Santorini, Greece

In approx 1600BC the volcano that made up this island erupted in a catastrophic explosion and what was once the island of Thira sank to the bottom of the caldera and the sea rushed into the abyss to create the great bay.  The bay, once the high center of the island is 1,300ft deep in some places, so deep that when boats dock in the small port of Athinios they do not drop anchor.  The lagoon like caldera that was created measures 32 sq miles and is 300 to 400 metres deep.  Along the caldera the cliffs rise 1,100ft with the white cluster of the towns of Fira and Oia perched along the top.

We sailed into this lagoon with the bare cliffs and barren landscape with these white specks above and were very disappointed.  This didn’t look anything like the promised white houses with blue domes we were expecting.  We tendered ashore and decided to get the cable car to the top of the cliffs.  No way was I subjecting the poor donkeys to my weight to climb the 1,100ft to the top.  Cable Car was just as bad but kept my eyes closed and made it OK.

Once on top we wandered down the street till we found a car rental agency where we got a little matchbox on wheels with a map which showed nothing and a promise that all signs were in English.  Off we went with the promise we could do the whole island in 2-3 hours.  We headed to the highest point to see the view and a monastery and ended up at the bottom of the hill on the ocean!  Retraced our steps, realized the map was a guide only, as they were not to scale and had no street names on it, and that the signs were in English but they were few and far between.  Eventually got to the monastery and the view after a rather scary drive up this huge mountain on a basically single lane road praying we didn’t meet a bus coming the other way.  The view was good as you could see the whole island below us and well out into the lagoon and islands. 

From here we headed back to a beach town with black sand beaches.  Well the black sand was black stones, pebbles and rocks.  It cost $9 to hire lounge chair under an umbrella but decided we couldn’t sit on the stones and we wanted to get into that fabulous blue water.  The water was cool but lovely. The getting in and out over the hard stones was not so attractive.

We left the beach and traveled to the other end of the island to the town of Oia where we were promised the white house with blue domes clinging to the cliffs.  There were a few and they were very pretty but a lot of the houses are now painted cream and other pastel colours and have been turned into hotels so you couldn’t walk down thru them.  Had a late lunch at a lovely spot overlooking the ocean and the houses on the cliff, took a few photos and then headed back to Fira.

We dropped off the car, after waiting for 40minutes for them to come and collect it and headed back to the cable car.  The line for the cable car was huge, later figured it was about 1.5hrs wait, so in mad fit I said lets walk down the stairs!!!!!  There were something like 1,000 stairs in a zigzag down the mountain, they were 4 of my steps in width, stones and concrete worn very smooth and slippery in places and covered in donkey shit and donkeys.  Alan had to slow down so I could hold on to him due to the slipperiness and the donkeys really freaked me out (definitely a failure as a farmers daughter). They either stood on the steps and I had to pass their rear ends and worried about getting kicked or they wandered up the steps and you had to get out of their way. Half way down I thought I was going to explode from the heat, my knees were ready to give up and really didn’t think I would make it.  We eventually got to the bottom and I must say for the first time this trip Alan was drenched in sweat and just as exhausted as me.  We got back to ship, threw down multiple glasses of water, had a shower and hit the bar.

Once we had recovered we went to dinner, but both of us really couldn’t be bothered so had a light dinner and hit the bed and conked out by 8pm.

Didn’t wake up till 7 this morning and the body is stiff and sore, Alan is headachy as he is dehydrated.  Thankfully today is a sea day as the energy level is 0.