Santorini

Santorini is as beautiful as they said it would be. We sailed right through the Caldera. Santorini is a crescent shaped island. It used to be a regular island that had a volcano in the middle of it. It blew up and the center of the island sank into the sea. One of the largest volcanic eruptions the world has ever
known happened on this island causing the caldera. People have connected the eruption to the legend of Atlantis.The largest city (Thera or Fira - either is correct) is on the top of the steep cliffs almost 1000 feet above the huge lagoon.

Here we are sailing through the Caldera. The water was so glassy as we went through. Kevin joked that we should throw out a ski behind the sailboat.






When you think of the Mediterranean, Santorini is what comes to mind - white stucco houses, blue doors, pastel colored homes and rounded roofs. Absolutely beautiful! We docked on the other side of the island and rented scooters to get to the Fira.




"Wild Hogs of Santorini"


We rode all over the island on our scooters. Here's a self-portrait at Red Beach.The island had beaches with red sand, white sand and black sand. Lots of variety. Notice our matching shirts. Lynn and Caren got the whole crew two different sets of matching shirts. We looked pretty sharp with 10 of us wearing the same shirts :)
We spent 4 days on Santorini because of strong winds. If we had to get stuck on one of these islands, Santorini was the place to be stuck. Boat after boat filled the harbor trying to get out of the wind. We actually anchored onto another sailboat since there was no room on the dock.

Traveling around the island, we went to the small town of Oia. It is very well known for its sunsets. The famous Oia Sunset is considered by many as one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Tourists flock from all over to watch it from a castle. We took some really pretty pictures from that famous point. We also took lots of pictures of this gorgeous town.




Oia by day. The windmills and architecture are just amazing. There are churches everywhere.
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We spent one afternoon visiting Ancient Thira - incredible ruins on a hilltop 2,000 feet above sea level. Over 5,000 people - Dorians, lived there in the 9th century B.C. I was so happy we had scooters. We watched people walking up the almost 2 1/2 mile hairpin climb. Even after we got there, we had to walk another 10 minutes in 45-50 mph winds....wow!!! At the top were panoramic views of the ocean and town below.


Ancient Thira at the very top of the mountain -who lived there and why?? They had to be in great shape just going up and down that mountain...the slaves must have brought food.

We spent our last day in Santorini relaxing and exploring. I think we went on almost every road on the entire island in just 4 days. We found a nice little beach--called Perissa Beach. It was a pretty cool day with gusts of winds. We cringed as we watched European tourists in their speedos splash through the waves...brrrrr.
We also found a fun little restaurant. We had a great time taking pictures of all our food....see it below.

Foods of Greece

L-R: Stuffed Vine Leaves; Traditional Greek Salad; Greek Mixed Meat Platter; Lamb in Clay pot with melted Feta.

After 4 days on Santorini we decided to call it quits and head out on Mon, Oct 13 to our next island, Astypalea. (Paros was cancelled because of the wind storm). Little did we know it would be the second longest day of our lives....