Santorini

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"It has been said that the sunsets in Santorini are the best in the world. From the Caldera breathtaking views of the volcano & neighbouring islands. From the east, miles of dark sandy or pebbled beaches. Everywhere one sees small domed churches and remnants of days gone by."

Santorini is all it is cranked up to be. Beautiful beaches, majestic cliffs, intriguing ruins.

After 8 hours on the Blue Star Naxos ferry (£93.6) we arrived at the port at the bottom of the caldera. We grabbed our bags and headed to a travel agent to find some accommodation, after deciding that was too hard we walked back out and straight into the Hostel Anna van. The guy jumped out and convinced us to come with him and look at his rooms. So we got in the little orange van and he started the crazy drive up the narrow, winding cliff road. The room turned out to be really cute, all blue and white, with a balcony overlooking the pool and donkeys feeding in the background, and only 5min from the beach.

The next day we hired a super smooter scooter and went off exploring. We went back into the main town, Fira and looked around there. Afterwards we went down to the red beach, and lay in the sun for a while. The beach is made up of red and black volcanic rocks..that get really really hot in the sun!

We didn't stay too long before jumping back on the scooter and heading back to our place for a nice salad sandwich and swim in the pool. Then a little siesta!

Later that afternoon we headed over the the northern corner of the island, a little town called Oia to watch the sun set over the ocean. We set up the cameras and took shots every 15min or so to record the sun's trip down! There were people crowded onto every high roof top watching the sun. Chris went down to the little Polish cafe to get us a hot chocolate...which took them about 25 to make!! It's so cool that people clap when the run finally ducks below the horizon line. The trip back to our place (over an hour) was freezing! The waterfront back at Perissa beach is lined with restaurants so we treated ourselves to a nice dinner.

The next day we decided to trek it up to the Ancient City on the top of this mountain. It took about 30min to get up this goats track. After we got to the top we found out that there was a proper road coming up the other side and most people just drive up there. But it was good to get a sweat up and stretch our legs! The ancient city is so fascinating and really quite big. You can see all the rooms and doorways there is even an old theater facing out to the big blue ocean. They would have had amazing views from their backyards!

We went into Fira town to watch the sun set over the caldera. Chris was feeling pretty sick at this point so we went into this restaurant looking over the cliff and had a nice tomato salad with breads and oil and a glass of wine. It was all very romantic. The sunset was amazing. There were teams of donkeys all saddled up and covered in bells being led up by these old men with cute little hats! They still use the donkeys to bring people and luggage up the cliff from the port. We watched boats coming in and out of the harbour, from big cruise ships to the little boats taking people across to the volcano in the middle of the bay. Magical.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Santorini is for Lovers
We love this island, this country, the people and the food! Great photos. Thanks for the memories.