Leaving Santorini on to Naxos

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Saturday 28th May 2011

We went down to breakfast and had the same as yesterday. Back to the room and packing our bags again.

We moved our stuff round to reception to leave until later, paid the bill and then headed off into Thira town.

We wandered around and went into the Archaeological museum, entrance €3 each near to the cable car station and the place was not only pretty useless but uninviting and not up to much.

We then headed back slowly and had a quick drink in Ladokola's on the way back.

We arrived about 1.45 and our transport was due at 2.20 so we did a little surfing the net while waiting in the reception area.

The guy at the hotel has been really hospitable, for example yesterday when we were using Wifi in reception he brought us some cold cokes. Today he gave Pat a small piece of quartz.

The coach arrived nearly on time and took us down to the port.

We arrived and found our bearings our departure was through Gate 4, a tunnel to one side, and we queued with a large number of people.

The Blue Star Ferry 'Paros' arrived and disgorged hundreds of passengers and a few freight vehicles and cars.

Then our turn and we all tramped on to the vessel.

The ferry is in reasonable condition has a cafe and coffee shop shops and so on.

We left Santorini at 1545 and are headed for another island to be ticked off on our list.

I suppose this may be the appropriate moment to view my thoughts on the island we are now leaving. Santorini is one of those places that has a significant reputation that you must visit and although I am glad to have ticked the box it is not one of those places I feel I would visit again.

There are a number of reasons, one being it is quite small in reality and having spent four days here we have run out of things to do. Of course if you are on a sun-bed and simply enjoying the sunshine then it doesn't matter where you are, except here you are dealing with the cost of things and Santorini does have a cost.

If you go off the beaten track you can find the cheaper places and not everything is expensive, but largely you can spend money very easily.

There are some wonderful shops with some beautiful items in amongst the tourist tat, but as expected they have the appropriate price tag.

The towns clinging to the sides of the volcano caldera are very pretty and unique, if not realistically very sensible. But the pictures you see of the blue and white are not the complete story. There are the run down houses and buildings the same as in any town, so all you see is not the image presented in the pictures.

I was not expecting perfection by any means but Santorini didn't seem all that it was made out to be. Another point to mention, in our short time here, is the number of people, this is no quiet little place to hide away from the madding crowds. Every day we have been here there have been a number of cruise ships, minimum four maximum seven.

I would say in favour of Santorini though has been the increased level of hospitality compared to Crete for example and that has been a pleasant experience.

Our ferry arrived in Naxos about 1645 and we retrieved our luggage from the vehicle deck and then departed. There were far fewer leaving the vessel than got on in Santorini, so they must have been going on elsewhere.

Our next accommodation was the Blue Sky Hotel in Naxos town and Pat had been studying the maps and ascertaining our route which was about 1k so we headed off and found our way directly there.

We checked in with a very helpful guy telling where the bus station was and all that sort of thing.

Up to the room and briefly settled in before heading out in daylight to find our way around.

We walked past some decent looking restaurants and into the square, down to the quayside, then back to Niko's restaurant for our dinner.

A Greek salad, Pork Souvlaki, and rabbit stifado, with drinks all came to €24.50.

The guy arriving wearing leiderhosen made us both smile and also the water cooler filled with wine to keep it cold was a new one on us.

Back to the room about 2045.

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Photos

Santorini
Cruise ships at anchor in the old port