Europe

We were up early this morning so we could have breakfast before meeting our tour guide for the day in Santorini.

The ship anchored at about 8:00 am in Santorini and, by about 8:30 am, we were on a tender, heading to the shore to board the bus to explore the island. The bus ride up the steep, narrow, and winding road, was breathtaking. The bus driver certainly had his work cut out for him, and did a fantastic job of maneuvering the bus around the tight bends and oncoming traffic.

Our first stop for the day was the beautiful village of Oia, located on the northwestern tip of Santorini. It’s known for its whitewashed houses, blue-domed churches, and stunning views over the Aegean Sea and the caldera. The Santorini caldera is a huge, partially submerged volcanic crater created by a cataclysmic eruption about 3,600 years ago. This eruption, one of the most powerful in recorded history, caused the centre of the island to collapse and form the crescent-shaped caldera that we see today, now filled with the stunning blue water of the Aegean Sea.

After walking around for an about an hour, we decided to stop for some very delicious Loukoumades (Greek doughnuts).

We left Santorini around 11:15 am, and drove to the town of Piros. After dodging the traffic to get across the road, we walked up the steep path to get a view of the surrounding area, passing some very nice churches and buildings along the way.

We stopped briefly for a nice snack and refreshments in Piros, before getting back on the bus, and heading to the town of Fira. This was a very pretty town, with a lot of restaurants and shops perched along the cliff edge, with stunning views.

After walking through Fira, we headed for the cable-car station to ride back down to the water’s edge to catch a tender back to the ship. With four other (and much larger) cruise ships also anchored in Santorini today, we waited in line for about 45 minutes before getting into a cable-car for the short but spectacular ride down the extremely steep cliff face.

We managed to find a bit of shade while waiting for the tender to arrive, which wasn’t easy given the sheer number of people trying to get back their ship. We got on the tender just before 3:30 pm for the short trip back to the ship.

We relaxed for a while when we got back on the ship, before getting dressed for dinner. We went to dinner via the theatre, to watch a performance put on by the crew, which was very entertaining.

From the theatre, we headed to the Compass Rose restaurant for a lovely dinner.

After dinner, we caught up with Peter and Pam for a drink and a chat, before heading back to finish packing in time for the 10:00 pm collection of our suitcases, in preparation for disembarking tomorrow in Athens.