Santorini
Saturday, September 5, 2015,
to Wednesday, September 9, 2015
We flew 136 miles/217 km from Athens to Santorini.
Here is the map of the island. Our first move was to rent a car at the airport and drive north to Oia.
The highway goes through the center of little towns, and some of the streets are narrow! We have discovered that not only are the maps and street signs not in agreement with spelling, the GPS has its own way to spell out the names of towns!
Upon our arrival in Oia, it did not take long to see it is a beautiful place. Oia is perched quite a way up a very steep cliff from the sea.
The cliffs on Santorini are the result of an enormous volcanic explosion about 1600 BC. Most of the island is what remains of the caldera.
The streets in Oia are for pedestrians and horses; no cars.
This is one of the churches in Oia. Its plaza is one of the biggest open spaces in town.
We were told that watching the sun set is a big event, and late in the afternoon set out along the main street to the northern end of the town.
Almost every building in town is white. Here is one of many churches in town.
Near the end of town is an old fort. It draws a good crowd at sunset!
It was crowded out there, so we wandered back towards the center of the town. At sunset, Oia looked like this.
The next morning at sunrise, we saw the staircase down to the port. We made a note to give it a try.
After breakfast, we got in our car, set the GPS for our intended destination and…wound up somewhere else, Pyrgos! Its streets are paths and staircases. The surrounding country is farmland. On the map, it’s at the horse symbol.
Donkeys and horses are useful here, because of the long, steep staircases and pathways.
Our next destination was Akrotiri, to see the excavation of a town that was covered in ash when the volcano exploded. The frescoed wall we saw in Athens came from Akrotiri. The ruins are at the exploding red symbol on the map.
On the road south, we came upon this beautiful site. We have also figured out there are a lot of churches seemingly in the middle of nowhere in Greece. The capital city of Santorini is Fira, which is in the background here. We’ll be going to Fira to visit a museum with artifacts from Akrotiri.
The site continues to undergo excavation. Walls here and pottery below.
After we left the excavation site, we stopped to take a picture of a tiny church in the middle of a vineyard. Very typical!
We drove back north to Fira for lunch and the Museum of Prehistoric Therea, which houses artifacts from Akrotiri. Here are some pots, a hefty frying pan and a painting that go back to 1600 BC.
The next morning, we decided to try the horse/donkey staircase down to the small port. Here is a telephoto shot of the donkeys in action.
It was already hot, and going down and back up really worked up a sweat. And, to be honest, the scenery wasn’t all that exciting.
After catching our breath, we walked around the town to take pictures of windmills and blue domes. Here is a fine one.
Surprise! Right around the corner is what looks like a magazine cover. There were professional–looking photographers all over places like this in Oia, doing wedding photos or working on some other project. Note: Selfies are really big in the places we have visited in Greece.
This windmill has been converted into a hotel.
Afterwards, we got in the car and drove over to Imerovigli, a small town north of Fira (a part of which is on the right in the photo).
From a distance, it looks like the houses are dangerously perched. Closer up, the situation looks ok.
Here is a photo taken in Imerovigli, looking back towards Oia. The winding staircase down to the sea is easy to spot.
On our drive back to Oia, after lunch, we passed a recommended monestary, Agios Nikolaos. Unfortunately, it closes each day from noon to four o’clock, so we did not get to see it.
Just before reaching Oia, we drove down into the vineyard area to check things out. Not much going on….
Santorini is a great touring spot. There is a famous walk along the rim of the caldera, which we were looking forward to doing, but it was really too hot and we decided it would not have been fun.
We saw most of the island, and are ready to tackle the Peloponnese, our next destination.
We arrived in Santorini mid–morning, rented a car and drove north to the end of the island. We will visit the site of the town that was covered by volcanic ash in 1600 BC, a museum or two and hope the view from our home base is as great as the books say it is.
Next—Peloponnese, south and west of Athens.
