Santorini
Day 6: Ferry from Mykonos to Santorini
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| A Stop at the Island of Naxos |
Sailing in to Santorini
Santorini is the most popular island in Greece and it may be the most popular island in the world. There are few travel destinations that combine beautiful beaches, spectacular scenery, ancient cities, amazing restaurants, some of the world's best wine, and an active volcano.
The island of Santorini is a crater of an ancient volcano where many towns are built on the edge of the caldera (crater cliff ) - about 700-800 feet above sea level.
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The cresent-shaped island of Santorini is actually the rim of a crater of an ancient volcano.
The volcano is still active and is forming the island of Nea Kameni. Our hotel was at the south end of Fira. |
Once docked at Port Athinios, we got on a bus and climbed to the TOP of the CLIFF.
The bus will take the winding road to the top of the caldera
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| A view of the hairpin turns coming up the cliff |
The road from the ferry port up the cliff looks like this on google maps.
We checked in to the El Greco Hotel in Fira - a very nice new and modern hotel. I has a huge resort complex with 5 pools. Location was fantastic as it was a short walk into town.
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| El Greco Hotel -the View from our Balcony |
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| Black pebble mosiacs on walkways or patios are very common in Santorini. (difficult to walk on though!) |
View from the front of the hotel
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| Our ferry ride was a bit rough because of a storm. You can still see some rain and clouds over the volcano. |
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| Our hotel was at the top of the cliff. |
FIRA
Here are some photos of Fira, the largest town on Santorini.
There are many solitary doorways to cliffside dining and hotels. Fira is a pedestrian only town with stairs everywhere.
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| Going for dinner at the Fanari Restaurant on the side of the caldera (crater) |
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MENU: Greek Salad; Grilled Prawn appetizer; Sardines; grilled fresh Sea Bream and ice cream for dessert.
DELICIOUS! |
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| Sunset Views during Dinner |
After dinner we went up to the Irani Wine Bar for Fantastic views of Fira by night (seen in the photo below -yellow building with the umbrellas).
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| Cable cars are seen at the middle right of the photo. The only way up this part of the caldera is by cable car, donkey or by walking. |
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| Lots of night time shopping |
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On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off for a fish pedicure.
The fish nibble off the dead skin. Fun! It tickled, and it worked :-) |
Day 7: OIA and the Volcano Sunset Cruise
We got an early start today and took a taxi to the other end of the island to the beautiful town of OIA (pronounced EE-ya)
We had a quick lunch in town, then decided to take the bus back to Fira. Only 1.80 Euros vs the 20 euro for a taxi. Everyone wanted this deal as this was the most crowded bus we had ever been on. People standing were wedged in and it was a long slow drive. ...but it was another adventure :-)
For the rest of the afternoon, we were catching a sailing ship to walk on the volcano and see the sunset. Photos for this are in part 4. For link to part 4 -click
HERE
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