There was a "swim stop" in the morning, where Hal and I took the two single kayaks into this little bay.
We hit the port of Ermoupoli (Hermoupolis) at about 2 pm. Christian, our "cruise coordinator" did a guided tour of the old part of town, the architecture of which reflects the Byzantine occupation rather than more traditional Greek style.
There is a Casino in town right next to a church but we didn't go in--to the Casino, that is--we did go in the church later that day. The town is built on two hills and the other hill, AnoSyros, is the older part of town with houses stacked upon one another, a monastery at the top. It was hot and the hill was steep so a bunch of us piled into cabs for the ride up and the walk down. 
The views from the top of the hill were spectacular
and Syros seemed more an ordinary island with regular shops for clothes and hardware rather than just endless rows of tourist shops. Of course, tourism counts for a whopping 25% of the Greek economy, so it's not too surprising that it seems so predominant on some of the islands.the economy of Syros, however, is focused on textile, dairy and horticulture, and some remnant of their glory days as ship builders. there was in fact a huge cruise ship in the docks being retrofitted and offered for sale--didn't catch the price;-)
This was a town with more than the usual number of feral cats.
