whale under the water got across the water in front of our balcony. I tried to get a video of this event but was never quick enough to get it. 

Our neighbors on the balconies on either side of ours were French in cabin and Irish in cabin on the other side. Cool. 

We watched another cruise ship next to us leave port. It always takes a tug boat and the pilots boat to do this. 

Back to the Hudson for dinner. Sandi had roasted vegetable salad, lemon pepper shrimp, and sugar-free carrot cake. Claude ate French onion soup, New York strip steak and Nutella creme brulee.

For our evening, we went to Deck 8 and found a spot to sit. Richard joined us again for an update of our adventures. We thought of the man in the Viva Theater that directs us as we all try to get to our shore excursions. He told us there are two terms the crew uses on the Viva. One is 'banana'. When you do something that should be done differently, you supervisor gives you a 'banana'. You don't want a banana. The other is 'talkie talkie' for a crew member who talks too much. All crew members are over-the-top friendly and cheerful. We thought Richard might be in the 'talkie talkie' class. We appreciated him talking to us though. 

Back to our balcony for the evening to watch the sun set.