This church overlooks a city 60 miles from the Arctic Circle.
Can you name the city and its country?
Hints:
Be the first to post your answer in comments.
Check back on Wednesday for a post on this destination.
Exploring Honey Island Swamp in the White Kitchen Nature Preserve
As you glide under gnarly cypress trees dripping with moss – in silent awe — through this pristine Louisiana nature preserve — it is easy to imagine scary creatures might be lurking within this river swamp.
Whether or not you believe tales of Bigfoot-like swamp creatures, the Honey Island Swamp and White Kitchen Nature Preserve – a 40-minute drive from New Orleans — is home to alligators, black bears and an “active” Bald Eagle’s nest among its many wild inhabitants.
We visited Honey Island Creek via a tour from New Orleans. Read about it here.
Do you have a favorite shady spot?
Other related New Orleans posts:
See all of this week’s Photo Friday submissions for “Shade” here.
Like beacons overlooking the harbor, the windmills of Mykonos are one of the Greek island’s most recognized landmarks. Dating back to the 16th century, the windmills took advantage of strong winds to grind grains grown locally and those being transported by sea between Venice and Asia.
Photo by Sailko
Today the remaining seven windmills are repurposed as private residences, gift shops and a museum. Overlooking the town of Mykonos, the windmills also provide an excellent viewpoint of the area known as Little Venice because the buildings reach the water’s edge with their balconies overhanging the sea.
View of Mykonos “Little Venice” from windmills
Mykonos – known for its white-washed buildings, impressive beaches and intense nightlife — is the name of both the 33-square miles island and its primary town. Maps often refer to the island by its Greek name, Chora.
In addition to visitors arriving via ferries and its international airport, Mykonos is a popular port call for cruise ships. We visited onboard Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas.
In Search of a Dentist
As we were eating prior to pulling in the port, Jeff bit something hard and broke a filling, leaving a gap that required attention. We contacted the ships front desk – there was no dentist on board nor did they have a local dentist to recommend. They promised to follow up with the port agent and call our European cell phones with any information.
Being excited to explore Mykonos Jeff took several Advil, and we headed of the ship towards the town of Mykonos.
As we explored the twisty narrow streets our phone rang. They had no dentist to recommend, and suggested we wait until the ship returned to Venice. That was four days away, and we had flights booked our day of arrival. Not good news as we were looking forward to several more island stops after this one.
Jeff decided to tough out his pain and we continued our explorations, ending up by the iconic windmills. After checking out the shops and the views, we headed back into the nearby narrow streets.
“Hey, look at that sign,” I exclaimed. On one of the buildings, a small proclaimed “Dentist” with a phone number. We ran the door bell, and also called the number when the door bell was not answered. The dentist could fit Jeff in, but not until after his siesta which ran from 2-6 pm. Our ship’s final boarding was at 6:30 pm and we did not want to get left. After explaining our plight, the dentist agreed to come back from his siesta a little early to complete the filling. We agreed on 5 pm. (Later, we realized that meant 5 pm Mykonos time.)
Bus to Paradise Beach
Jeff took more Advil and we found the local bus station – really more of a stop in the road – to get us to Paradise Beach. The bus runs almost every hour and costs less than 2 euros for the ride. Both the bus and the roads were rustic, but we enjoyed the scenic ride.
At 11 am on a weekday we found Paradise Beach very quiet with few people. After enjoying the lounge chairs and the rocky beach, more people started arriving. Suddenly, the beach chairs cost 7 euro each (we’d had our fill, so we declined) and went to check out the shops – buying an overpriced beach towel since we failed to bring one.
We enjoyed having a drink in an outdoor-living room-like bar. Then, nervous about making the dental appointment, we left just as a larger beach crowd was starting to arrive.
Time for the Drill
We caught the next return bus and arrived at the dentist at the appointed time. No one answered the bell. Finally, the dentist arrived and Jeff was in the chair, but it was 5:30.
We figured we needed 10 minutes to get to the last shuttle to the ship by 6 pm – so Jeff told the dentist he had only 20 minutes. No problem, but no time for Novocain to take effect. Desperately wanting to get the filling repaired, Jeff decided to proceed with no anesthetic.
The remains of the filling had to be drilled out. Imagining the pain he was going through, and hating the dentist drill myself, it seems the drilling went on forever.
Zzzzzz. Zzzzzz. Are you okay? Zzzzzzz. Zzzzzzz!
15 minutes later, the hole was filled, and after 100 Euros were charged on our credit card (which the dentist struggled to make the credit card machine work himself as his office manager was still on siesta) we were out the door.
The Eight Minute Dash
With only eight minutes we ran like crazy through the narrow, twisting streets, certain we would miss the ship (we had asked the cruise security earlier, while waiting for the dentist and no the ship would not wait if we were late.)
Light headed, out of breath – this was normally a 15-20 minute walk – we made the bus and the ship.
As we sailed away from Mykonos, Jeff enjoyed a well-deserved cocktail, and contemplated his most unusual souvenir of the trip, a Greek filling.
He also shared that while he undergoing the drill, the dentist – who was American-trained and spoke perfect English — worked hard to reassure him and distract him from the pain.
Someday, we must to visit Mykonos again – without dental issues – to enjoy more of the island.
Have you visited the Greek Isles? What island is your favorite?
Today’s Cruise Chat theme — Just Dessert – inspired us to think about the amazing desserts we’ve enjoyed during our cruise vacations. Narrowing the list was tough, as we like to sample sweets on board and in port. Note, we broadly define “desserts” to include sweet or special treats any time of the day.
Here are our 12 favorite cruise vacation desserts.
1. Chocolate snowman served for Christmas Eve dinner in the main dining room during the Holiday cruise on Holland America’s ms Prinsendam.
2. Café Au Lait and Beignets The Café Du Monde at New Orleans Riverwalk Mall is the perfect place to taste delicious puffy bites of dough drenched in powdered sugar, washed down with milky chicory coffee. This Café Du Monde is near the Port of New Orleans cruise terminal.
3. Real hot chocolate Warm up in Reykjavik, Iceland with hot chocolate. No powdered mixes here – just molten bars of rich chocolate with milk and real whipped cream. It’s the perfect “dessert” after a visit to the Blue Lagoon. You’ll find the same kind of “real” hot chocolate throughout Norway.
4. The Grande Finale provided a sumptuous end to an incredible Sommelier’s Tasting Dinner – six courses paired with wines in the Pinnacle Grill. This feast was onboard the Prinsendam during a transatlantic cruise to Europe.
5. Scones and clotted cream during a 12-day cruise Mediterranean cruise on the NCL Jewel, the Garden Café buffet offered fresh scones, clotted cream and jam every afternoon, along with self-serve complimentary espresso drinks. Mr. Jones rarely missed this delight.
6. Tamarind Chocolate From the Tamarind Asian specialty restaurant on the Nieuw Amsterdam, we found this ginger and tamarind flavored dark chocolate mousse the perfect ending a somewhat spicy meal.
7. Crí¨me Brí»lée Always a favorite, this dessert was the best part of our LeCirque dinner experience on the Nieuw Amsterdam, with the recipe at the bottom of the serving dish.
8. Tuxedo dessert Served in the main dining room on New Year’s Eve on board Holland America’s ms Noordam.
9. Freshly made waffles in a café in Bruges, Belgium. We also love them in Brussels hot and doughy from the iron of one of the city’s inexpensive waffle trucks.
10. Lake Bled Cream Cake This dessert requires a pre-or post-cruise side trip from Venice to Slovenia by train or bus. Bled, a small town in the Julian Alps, once the playground of Austro-Hungarian Empire’s elite, is Slovenia’s top tourist destination. This small town features a fairytale castle overlooking Lake Bled. The lake surrounds Bled Island Besides the storybook setting, the area is famous for its cream cake, a vanilla and cream pastry. We found it to be Europe’s best dessert.
11. Our favorite champagne Taittinger makes a perfect dessert, especially on a cruise ship watching entertainment in a smaller venue.
12. A chocolate on your pillow Even if you manage to past up all other dessert, it’s tough to skip the chocolate on your pillow, particularly when it’s a part of towel are like this bunny on Holland America’s ms Veendam.
What’s your favorite cruise dessert? Please share in comments.
