Panormos Beach, Mykonos

Monday, April 14th, 2014, Mykonos
After breakfast this morning, we loaded up our day packs with water and snacks and started walking northeast toward Panormos Beach which is in a bay on the northeast side of the island. It's supposedly 4 km from here but they measure the distances in straight lines not along the roads so we weren't sure what to expect.

 In the end, it took only an hour to walk there through the Mykonos countryside. The road was fairly narrow, lined with stone walls, and there were white stucco houses along the hillsides.

 Most of the stone walls are only about 1 meter high, so they hobble the goats, of which there are many, with rope tied to a back leg and a front leg so they can't jump.

Anita's stone wall and poppy photo. Most fences are stones placed without mortar. For Canadians like us, it's always a little strange to be walking through countryside that has some evidence of human habitation for at least 9,000 years. We may have that in Canada but it's often hard to see.

 Looking down at Panormas Bay.

 It was sunny but with a cool breeze off the ocean, so we tried to find a spot that had a little shelter from the wind.

 This is the view from the south end of the beach. Because it is still low season, we had the whole beach to ourselves for a couple of hours from about 11:15 am to 1:15 pm. Then 4 other people showed up. It's probably fairly unusual to have Panormas Beach all to yourself. In summer it's likely very crowded. It's a pretty good beach but not as nice nor as long as the white sand beaches of Cuba, the Dominican Republic or the Mayan Riviera.

The walk home took us about an hour and 20 minutes since it was more uphill and we were getting a little tired. Just across from the supermarket on the way up the hill is "The Authentic Mykonos Almond Sweets". No, it's not a candy shop. It's a new hotel. Translation is a bitch.
We relaxed on our balcony in the sun for a couple of hours and then walked down around the corner to a roadhouse type restaurant called "Oreganos". We didn't feel like walking down the hill into town and this restaurant had been recommended to us. It was pretty good and not too expensive.
Tomorrow we may just hang out around the hotel pool.