Greece – Santorini

I am very late, but I want to continue the Greek Odyssey before I start other trips.
From Amorgos, we headed to Santorini, the place I probably anticipated the most of the whole trip. There is indeed room for disappointment here.

As we left Mykonos, we passed the fast ferry probably coming from Santorini.

We approached the Caldera from the South and this is our first glimpse of Fira, the main ‘urban’ center in Santorini

This is Oia, the city right at the entrance to the caldera.  We will explore this on foot our last day.

Another view of Oia – the main sites are all right at the top of the caldera, and there are wide open spaces in between these.

Fira – You can see the path that descends from town to the old port, now only used for local tours.

Amazing views as we slowly sail through the caldera.

There is a very nice sailboat anchored just in front of Fira – would love to go on a cruise on one of those…

Our first stop in Santorini is an archaeological dig where they have found the remains of a village called Akrotiri that dates back to the Minoan Bronze Age and was destroyed by an eruption in 1627 BC.  Thi sis the model of what has been unearthed so far.

Several buildings are remarkably well preserved.

This, one suspects, was a shop of some sort and the amphorae were used for storing the goods.

In the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, there are frescoes that were found in Arkotiri – this blue monkey fresco is quite extraordinary.

Better than wall paper

This little animal was found in what appeared to be a small shrine

Here is a map of the towns that existed on Santorini at the time.

We came back to Fira just in time for sunset.  This is a tradition and people line up the main street of the town waiting for the sun to go down.

I waited for this boat to be lined up with the setting sun.  Unfortunately, the crew was too lazy to hoist the sails – what is the point of having a sail boat if you do not use the sails!

We took a day trip around the caldera on traditional ship.  This gave us a slightly different look at the towns surrounding the rim.

We first stopped at the island in the middle of the Caldera.  This is actually the current mouth of the old volcano which used to be here and the island has been growing over the centuries following successive eruptions.

In another near-by island, there is a source of hot water where people went swimming.  We stayed on the boat.

More views of Fira and Oia

Back on terra firma, we enjoyed another evening in Fira.  Right over our hotel there is a terasse bar with really nice views of the main street in Fira

Here is a panorama

On our last day in Santorini, we left early on the path to Oia.  Leaving Fira, we had this view

At the halfway point, we were away from cities and houses.  We were told to leave early because this stretch can get pretty hot in summer, if the sun is beating down.

The main cathedral in Oia

Last evening sunset… with two beautiful sail boats.

I know which one I would rather be one!

Sunset from the restaurant

This is the end of our stay in Santorini.  We really enjoyed it, and will certainly return.

Next, we are flying back to Athens, renting a car and heading to Meteora for a sunset tour of the monasteries there.  Looking forward to it.

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