Santorini: 129 Nautical Miles away from Athens; a beautiful city. Santorini is one of the Greek Islands that was created as a result of a volcanic eruption. Many many years ago, it use to be only one island, but after the volcano erupted, much of the land was destroyed and separated and now Santorini consist of several small islands. Some of those island are inhabited, but others are not.
As recommended by a vender we met the day before, we woke up early that morning to catch the sunrise over the old volcanic island. It was quite lovely to see the hints of light touch the city as the sun rose. We were tired, but it was worth waking up early.
The Island does not have a dock large enough for the cruise ship to dock. So we were tendered that day and had to take a small ferry onshore. The village of Fira in Santorini (were we came onshore) is up on the top of the hill. So we had two choices of getting uphill.
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| By Cable Car |
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| Or by Donkey! |
Haha....I wish we took the donkey option now. It would have been quite funny. But I didn't read the program before hand so I didn't know that was an option. I was wearing a dress that day and the donkey might not have been the best option.....So we took the cable car.
After we were on top of the hill and some time passed, we finally got the rental car we booked before hand. We wanted to be at our own liberty and didn't join a tour in Santorini. Instead, we were able to drive around by ourselves and explore the island.
The first stop we went to was one of the black beaches of Santorini. It's definitely not something I have seen before. The sand, the rocks.......everything was pretty much black. Very different from the sandy white beaches of Florida. I believe some of the sand and rocks are volcano rocks and from old smoothed out magma. Maybe I'm wrong.....
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| Black beach |
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| Trying to find a pretty rock |
We continued to drive around a little and we were able to see some cute small communities and houses. The houses towards the top of the hill are houses converted from old windmills.
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| Interesting houses |
We finally reached the village of Oia. It is arguably the most beautiful area of Santorini. Its what you see on all the postcards of Santorini. It really does look like that! It is a gorgeous city with houses built on the cliff with water and mountains in the background. We really enjoyed walking around Oia even though it was very hot that day.
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| One of the many many chapels |
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| Another island of Santorini |
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| Happy doggy |
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| Cool painting on old bar doors and such |
After walking around for a couple hours, we returned to the ship and watched us sail off. We were able to catch some pretty scenery was we made our way back to Italy.
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| Volcanic Rock |
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| Riding away from the Islands |
For dinner:
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| Braised Beef Short Ribs over with Chived Pancakes and Orange Candy |
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| New England Clam Chowder |
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| Slow Roasted Prime Ribs with an Oven Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed with "Mac and Cheese" |
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| Crepe Suzette |
