We woke up with a simple plan: car rental delivered to the hotel after breakfast, followed by exploring the island of Mykonos. Our plan was a few casual stops, checking out some of the island beaches, grabbing some lunch, etc.
It did not work out as planned.
We had rented a van to accommodate the six of us. Nearly an hour late, a gentleman shows up with a bit of a beat up van (not a big issue). When he saw I was an American, he asked, "Can you drive a stick?"
Me: "Yes, no problem."
Him: "You need to do a test drive, to show me."
Me (part of me thought he was joking): "I grew up driving a stick, it's not a problem."
I indulged and drove him in the little driveway of the hotel. He proceed to tell me that if the clutch went out, I would owe him $300. My response was that I couldn't be liable for the build up of wear and tear.
At this point I didn't want to rent the car from him. But with no other options, I wasn't ready to pull the plug and abandon the day's plan.
I started signing the rental papers, gave him 60 euro cash, at which point he said, "I need to keep your drivers license."
My response: "No, I can't drive without it."
From there seemingly his wife entered from left field..."All Americans say they can drive stick, but they can't...blah, blah, blah."
Sarah joined in a bit of banter as well and then the deal fell apart.
Plan B
Our hotel is just a few minutes from the airport, so I was confident we could quickly rent a van and be on our way. A quick search and a car large enough to accommodate us surprisingly not available, especially since it's not in the busy season here.
Back into Town
We detoured walking back into town, where we went for lunch at Gioras Wood Medieval Mykonian Bakery. A 500+ year old bakery that has been in the same family for five centuries! That qualifies as a family run business ;)
They had good savory options for lunch, but choices were limited for Paige with much including cheese.
P&S Bracelets
Grammy and Gramps treated the girls to some bracelets from a handmade store. Paige choose the Greek flag colors and Sadie choose the colors that reminded her of sunsets.
Shopping Ladies
The girls did some shopping and wandering about town, which meant it was time for the boys to get a beer. Jeff & I walked up the hill and grabbed a frosty mug near the hotel.
Winding Down Poolside
We wound down the day poolside at our hotel. It wasn't the day we had planned, but it worked out to be an enjoyable day for everyone.
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