2011 Med Cruise Day 9 – Santorini, Greece
For all other tender ports, everybody going to shore still showed up in the same meeting place and left from the same gangplank and boarded tenders all together, regardless of whether you were on an excursion or going ashore on your own. For Santorini, this was not true – if you were on an excursion, we went ashore to a spot where buses could park. Independent travelers went ashore on a different spot on the island.
Boarding a tender is always a challenge, since the boat is always bobbing up and down – timing is everything, when you make the big step off the ship and onto the tender. Fortunately the crew helps you, to make sure you make it ok. For Santorini, we had to use Santorini’s tenders, as opposed to Holland America’s tenders. These tenders seemed even more awkward to board than the ones we were used to – they were way bigger and held more people and the boat was almost full when we boarded. This meant squeezing in between people trying not to fall on them while the boat bobbed up and down.
When we boarded our bus, we ended up all the way in the back. Our tour guide had a very whispy voice, and we could not really hear her. After she cranked the volume it was better, but the tonal quality of her voice was so soothing, it was hard to stay awake and focus on what she was saying.
Our first stop was Oia (pronounced EEE-yah), which is the place with the white buildings with blue shutters, and the churches with the blue domes – the post card for Greece. We were given vague instructions how to get to THE SPOT where we could see THE CHURCH that is depicted in all the poster ads for Greece, but it wasn’t even clear whether or not we would be able to get close enough to take a photo; there was a vague reference that THE CHURCH was in someone’s backyard? Or at least behind a private residence. But then she pointed to some direction and said that there was a path to a spot where we could get a glimpse.
Since Santorini is basically a giant rock, walking everywhere was through tiny streets that wind up and down – endless stair steps in all directions. We wandered to the highest spot in Oia and saw the beautiful view of the town and all of Santorini. We saw several beautiful blue domed churches, but it wasn’t clear if any of them were THE CHURCH. We gave up on that concept.
Oia has many art galleries and jewelry stores. On our way back to the bus I did buy two elephants in two different shops. One was hand carved lava rock.
Our time running short, we made our way back to the bus. Our next stop was at a winery for wine tasting – and a bathroom break. The views from the winery were glorious, which was becoming a repeating theme.
After wine tasting, we drove to the oldest Byzantine church on the island – Panagia Episkopi Church (I have no idea how to pronounce that – the tour guide said it way way quickly), which dates to the 11th century. It has survived earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters. The church interior was so tiny, the 30+ people in our group could barely fit inside it.
On the way down to lunch, we drove through the coastal town of Kamari, known for it’s black sand beaches. And indeed, the sand is black. We couldn’t imagine how anybody would be able to actually walk on that sand – the sun was incredibly strong, and even by the water the air temperature felt like it was in the 90s.
We next drove down to the town of Pyrgos to have lunch. We were the first ones there, because our tour guide rearranged our itinerary a little to beat out the other buses. The food was ok, but the only meat was pork, which was a little annoying. But there was enough other food to compensate.
We climbed back into the bus – which was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for me: sitting all the way back in the seat, my feet didn’t touch the floor, therefore I had to slump or sit forward on the seat. In addition, there was a handle of some kind right on the side of the seat, which dug into my leg when I sat forward. So then I had to sit at a weird angle with one leg sticking out into the aisle, to avoid the handle. Add to that poor air flow/air conditioning and the huge steps to climb on and off. As beautiful as the scenery was, I was looking forward to the end of the tour.
The bus climbed up more steep and tight switchbacks to the highest point on Santorini – a spectacular view of the entire island.
On our way back down the mountain, we stopped briefly in Kamari – a village with a beach with black sand. Considering how hot the air temperature felt, we could only imagine how hot the sand was – especially black sand, which must absorb the heat of the sun even more efficiently than white sand.
Our next stop was at the oldest church on the island – a very tiny Greek orthodox church that has withstood earthquakes and other natural disasters for hundreds of years.
On our way to the last stop in Fira, the capital of Santorini, the tour guide babbled in her whispery voice. I have no idea what she said – between the whispery-ness of her voice and the warmth on the bus, I kept falling asleep.
She did talk about our options for getting back to the ship. It had been explained before, but it was confusing until you could see what they were talking about – we were picked up in the morning by the bus on the side of the island that has a road leading to other parts of the island. But we were dropped off in Fira, where there is no road leading down to the port. There were three options for the descent: (1) Walk down 650 steps – but you would have to share the path with the (2) donkey riders. We had heard repeatedly that the donkey ride up was ok, but on the way down the donkeys are in a big hurry to get their reward (food). We heard repeatedly that accidents are a little to frequent – we were strongly encouraged to take option (3) the cable car.
We were dropped off in front of the huge Greek Orthodox church in Fira, the capital of Santorini. We wandered around for a bit, but it was very hot and everywhere we went involved climbing stairs, so we aimed for the direction of the cable car as we made our way through the main part of Fira. Even though we were warned there might be a huge wait for the cable cars, there wasn’t one. Our ship was the only cruise ship in port that day, so we weren’t competing with ships. The ride down on the cable car was fun, with great views of that whole side of the island.
Tomorrow: Katakolon
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