Checking Opening Hours Would Really Help My Knees

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It's the last day of our holiday, so the last chance for Baklava for breakfast, the last chance to chill by the pool and the last chance to see any remaining sights in Santorini. My wife and daughter opted for the middle of those three options. I opted for the other two.

The last item on my checklist from earlier in the week (see From Looking Like an Influencer to a "Squashie") was the walk up the trail to the ruins of Ancient Thera, which could be reached by foot from Perissa, although it is a particularly arduous walk. I set off as soon as we had had breakfast, so as to be back before it got too hot, and I headed up the steep, rocky path.

It took about half any hour to get up to the entrance to the ruins and I found a lot of other people there, who had either also walked or had driven, all looking a bit confused. There was nothing to be found except a relatively modern building that was all locked and secure. It turns out that the ruins are closed on Wednesdays, which was annoying after all that effort. More annoying though was the fact that I'd now missed any chance of seeing the ruins. At least I'd previously got to see the Greek Pompeii - Akrotiri (see The Only Toilet Available is 3,600 Years Old).

Note to self: There's this thing called the Internet that enables you to check opening hours before setting off on a long trek. At least I wasn't the only one.

For some unknown reason that I still can't fathom, I decided that a nice alternative would be to head along the rest of the trail to the monastery, which I had also visited yesterday. The trail from the closed ruins up to the monastery was considerably more gruelling than the first trail from Perissa. It was even more rocky and hard to follow. In fact, if it had not been for the red dots painted on some of the rocks, it would have been impossible to know where to go.

I got to the top, enjoyed the view (again), basked in the sense of achievement having made it and then had the worry of not losing sight of the red dots on the way down. Going up was hard work, but going down needed caution and taking it gently for the sake of my fifty something year old knees. There was one point where the surface was covered in gravel and was extremely slippery. This is definitely not something to consider to make use of a rainy day, as the rocks would be wet and even more slippery.

Or maybe it's just time that I accepted my age and got two of those hiking sticks.

There's also the Chapel of Panagia Katefiani perched in what looks like a crater in the rockface overlooking Perissa, so I thought I would make a little diversion there. It was a steep climb again and my knees were not thanking me, but it wasn't too far and it was a pleasant, pretty, white, little chapel, so it was worth it. I texted my wife and daughter and then waved to see if they could see me from the hotel, but, sadly, they couldn't.

I got down and needed a little time with my feet in the pool to relax and cool down as it had been an eight mile round-trip and, according to my Apple Watch, the equivalent of 158 flights of stairs climbed. Fortunately, we had managed to get a late check-out on one of our rooms, so we had that room until 2.30pm, giving by feet and knees a while to recover before we would need to get the taxi to the airport. After a soothing shower to freshen up.

I took all the bags down from the room one at a time as they were way too heavy otherwise, as you would inevitably expect from us (see Gaining Weight at The Disaster Airport and But 2.8kg of Limoncello Isn't Going Last Me Very Long) they were considerably heavier than they had started. Bags on wheels are a fantastic idea, but when I had left one at the bottom of the steps, it promptly made a bolt for the pool. The people sat round the pool all jumped ready to save it, which was fantastic as I'm sure there are many people who would have happily videoed it going in.

I wonder what that would have done to the weight and how we would have explained it at the airport.

Santorini airport is very civilised, with the tiniest of queues for the bag-drop and the tiniest of queues for security. Consequently, before we went through we decided to go back outside for the last of that Greek sunshine before we leave.

Once through, I had an important decision to make. After the Limoncello from Italy (see But 2.8kg of Limoncello Isn't Going Last Me Very Long), do we want to get some Ouzo or Mastiha from the duty free in the airport? Decide now, or miss the opportunity!

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Photos

Chapel of Panagia Katefiani
Perched in the hill overlooking Perissa.

Ancient Thera
About all we could see, given that the site is closed on Wednesdays.

Prophet Elias Monastery
See it in top left - where I'm heading.

Perissa Trail
Hopefully quicker than going up.

Perissa View
Looking back over Perissa from the hills.

Little Lizard
There were several on the way down.

Nick The Greek
This has got to be a 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' reference.

Ouzo or Mastiha?
Maybe some duty free before we leave.