Midlife Island Hopping: Santorainy

Tuesday 14 May (Day 21)

We tried to nap on the ferry but if we tried to put our feet up on another chair a steward would come along and tell us off (unless you were Greek). We had arranged (through the hotel) for someone to meet us at the port. Although this was an extravagant expense (20 euros) we were glad we did it because when we arrived it was pouring with rain and we would never have found our hotel from the bus station.

Santorini is one of the most spectacular of all the Greek islands (and one of the most expensive). The island is the largest fragment of a volcanic archipelago made up of the broken remnants of the largest caldera on earth. It is now thought by many to be the origin of the Atlantis legend, the inpouring of the sea into the caldera during a massive eruption c.1640 BC giving early sailors the impression that the greater part of the island had sunk.

The day was started with a late breakfast (well we didn’t get to bed until gone 2am) before we went out to explore. We are staying in the village of Firostefani which just north of Fira (the capital). There were four cruise ships in so it was quite busy. The small quay where the cruisers are brought in is reached by climbing down 587 awkward steps on foot, by donkey or by cable car.

We went down the 587 steps in he afternoon just as all the cruisers were returning to their mother ships. The combination of shiny cobblestones, running rainwater and fresh donkey poo was a lethal slippery mixture but we made it down to the bottom unscathed. There were hundreds of donkeys and only a few people used them, perhaps the cruisers use them to go uphill in the morning. We took the cable car back up.

In the evening we took the bus to Oia (pronounced EEa) where everyone goes to get the good sunset shots. After a truly romantic sunset we got a kebab and washed it down with a cheeky can of diet coke (2013 vintage).

Tomorrow is forecast to be a sunnier day so I'm hoping to get some better sunset photos.