We were picked up early at the hotel to catch the launching of the Three Island Cruise to Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. They are located very near to Athens, but it’s still a 12-hour day.

There were about 400 people on the ship, but Pat and I upgraded our cruise to VIP status. As it turns out, one other person, a young Indonesian man traveling alone, joined us in the VIP section of the ship. His name was Rico and was a very pleasant traveling companion. The VIP section was an extremely opulent area that could probably hold 100 people very comfortability. But the three of us were behind locked doors enjoying special treatment. I guess we paid for it. It was indeed the way to travel.

The Greek waters were so blue and inviting. Our first stop was the island of Hydra, a very beautiful and quiet place that only uses donkeys for transportation. If at all possible, this would be the Shangri-La you’d want to live in forever.

A tasty lunch and an hour away was the island of Poros, and finally the self-proclaimed pistachio capital of the Agean Sea, the island of Aegina.

Twelve hours after we started, we were dropped off at our hotel to pack our bags and prepare for an early start to Mykonos the next morning. We’re finding that when you relax in Greece, even under the finest of circumstances, you are still exhausted at the end of the day.