Our Hellenic Adventure - Part 6

We arrived in Santorini June 3rd after a 3.5 hour ride by ferry. Santorini has more visitors than any other Greek island.

 Tourists come for the scenery,
black, red and white beaches and the sunsets.

Santorini was formed by a volcano in the 16th mellium BCE. Since its inception it has been ruled by numerour volcanoes. At about 465 BCEthe volcano erupted with such force that a large part of the island disapeared into the Agean Sea leaving what now looks like a cresent shaped like the moon at a new quarter.
These are two volcanic islands in the lagoon formed where the sea replaced the island.

 One of these islands is where the many volcanos have erupted.  
The last volcano eruption was in 1950. There have been volcanos in 197 BC, 46 - 47, 726, 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, 1925 - 1928, 1939, 1941 and 1950.

Our tour of the island included a boat ride to Nea Kameni the volanic isle. Here we were able to walk on the remains of the volcano. There is no habitation on this island. Only large black boulders, stones and other volcanic debry. No stores, no supplies, nada. A person visiting this island must wear good walking shoes and bring their own drinking water. We bought ours on the boat. After spending two hours walking to the crater we sailed about 30 minutes to an inlet where hot springs can be found. This is water generated from deep within the volcano. The temperature of these springs was about 25 celcius. It was not possible, due to the shallow water, to get more than 100 feet near the hot springs. The boat anchored and anyone who wanted to enjoy the hot spring had to jump off the boat and swim to the hot water. We stayed at this hot spring for about 30 minutes and then proceeded to the island called Thirassia about 45 minutes away.

Few live on Thirassia. There is one small area there the tourist boats dock. There are restauants and gift shops but nothing else. We ate lunch, spend about rwo hours here and left for Santorini and the village of Oia (pronounced Ia). This village is where Santorini's picture post cards photos are taken. All the buildings are white with blue roofs. The buildings are atop the cliffs that have resulted from the part of the island disappearing into the sea. We estimated the village was atop a cliff 180 to 200 meters above sea level. The only options were to walk up 300 steps or ride a donkey. We elected neither and took the boat back to Thira our starting point.

From the port of Thisa to the top of the cliffs takes about 9 hairpin turns. Buses, trucks, autos and scooters have to navigate this road which is about 15 feet wide. Vehicles cannot pass each other on curves. Each must wait their turn. The length of this trip is about 2 miles with an elevation of about 300 meters. Scary is not the word. You need nerves of steel if you want to drive this.

We left the driving upto the bus drivers.

The people are friendly. When having a meal, if you don't have dessert, you most likely will be treated to a dessert, coffee or a shot of ouzo on the house. Restaurants are more expensive here as are the shops than Mykonos.

We took a local bus for 2.20 euros from the street corner near our hotel and visited the capitol of Fira. Another day the took the same bus to Fira and for another 1.60 euros went to Oia, the village mentioned above with the 300 steps.

We spent a day on the black sand beach. The last full day we rented a four wheeler and in about seven hours toured the rest of the island. The four wheeler will never replace my Spyder.

Santorini produces about 35 kinds of wine. All but 5 or 6 are sold outside the island. They do not grow grapes the way we see in the USA or Europe and all other wine producing areas. The grapes are let to grow in bushes on the ground. This us due to the constant winds that would rip the plants apart if grown the conventional way. The wine was good but we did not taste any gold medal winners.

Today is June 9th and we say goodbye to Santorini. I write this as we sail on the fast ferry to Noxos, Mykonos and our destination Piraeus. This is not what we booked as it was supposed to be a direct ferry from Santorini to the port of Piraeus. But in Greece one has to be prepared for all eventualities.

Tomorrow we say Goodbye to Greece and head to

Prague via Istanbul.