GREECE - Santorini & Athens

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We departed Mykonos on Monday 4/10 at 3.00pm by the fastcat hydrofoil 4 and arrived on the Island of Santorini at 6.00pm. A hotel mini-bus took us up the steep and winding road and dropped us off 70 metres from our hotel. A golf buggy arrived to take us and our luggage up the steep cobble stoned road to the Aressana hotel in the main town of Fira. After booking in Carol went into town 70 metres away and investigated the township stores and grabbed 2 Gyros (Pita bread with Chicken and salad) for dinner at 3 Euros each.
On Tuesday 5/10 we had breakfast around 8.30am and Carol organised a sunset cruise on a Sailing ship latter that day. She continued her investigation of ALL the shops in Fira and around 1.00pm found her way back with 2 more Gyros a beer and Barcadi Breezer for luch. At 2.30pm Carol caught a bus back down the steep and winding road to the port to board the Sailing ship and went to th Volcanic island across from Santorini. It was an hours steep walking up and back to the Volcano and poor Carol only made it halfway. Next we went to the thermal springs and then settled into a buffrt dinner with a glass of wine before finally viewing the sunset at 7.00pm. She arrived back at our hotel at 8.00pm after catching the cable car from the old port straight up to the township.Today Wednesday 6/10 Wal ventured into town with Carol but after half a hour decided the hills, stairs and uneven cobble stone streets were too much for him and returned to the comfort of the hotel. Carol on the other hand made the most of the last few days and took the bus to Kamari beach. It’s a volcanic beach of stones and gravel and Carol treated herself to a Tequila sunrise cocktail, lunch and as usual checked out the local shops. At 3.00pm Carol took the bus back to Fira and then caught another bus to Oia a town north where the best and most beautiful sunset can be witnessed. As usual she spent some time at the local shops before taking sunset photos with many other tourists. Carol went back to the hotel and had dinner by herself (we were not talking at this time) at a Greek restaurant nearby overlooking the city.
Thursday 7/10 we started with breakfast as usual and proceeded to print our boarding passes for our flights home (trying not to think of all that flying time). Carol then had a relaxing massage at the spa at our hotel to try and ease the aches and pains of her body. We checked out of our hotel around midday and Carol went shopping for the last time on Santorini and also brought lunch while Wal as usual typed out the Travel Blog information and loaded the pictures (Liz you created a monster with the travel Blog site). The bus picked us up at 4.00pm for a 5.00pm Fastcat 5 hydrofoil back to Piraes port at Athens. We didn’t know how long the trip would be as our travel plan showed 4 hours, after 6 hours the last 2 of rough seas we finally reached port. We arrived at the Athens Gate Hotel with a fantastic view of Athens Gate from our balcony. Today Friday 8/10 we had breakfast in the Garden restaurant of our hotel on the 8th floor with a fantastic view of the Acropolis latter were catching the Olympic Airways plane to London at 1.30pm and arrive at Heathrow airport London 3.30pm (London time 2 hours difference to Athens). We catch our Singapore Flight at 10.05pm to make the long journey home. Wal will not miss the many stairs, hills and rough streets, but will miss the cheap beer, wine and Jim Beam in Germany where he bought it for $A15 for 700ml from a local supermarket. Carol will not miss the shopping as there were very few summer bargains, the sales were for autumn clothing and Wal’s winging regarding stairs, hills and constant reminder that she only had 0.5kg left of her allowance of 20kg as she took away a suitcase weighing 19.5kg. Carol will miss the scenery, different foods and meeting other and interesting people and the informative history of different regions in Europe.
(GOODBYE EUROPE HELLO AUSTRALIA - SEE YOU AT HOME!!!!!)

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Comments

[Charis]

These are beautiful pics! The funniest part of this blog is the comment to Liz. (Well done Wal! :)