Ancient Akritiri and Santorini

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Monday – Santorini/Ancient Arkratiri: Up early to enjoy the arrival in the caldera of Santorini. Amazing place … except for the many huge ships that come into port. We were chased the last few miles by a ship the size of San Francisco with a mere 5,000 people onboard. Their arrival did not dampen the beauty of the place … and the history! Amazing to think that this huge area, surrounded by islands, was once a huge volcano that totally disappeared in a massive explosion 3,600 years ago. What remains is hundreds of feet of debris, mostly what was mined here for many years: pumice.

Since the caldera is so deep we were not able to anchor so for the next six or seven hours the ship slowly moved back and forth depositing people on shore via shuttles (or tender) and picking them up after they enjoyed shore leave. We departed for the ancient site of Akratiri on the south coast of the island. This site was uncovered in the 1990s after being submerged in ash from the volcano in 1600 BC. The inhabitants escaped beforehand leaving their household items and their beautiful yet simple frescoes. It was a point in time when Minoan and Cycladic culture was being slowly displaced by the Myceneans and their warlike interests. The pre-historic culture was peaceful, focused on trade and very sophisticated – a surprise to our current reality. For instance, they had developed two different methods of building in earthquake zones to lessen the impact: putting gravel under the structure or using wood under stone. And they used sea water to flush their toilets, one of which was in the second floor of the “admiral’s” house. Akritiri was a trading center for goods coming from all around the Aegean and much further as demonstrated by some of the frescoes, one of which showed a blue monkey similar to those found in Southeast Asia!!!

After our enjoyable visit to the ancient site with an excellent guide, we were taken back to the town of Thira where we saw some copies of the frescoes from Akratiri and then found a great place to have a late and relaxing lunch, Niki Restaurant overlooking the caldera from 900 feet above the water. The fish was fresh and the dry white Santorini wine was perfect. Relaxed and ready for a little rest, we made our way to the cable cars and down to the port where we found our shuttle (or tender) back to the ship. Thank heaven for the cable cars as the old method of transport (donkeys up and down) was both smelly and slow.

After a little rest and meeting the captain and key officers at a reception, we had a late dinner and retired.

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