Santorini by car

---

We rented a car to see Santorini and headed out with a really crappy map for Ancient Thera. Since our map only had two basic roads on it we initially ended up by the beach in Kamari and saw our first black sand. We then looked up and saw the EXTREMELY winding road that led to Ancient Thera above us and headed up there. There were switchbacks every two or three car lengths on a cobblestone road and, as the driver, I kept hoping we wouldn't meet anyone coming down. We were lucky and made it to the top without any problems. I really enjoyed visiting Ancient Thera, maybe because there were only four in our group and few tourists as well so you could work your imagination. Maybe because there was enough of the walls, etc in place so that I could use my weak imagination to fill in the rest. Or maybe because I know enough about the Romans. Whatever the reason, it was what I was hoping for with the other sites and not getting. Although I think this experience was enhanced by the lessons we received before coming to Greece making it extra special. Some of the problem with the other sites is also not wanting to miss anything and awareness of the other members of our group of 28.

We then went to Pyrgos and when we got to the center of town where we thought the winery was there were buses and people everywhere so we kept on going to the highest point on the island, Profitis Ilias. On our way out of town to Perissa Beach we found the Santo Winery we had been looking for earlier and went there, of course. We asked about the viewing room and ended up on the complete tour which was very interesting. I had never been on a full tour of a winery before and learned a great deal. The Santo Winery is an agricultural coop that was established in 1947. On Santorini, 80% of the wine production is white wine using vines that have been cultivated there for thousands of years. The winery was built on several levels to save energy and to blend with the island topography which is very hilly.

The first level is the initial production where the grapes are poured into the machinery and moved around into the pneumatic press and turned into juice. The juice then drains by gravity feed into the next level for clarification. Once clarified it moves down to the fermentation level where the natural yeast and sugars of the grapes interact to produce wine. They let the wine ferment for 15 days for a medium-sweet wine and up to 35 days to get a dry wine. The Vinsanto, best known of Santorini wines, is made by harvesting the grapes and then leaving them to dry somewhat on a terrace before they are processed. They are then aged in an oak barrel for two years which produces a very sweet dark wine like a sherry or port. The red and sweet wines will last for eight years after bottling but the dry for only two. We also learned from the short film at the end of the tour that the reason the vines are so low to the ground is that they cut the new growth every year and use it to build baskets around every vine to protect them from the elements.

After the winery, we continued on to Perissa Beach with lots of dark 'sand' which is more like a fine gravel than actual sand. We went for a swim and played some frisbee with Jim as we ran into him and his car load on the beach. Sarah and I had lunch at the Taverna we changed into our swimsuits in so I didn't need to feel guilty about using their facilities for nothing. Sarah had swordfish which she thoroughly enjoyed and I had pastitsio, which was a bit disappointing as it was blander than I am used to at home. It was still good though.

Then, we decided to see if anything was visible at prehistoric Akrotiri even though the site is closed because some of the masonry fell on a tourist last year. We sailed off in that direction on the back roads of Santorini which was quite interesting, it seemed like every piece of available ground was covered with grape vines. We made it to Akrotiri and walked around the fenced compound but nothing was visible so we assumed that the ruins were under the arched corrugated iron roofs we could see covering some earthworks. There was also an incredible water movement system made of concrete which had us wondering since there is actually very little rain on Santorini. Since we couldn't see anything there we decided to continue on to the red beach to see what it was like. It was really cool because the cliffs were made of red pumice which none of us had ever seen before. Obviously, there had been an iron source when Thera blew up around 1500 BCE. We then wended our way back home following a bus that basically guided us straight home which was kind of neat. All in all it was a fabulous day!

---