Santorini. — October 26, 2021
Leaving Athens, we sailed into the Cyclades, a group of about 220 islands in the Aegean Sea, one of which is our new destination, Santorini. We have always wanted to see Santorini. The all white hillside city with the blue domes were intriguing.
Our first stop was scheduled to be Ephesus, Turkey but due to COVID Italy wanted to quarantine anyone who had recently been in Turkey. So the Captain made arrangements to go to Santorini instead.
The ship anchored off shore and ran water taxi’s back and forth to the shore. There the waiting busses took us on a road trip to a couple of small towns for our shore excursion.
First we headed up a steep, winding drive on the face of a high mountain; switchback after switchback until we reached the top. From this vantage we could see for miles! We drove on in to Oia and got out for photos at another overlook in the opposite direction. The other city was Thira. Both cities are built high upon the top of steep cliffs which is now the edge of a ginormous caldera from a 16th century bc volcano that formed much if today’s landscape.
Thira, or Santorini, is the capitol and is the most beautiful. The Snow White Houses, shops and churches are bright in the Santorini sun. The churches have bright blue domes that makes these buildings stand out. This was certainly a tourist town and very popular for tourists. I thought how fun it would be to stay a week and explore the town.
After our stay here we walked down to catch our cable car to head back. Down below we caught a boat to our ship. Looking back at the high cliff we could see the steps winding down from the top and the trail used by mules available as mule taxi’s.
Mike Thomas
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