Mykonos is where heaven is. It must be.

We stayed in a nice hotel called the San Marco and met a woman swimming in the pool. She was older than us, elderly I would now say. Looking back now, I see that at the time, she was as old as I am now perhaps. She was fit and had been a swimmer in the summer olympics years ago.

Did you know that former olympians are always invited back to the olympics? They are and she had come back to experience it all over again.

Mykonos is lived at a different pace as all of Greece is. The ideal speed for life is on Mykonos. Not for earning a living or for getting most things done, but for the pleasure of life and of living.

My wife and I wandered the town with its windmills and white and blue buildings and sat to eat and watch the pink pelicans for hours each day. The small truck delivering the produce drove past our table and into the cafe where we were seated. It seemed natural.

The walkways through the town wind and turn and lead you on a walk with many shadows and surprises. Flowers pots are arranged on the red tiled paths and the white glistening buildings are a change from home. The sun is the same sun, but somehow more warm and soothing with the wind blowing as we walked to nowhere and back again.

The ocean water was smooth and calm as the cruise ships came and to the harbor past the long jetty and let their cargo visit the island and then made sure that all had returned and left us to watch the sun set as they all sailed away in peace and silence. The sun set more slowly than I had ever seen in a pink and orange sky that is only visible from Mykonos.

I was transfixed and changed on Mykonos. I was made an honorary Greek by the lifestyle and my dreams for a slower pace of life. I have that now as I am retired. I live like those in Mykonos now when I want to.

When I miss Mykonos, I eat a Greek salad and dream of the time well spent in Mykonos. I have been so lucky. I have been to Mykonos.