Santorini

(OK, so it's been almost two weeks since I last posted, and although I don't want to make excuses, I feel the need to say one thing: sharing a computer with Sam made it very difficult to get done what I wanted to get done. On future trips, we're taking two laptops!)

The next stop on our month long trip, was Santorini, a group of five (or six?) islands formed by a huge volcanic eruption about 3600 years ago. It was about a seven and a half hour ferry ride from Athens, and our first glimpse was the village of Oia (pronounced E-ah), on the northwest end of the largest island. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

From the boat, I was completely unprepared for how incredibly blue the water of the Aegean Sea is! Now, I know what "Aegean Blue" really means!

This photo shows the switch-back road that leads from the port, up to the villages and towns that are nestled on the cliffs high above the sea. In the water, down below, you can see a circular rope that marks where a cruise ship sank in 2007. According to our taxi driver who took us back to the port on our departure, it was done on purpose by the cruise company for the insurance money, because the ship was old. Of course, we've heard some interesting stories from cab drivers before, so we took it with a grain of salt.

We found that Greeks have some interesting building techniques and styles, which stand up to the humidity and help keep the interiors cool during the hot summer months. Their main building material is concrete, and they build very thick walls.  On Santorini, the common style has a rounded concrete roof. This photo shows the frame of a new two story house or perhaps apartments.

Once the frame is up, they fill in the walls with concrete blocks (as seen below), leaving openings for windows and doors. I guess you'd better be certain where you want them, because it doesn't look like it would be easy to remodel. We're not sure if they do interior walls with wood framing, or something else, but they plaster the walls, inside and out, tile the floors, and almost always paint the exteriors all white to reflect the hot sun.

Occasionally, as in the case of the Merovigla Studios, where we stayed for three nights, they do paint them different colors, but that's fairly rare. Our studio at the top of the stairs, had a very tiny kitchenette, bathroom, sleeping area, a ladder up to a loft with another king size bed, a sun deck, with lounge chairs on the roof of the red unit below, and a small balcony at the other end, where we could eat our breakfast, overlooking both sides of the island!

Eating was one of the highlights of visiting Greece. We had so much good food, which included a Greek salad almost every day, but we did not try this place - Señor Zorba's Mexican Restaurant, "All You Can Eat BBQ Ribs." May have been good, who knows?

While on Santorini, we rented a car for 24 hours, and wandered around the rest of the island. We ended up on a black sand beach, where we had drinks brought out to us, and later we ate a very good lunch at one of the restaurants along the beach.

(Here, Sam is enjoying his fruit smoothie, and no, that is not me in the bikini behind him - although, that is probably what I would look like if I chose to where such a thing!)

One of the most popular things to do while on Santorini, is to catch the sunset from the village of Oia, and we did so two nights in a row - along with hundreds of other people! Although people gather on walkways and stairways, at restaurants with a view, and just about anywhere they can see the sun as it sets, a favorite spot for doing so, is on an ancient turret overlooking the caldera below.

As you can see, it gets pretty crowded.  Some even stake out their spot hours ahead of time.

Is it worth it? You be the judge...

The caldera at dusk, looking eastward, pink clouds reflecting on the sea.