Santorini

We've had a glorious day in Santorini today. We had a tour with 35 people from the Cruise Critic group (organised by Nat and Andy ), on a bus. We managed to get off the ship and up the cable car very quickly (amazing considering the stories we'd heard about the crowds trying to get up), thus we were early for our tour, so David and I wandered around the main town of Fira (capital of the island) for 45 minutes first - most of the shops were closed at this time.

Once the tour was under way we made our first stop at Firostefani, an area just outside the main town, where we had a fabulous view over the caldera. We heard some geological and historical background there and also as we travelled to the picturesque town of Oia on the northern edge of the island. There are no rivers on Santorini, houses used to collect water from their roofs but now there is a desalination plant. The volcano/caldera is still active, with a new underwater volcano having appeared in 1707. Its most famous eruption was 3600 years ago (the Minoan eruption or Thera eruption) which is thought to have destroyed the Minoan civilisation and perhaps even Atlantis. There was a devastating earthquake in 1956 that destroyed most of the buildings on the island, many now being new, but built in the traditional domed style according to regulations.

We had a nice time shopping in Oia, and I bought a necklace to share with Michelle. It was a very pleasant, quaint and tidy little town.

Next we travelled to a beach near the airport, and had a lovely Greek lunch right beside the seaside, on what was called a 'black sand' beach - Kamari Beach. David had a fabulous Greek Salad, and I had "Winemaker's Lamb" which was lamb, spinach and cheese all wrapped up in a vine leaf and baked. Very nice. The beach was just gravel, not my idea of a beach really!

Then we went off to do some wine sampling in a winery (Santos Wines). Three tastings, and we came away with a couple of bottles of wine. The views there were spectacular. We had found it interesting, during the day, to see how all the grape vines grow as bushes in the soil, rather than along wires (this is because of the damaging winds), and their only source of water is dew! We had more amazing views when we then drove up the highest point on the island (Profitis Ilias - about 600 meters high) where there is a monastery (couldn't go in there).

David is now sampling the local beer, Mythos, while we sit in an internet cafe back in the main town, and then we are going to join the queue to get on the gondola, back down to the ship. Then we catch a tender back to where the ship is docked. Bev, I can see why you loved Santorini!

Addendum: Hmmmm, we took one look at the HUGE queue for the cable car, and knew that we'd never make it back to the ship in time within the hour and a quarter we had. So, we walked down the donkey track - OMG! It took over 30 minutes because it was so crowded, and stepping around all the donkey poop, and watching our step on the bumpy surface, and also taking care not to slip on the slippery marble (lots of people lost their footing) - my legs were shaking by the time we got down and I was a mess! Nevertheless, it was a 'memorable' experience...

(Video courtesy of Basil and Xenia - Cruise critic username: basiluf)