Santorini
Another very long day. We had originally been scheduled in Rhodes for the day and I planned a less busy day but the port stops were switched because of water current so we went to Santorini today. Santorini was planned as a long day. We are definitely getting our steps in and going to bed tired every evening. Hopefully all of the walking offsets some of the calories. With all of the last minute port changers I’m glad we arranged to do most excursions with the cruise line. A lot of people who booked exccursions independent from the cruise line have been scrambling to get things changed.
Today’s Best of Santorini had us ready to get on the tender at 8:15 so we did room service for breakfast. Our butler/room attendant, Robert has been terrific despite the number of rooms he has, As we ate breakfast we were treated to some beautoful sites of mist and clouds over theSantorini landscape as our ship entered the caldera. Santorini is a volcanic set of islands. The volcano that formed the large caldera erupted in 2000 BC.
Our tender was ready right at 8:15 and after a quick ride we arrived at the ferry doc where our guide Margarita was waiting.
Our first stop was the archeological dig, the Excavations of Akrotiri. After Delos we were expecting something similar but this active excavation parts of which date back to 4500 BC is entirely enclosed in a building with scaffolding around the excavations where tourists can get up close to many of the buildings in what once was a thriving town. The town was covered by a volcano in the 3rd century BC. Our tour guide at this museum was Katie who has worked there for 35 years. She was a wealth of knowledge about the site and shared it with a lot of humor. Much of the dig has uncovered just the third floor of the buildings. A few are entirely excavated down to the street level. The Greeks who lived in Akrotiri had advanced plumbing systems with drainage from roofs to collect water and even a third floor toilet.
Our second stop for the day was the Santo Winery where we got to taste a white, red and dessert wine while sitting at tables overlooking a spectacular view of the caldera where our cruise ship was docked. Santorini is very dry and grapes grow very differently from grapes we are used to . They varieties of grapes can grow low to the ground without being trellised.
Our third stop was the town of Oia where we had some time to walk through the streets, stop at some shops and take some pictures. Oia has a number of white churches with blue dones that many people recognize .One site with 3 domes and church bells is a favorite photo spot. I wanted to get a picture there and had to wait 15 minutes while a couple posed for hundreds of photos of themselves with their cell phones. People waiting in line were both annoyed and amused. When the couple in front of me got their turn the guy did a much abreviated re-enactment of the woman, much to the amusement of the others waiting.
Our last tour stop was a Greek restaurant where we had some terrific food and were entertained by 2 musicians and 2 dancers who insisted on audience participation.
We had the option to stop in Thera to ride the famous cable cars down to the water level and catch a tender there or go back to the ferry terminal where a tender was waiting for us The area with the cable cars is also where you can take a donkey ride down the switchback walkway to the water. Everyone in our tour group had enough touring so everyone opted for the ferry terminal.
One evening in an Azamara cruise the top deck gets set up for a Party with a buffet, music and dancing they call White Night.
We had a fun time at the party but decided to cut the evening short at about 8:30
Tomorrow we head to Turkey to see the ruins at Ephesus. Thankfully our tour time isn’t till 9:30AM to we can sleep in and it is only a half day so we will be back on the ship by mid -afternoon.