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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 36.4044, 25.3959
On Friday May 3rd, we visited one of the most beautiful of the Greek islands, Santorini or more strictly, Thira. This is a place I have long desired to visit and it certainly lived up to expectations. We approached the series of 5 islands in the early morning and an on board commentary gave us a history and description of the place. We anchored in the caldera, the centre of the volcano which last erupted in 1950. The eruption in 1613BC destroyed all life on the island for several hundred years and gave rise to the legend of Atlantis. As we approached the white villages could be seen perched high atop the steep cliffs, a truly beautiful sight.
Our tour was booked to take us to Ancient Akrotiri, a settlement which was covered in ash and lava n 1613BC. Those of you who may have been in my Classics class at St Dom's might remember the video I showed at the start of the year which takes a tour of the site. We were told that it has been closed to the public for the last 7 years while major excavation and re roofing has taken place. We left the
ship about 10am and drove to a couple of Panoramic sites along the way. There were many of the characteristic white houses with blue roofs which appear in tourist brochures and the view back over the caldera was spectacular.Our guide, Eugenia, was very informative and easy to listen to.
When we arrived at Akrotiri there were many people there but we went through quickly and then were taken in under the new ecological frindly roof. The site is amazing. Here are houses from the Minoan period over 3,000 years old in excellent condition.They have raised viewing platforms surrounding the excavation from which can be seen the details of the houses and public buildings. We saw several places hat Eugenia told us had frescoes which are now in the main Greek museums.The house of the ladies was a very intricate building, three stories high and having ten rooms. Much of it can still be seen. Then we were able to walk though some of the streets at ground level and got a real feel for the town. We went to the main square which is triangular in shape.We spent a great time there. It was not as large as Pompeii but very
much older and in beautiful condition.
From there we returned to the main town of Fira, which sits upon the cliff top overlooking where we had anchored, though anchored isn't the correct word. The water is so deep here that the ship had to use its engines all day to stay in the one place as the anchor can't reach the bottom. We were taken to the Sanzomuseum which houses full size replicas of the frescoes from Akrotiri. These were truly beautiful and typical of Minoan art. However, Eugenia was at pains to explain that Akrotiri was NOT a Minoan colony, only strongly influenced by Minoan culture. Once we had finished at the Museum it was about 3pm and we were hungry so we went in search of sustenance. We found a great restaurant which was three tiered clinging to the side of the cliff. This was called Idol and we proceeded to have a great, Greek lunch here. I had a grilled Sea Bream with local tomatoes and spinach while Fletcher had a Seafood Risotto. Both were well presented and extremely tasty. Accompanying that we had a bottle of the local Santorini white wine. On our travels we had seen
the grape vines which are trained into small basket shapes close to the ground rather than espaliered the way we have them. This is because there is little rainfall on the island and limited water supply so this way they catch and maintain the morning dew.
Thw wine was excellent and afterwards we tasted the Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine also made locally Sitting overlooking the caldera in about 28 degree warmth we sdpent a pleasant hour or so. We then took a stroll through the shopping area and finally descended the cable car tto the dock below to get our tender back to the ship at 5-20pm.
A wonderful day in a fantastic place!!
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