Sitting on top of a wedding cake

Europe » Greece » South Aegean » Santorini
August 16th 2014

Published: August 19th 2014

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CathnMike2014

Santorini sunset

Sitting on top of a wedding cake, this was how Santorini was described to me by a local a few days before we arrived on this spectacularly beautiful island.

My sister in law recently celebrated a special birthday on this island and now I can see why she chose such a place for this special occasion, she has excellent taste. It may well be the most beautiful island on the planet. We've had two days here perched on top of the side of a cliff looking about 300 metres down over shimmering blue waters, it is hard to see where the water ends and the sky begins (or vice versa), there is just a slight change to the blue of the blue.

From our hotel, which was a 14th century Greek church in a former life, we had a view over the caldera and each day we could see the huge cruise ships on the water below, they looked quite small, even though they carry over 3000 passengers. Everywhere looks like a picture from a postcard or a Greek island poster that we have all seen, blue blue water, blue blue sky, white buildings, the occasional blue roof of

View from our hotel

a church, complemented by the vibrant pink colour of the Bougainvillea flowers, it is beautiful. I know my photos don't do it justice.

On our first morning we were served breakfast in our courtyard, with a view I've described, when we heard the tinkling of bells and the sound of hooves, and along come the donkeys....only in Greece. I quickly ran for my camera. That day we caught the local bus to Perissa beach where the sand is black and very very hot, but the water was perfect, just the right temperature to spend hours in, bobbing about, there are no waves, the water is crystal clear and flat.

Santorini is known for its beautiful sunsets and all of the bars and restaurants are set up for people to come sit, drink, eat and watch the sun go down....it's a tough life, At night Santorini is just as beautiful with the golden glow of lights twinkling from the shops, bars and restaurants and the white buildings on the cliff, hence the wedding cake analogy.

As I mentioned previously we were catching up with the girls again at Santorini, this was the end of their holiday. On their

Golden glow of Santorini

A very pretty wedding cake

last night we had a farewell dinner to say goodbye to Whitney and Aimee, Lisa and Jo were also returning home a few days later. Before the final goodbyes we had one last piece of business to take care of, a group photo. Before the girls left on their holiday, on a cold June Friday night in Canberra we took a group photo and said we would take the same photo when we all met up again in the Greek Islands two months later. What do you think, same same but different? Michael and Jo weren't with us for the first photo, but they were involved in the second photo - Michael choreographed the shot and Jo was the photographer.

For the next week we say goodbye to our travel companions, George and Jen are visiting relatives in Greece and we are doing a very quick tour of Turkey.

It's now that I need to note our impressive stats! We've certainly had a gourmet food (and alcohol) holiday through Europe, and you would be forgiven to think we may be a little heavier (and we might be), but for the past seven weeks we have:

Walked 450