Our next stop was Santorini - I usually just provide a link for history etc, but I thought this was such an interesting place that I decided to provide my own commentary on the islands. Santorini is actually a group of islands. The largest of which is called Santorini. Santorini the island is what people (at least people like me) think of when they think of the Greek islands ... white buildings on steep cliffs with blue accents sitting on beautiful blue water. The other islands of the Santorini archipelago are nothing like what you picture when you think of Greece because they are mainly volcanic. It is also interesting to note that Santorini the island is moon shaped but was at one time a circular island. A volcanic eruption ages ago caused much of the island to sink leaving only a crescent. For those dreamers out there, the sunken pieces are thought by some to be the lost island of Atlantis.
In Santorini, Greece we decided to take an excursion. I am glad that we did because we were able to see the island from a different vantage point. We were picked up from the cruise ship in an wooden sail boat (like a small pirate ship if you will) and taken to Nea Kameni (new volcano island). Here we walked to the top which gives a great view of the geography of the Santorini Islands you can see the entire crescent shape of Santorini Island as well as the other small islands. This volcano is still active with the last eruption in 1950 it still has active sulfur vents (though they are much smalled and you can get much closer to the vents here than you can can to the vents on Hawaii).
Phil on top of new volacano
Then we went to Palea Kameni 'Old Burnt' (old volcano island). Here we swam in "hot" springs. In reality they were luke warm. They are warm due to the vents from the volcanoes, the mud on the bottom of the springs is said to make you look 10 years younger if you put it on your face. My mom tried and though she has always looked young I am not sure it worked.
Me swimming back to the boat from old volcano spring swim/mud bath
After this swim we made our way back to Fira which is the capital city of Santorini. In Fira there are three options on how to get to the city. The first is you can walk (I was told if I wanted to walk I would be on my own - maybe next time). The second was to take a donkey, which I also think would have been cool, but a little stinky.
Third there is a cable car that goes up the side of the cliff in just over two minutes. We opted for the third option.
At the top, we had one of the best lunches of the trip then walked the streets of the town.
View from the restaurant
We searched high and low to get a good picture of a blue dome roof
The trip ended with a cable car back to the port for the porter back to the ship. We were able to get a small view of the sunset, though they say it is best from the other side of the island, it was beautiful.
I would love to spend a few more days in Santorini, see the cities of Oia and Imerovigli as well as the red sand beaches (since we have seen green, black and white in Hawaii).
Our final stop was Katakolo, Greece. Here we rented a car and drove out to Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games. In some ways this was a nicer place to view ruins, because although there were fewer than in Ephesus, there were also far fewer people so it was easier to enjoy. We spent a few hours there, Phil then tried to get us to the Temple of Apollo and despite having looked at a map earlier and his assertions that once he sees a map he memorizes it he could not succeed without a map. So we headed back to Katakolo, stopped at a SMALL beach for an EXPENSIVE beer, then made our way back to the ship.
The final day of the cruise brought us back to Venice; Phil and I made our way home with the luggage while Mom & Frank explored for the day.
Sunday the four of us went to a market in Vicenza. We made a picnic out of fresh food (cheese, bread, olives, artichokes, salami) from the different stands. While Phil and Mom had Peroni, Frank and I also shared three bottles of wine (made Monday morning a little rough).
End of the third bottle
(and yes we drank out of plastic Dixie cups)
Monday Mom & Frank headed to Pisa, then Rome and came back to Vicenza on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday they headed to Verona and Friday they spent the day in Vicenza. Friday we ended their visit with dinner at a local pizza place before bringing them to the airport.
The visit seemed so quick and we miss them already; but we are ready for our next guests.
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