Friday 18 May Santorini to Athens

It was a wild night on Santorini last night, with high winds buffeting our clifftop hotel all night. The morning dawned clear though, so we actually managed to head out in reasonable time - around 9am. First stop the main town of Fira, where we had to collect our next set of ferry tickets. Fortunately the ticket experience just keeps getting better - after the fiasco at Piraues, I was pleased in Naxos when she just looked at my printout, hit a button and printed the tickets for me. In Santorini they went one better again - when I walked into the office and showed her the printout she smiled and said ‘Ah, here you are’, and handed me a wallet with the tickets all ready inside and my name written on the front. That’s more like it! 

Fira is a mildly stunning town, perched on the edge of the caldera - Santorini was formed by a massive volcanic explosion, so the main harbour is in the centre of the volcano itself, with the island being the encircling rock walls, hence the steep cliffs and the startling exposed geology of layer upon layer of compressed ash, containing lava ‘bombs’. Lots of pumice stone around here too, and what strange stuff that is.

Anyway, we had a look around Fira and spent some money (kids bought some summer dresses), and then we headed to Oia, at the northern tip of the island. Oia is what made me realise that Fira was only mildly stunning. It was just straight out, jaw droppingly, breathtakingly gorgeous. This is where all the classic Greek Island postcard pictures are taken. We stopped for lunch on a rooftop terrace overlooking the town and just absorbed the view. Amazing.

We got back to our wee car, where we had parked it at the top of a steep little road, to find a locked barrier across the road and a big sign saying No Parking Here. Oops. Luckily the council building was close by so we went in and they very kindly gave us the key, with a polite request to lock the barrier again behind us and return the key please. I like this country. That just wouldn’t happen in NZ - you would be up for a hefty fine at the very least. We are realising more and more just what a politically correct and retentive little country NZ can be. Mind you, at least we in NZ are not teetering on the edge of financial disaster ...

So on with our tour. We drove to the southern tip of the island next (the whole place is only 42 km end to end) and looked at the very scenic Red Beach - not sure of the type of rock but it is a beautiful dark red and very crumbly, forming big overhanging cliffs. The whole place looks like it is about to collapse a trap an unwary tourist so we moved on. Visited the highest point on the island for more views, and then down to the port to catch the 5pm fast ferry. It was Greekishly late, so we left around 6pm, and got into Athens around 11, lucky the hotel was close to the port so straight to bed. Think we packed about three days into that 24 hours!!

Danae and Fira

Fira - the houses clinging to the cliff

Looking out over the streets of Fira

A house in Oia - he was cleaning his roof when we first looked over!!

Jessa and Oia

Lunch in Oia - certainly set up like Queenstown, to extract the cash from tourists pockets!!

The keys to Oia ....  should have read the fine print

Oia - you just can't stop taking photos of this place ...

Yep, Oia again

Red Beach

Santorini - view from the top (near military radar installation, best we just ignore the big TAKE NO PHOTOS sign)

"But there's 6 of us", we said. "Don't worry, I'll give you a big car", he said