Stunning Santorini

We travelled from Mykonos to Santorini on Friday after waiting for 1 hour in the blazing sun on the wharf.  The ferry was running late due to rough seas.  The trip over was a bit bumpy and rocky which didn't worry Pete and I but a few people were sick or complaining of feeling unwell.  All added to the fun really. 

Santorini is just as you see it in the photos (obviously!).  From our hotel you can see the sea on both sides of the Island.  Coming in on the ferry you see the steep side of the island and the towns are dotted along the top ridge.  Quite an amazing sight.  Our hotel is a five minute walk to the main town of Thira where we caught a bus from yesterday to the sea side town of Kamari.  Written up as having coarse black sand, yeah right, really it was a stoney beach.  This could be a new description for Napier, and the waves were even dumping in like Napier.

Kamari Beach

The swimming beaches at Mykonos were just like Lake Taupo, hardly a ripple on them, and really sandy.   Anyway Kamari still covered in deck chairs and sun umbrellas that of course you could hire for the day.  Even at 10 in morning some people had staked their claim.  Kamari is on the side of the Island that you don't see when coming in by ferry which doesn't have the steep inclines up from the beach. Back in Thira we decided to walk the Caldera a 3 km walk from town centre to the highest point of Thira.  Absolutely amazing views but by this time it was early afternoon so very hot.  Also of course had to walk 3kms back didn't we.  I'm sure normal people would have got a bus.  Then because that wasn't enough hard work, in the evening we walked down to the old port, hundreds and hundreds of steps and then got a donkey ride back up.  Lot of fun but a bit scary when the donkey just starts walking and you have no reins or anything to control it with (and they don't understand English!)  

On the Caldera walk

View of the cruise ships at Thira from the Caldera walk

Another view on Caldera walk which shows how high up we were

So many photo opportunities

The donkey ride

Today we have caught another bus to Oia (pronounced e a) which is right on the end of the island and was devasted by an earthquake in 1956.  With the rebuilding power supply went underground so amazing photos with no power lines.   There as lots of artists shops (and souvenirs) as well as lots of photo opportunities.  Also had to have what they called a cup of coffee in a cafe just so we could admire the amazing views.

At the Cafe

Views from Oia

Thira has lots of narrow winding streets with all sorts of shops and many hours could be wasted just wandering among them.  Some places one got to browse freely but in a lot of places as soon as you walked in the door someone was tailing you giving you the sales talk.  Nowhere near as bad as Turkey though.  


A great week of sun, relaxation and stunning views.  We were very sorry to leave these magical islands and head back to Athens to start our homeward journey.  Once again the ferry was running an hour late and lost another hour on the four hour journey to Athens so by the time we got to our hotel it was 6.30pm. Unfortunately no chance for sight seeing as we had a 5.00am wake up call next morning for our flight to Heathrow.

Interestingly, our thoughts had been that maybe we should have seen more of the Greek Islands as we had enjoyed the two we did stay on.  However on the ferry to Athens we met an Australian family, Mother and her adult children, and they had done 4 islands in 10 days but were saying that they felt they would have been better to have done less islands and stayed longer on the ones they did. They said after a while they all seemed the same.