Arriving at the ferry port was like arriving in some barren wilderness - all volcanic rock - sheer to the sky. The buses all congregate at the harbour and everyone finds a bus to the top and clears the harbour very quickly. Yet another winding road to the top of the hill - took us a while to find our apartment - dropped off in the square by the church and told to ‘walk down there about 25 metres…’ so hot and then had to lug the bags down all the stairs - reminded us of the Amalfi coast!!!
So - Santorini harbour - like nowhere else....
just some cafes on one side and hundreds of buses waiting to take everyone up to the top of that hill......
The view over the caldera from our room (once we found it)
Another view from our room
The volcano used to connect right around - the middle blew out and that's what destroyed Knossos in Crete
Beautiful setting - view straight out onto the caldera - basically the top of the volcano - the traditional cave rooms are charming - but I found out during the night that they had obviously been painted recently - thought I’d have an asthma attack due to the smell! Had dinner at a restaurant just along the way - decided it was too far to Fira for the first time - managed to find our way home without any trouble.
The footpath winds its way through apartments - some of the pools and balconies are right up against the path that everyone uses to walk from Fira to Oia…. Fira is 25 minutes in one direction, while Oia is 2 hours in the other….
The church around the corner from 'Sunny Villas
Fira sits on the top of the volcano's side - this gives asense of where we came into dock - the small boats in the water on the right are actually ocean liners....
The church that has a viewing platform toward Oia - and also directly into our villas, we found out... everyone who walked here from Fira could see us reading/sunbaking on our deck....
A closer view of Fira and the volcanic rock it sits on
The church from the top photo is the one towards the left of this photo
Taken at sunset from the restaurant around the pathway from our villa - about a 15 minute walk away
I realised that I wouldn't find anywhere free of paint smell in all of Santorini - they whitewash it every year for the tourist season........
Our room was the one with the bouganvillea - the bathroom was so far into the mountain that the path to Oia went over it....
Spent few hours wandering around Fira on the first day - walked there - did some window shopping, argued about whether we would have donkey ride (vertigo won - and later I read that the animal rights activists ask you not to go on the donkey ride to the harbour, as it’s a form of cruelty to the donkeys). Went back to our room for the afternoon and then walked back to Fira for dinner - wandered down to a club that had said it was playing live music - jazz and listened to a set before heading for a taxi rather than walking back in the dark after more than a few drinks.
Next day was freezing cold and raining, with a thunder storm coming over in the middle of the day, so we stayed inside and read until about 5pm - then we headed out to the Irish pub in town and downed a few Mojitos before walking almost home and having dinner in Imeroglivi - a good decision as we could then just stagger home.
After a late breakfast we started the walk to Oia about 12.45pm. A beautiful walk along the cliff path, but there were occasions when we wondered if we had made a mistake, especially as we were slipping on the rocks on the thin path next to a 50-100metre drop!!! Arrived safely after 2 ½ hours and found a nice café for late lunch. Headed back home on the 5.30 bus - shades of Positano-Praiano with the bus driving! Lazed around and managed to get some photos of the sunset - a storm that had threatened all afternoon seemed to go around us and dump on the islands to the south.
Before we knew it, it was 10pm and we hadn’t had any dinner!!
A lot of the buildings were built directly down the volcano wall -ours included!
The donkeys wait all day to just go up and down this hill to the old port. There are some signs from the equivalent of the RSPCA asking tourists not to ride on the donkeys....
Not all the churches were blue and white - this one was quite lovely - in Fira town
Don't know what the employees at the bus depot were there for - we asked for a timetable and they pointed to this wall -we took a photo so we had the timetable.
This gives an idea of the shape of the island - imagine it connecting all the way around - that was the original island before the volcano exploded.
This is Oia - our destination walk - 2 hours (pronounced EE-a)
we had to go over the rim of the volcano to get there
on the other side of the rim, the island rolls out to flat farmland - Santorini is famous for wine in Greece
another beautiful blue and white church - on the way to Oia
Our villa was over at the 'knob' on the right hand side of the photo
About halfway - we still had those hills to go over - thisis where we needed the donkey!
This resort was built directly over what seems to be a landslide - it was a big hole anyway!
Oia - our destination in sight!!
He seemed to be having fun.......
Oia was the town featured in the movie 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants'
A bit of different architecture - a church just to be different!
a mix of colours though
These are the quintessential pictures of Santorini..
The council building in Oia
our balcony from the kitchen window
that's our pool right down there - it was too cold to swim - the people are on the walkway to Oia
This is what they come to Oia for - but we took the sunset in from our balcony each night
A little battered, but still recognisable...
The walkwa under the church was very narrow
the steps up to our villa from the walkway below
on the last day, we went for a walk across to the outcrop - it was a castle once
the view of Fira from the outcrop
as we left Santorini for our ferry trip back to Athens
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