Santorini, Greece

Visiting Santorini, Greece has been a dream of mine for a long time.  I’ve seen all those gorgeous photos of the white buildings with their blue-domed roofs.  And the water, it’s the bluest of anyplace I’ve ever seen – in the photos, that is.  The fact that this was a port on this itinerary had a lot to do with our decision to book this cruise.

It’s a tender port because there is no pier.  The ship dropped anchor out in the harbor and tender boats were used to take 200 people to shore at a time.  So my first glimpse of it (because we have an inside cabin with no window or door) was from the elevator as we went to breakfast.  Now granted, the windows were dirty, my eyes were still a little blurry, and we do live in Denver where snow-capped mountains are our norm – but my first thought was “is that SNOW on the mountain top”?  I blinked my eyes to try to clear them.  No – those are houses up there!  This is the way I saw it…

And this is zoomed in…

 Seriously!  Santorini wasn’t at all what I expected.  The west side of the island is bluffs as high as 980 feet straight up.  The buildings all sit at the top, and the rest is just layers of lava and pumice with little vegetation.  It’s really not that pretty, and not at ALL like the photos.  But the water, oh my, it’s so blue and beautiful.  That part is as advertised.

There are a few sea-level docks where the small boats can come in to.  Then you must walk up (yikes!), take the cable car, ride the donkeys, or drive on switch-back roads to reach the top.

Our tour began with a short boat ride to a small fishing village on the south end of the island.  From there, we boarded a bus which took us up the switch-back road to the top.  The views are absolutely breath-taking.  The higher you go, the more beautiful the water becomes.  We were so blessed with a warm, sunny day without much wind. 

We drove through a small village which was the home of our guide, Harra.  She explained that all the churches are privately owned by families, and in her town of 600 people there are over 65 churches.  Santorini has a population of 15,000 people spread across 13 small villages, and there are over 400 churches and 1,000 hotels. 

Our first stop was the Santo Winery.  They gave us a short talk about how they make wine on the island.  There is little rain and no fresh water on Santorini.  All of their drinking water comes from desalinization of sea water.  They practice dry agriculture, nothing can be irrigated. It is so humid that the nutrient rich and very porous lava and pumice readily absorb and retain moisture, just enough for crops to prosper.  Forty varieties of grapes are grown to support the island's wine making industry, but arbors and trellises are not used to support the plants.  It is so windy that the vines are coiled in circles close to the ground to prevent damage.  The wines are very dry with a hint of a salty taste.

 They offered a tasting of 3 of their wines, and had a spread of olives, tomatoes, bread, and goat cheese to go with it.  The view from their terrace was incredible.  Saint Irene (Santorini in Greek) is the result of one of the largest volcanic explosions in history -- the Minoean Eruption 3600 years ago.  It is what remains of the Eastern edge of a huge caldera that is filled with water and has 2 other islands within its crater.  Except for one large limestone outcropping at the top, the entire island is of volcanic origin with a thick upper crust of hardened white ash (pumice) that was deposited during the eruption.  The other islands and the ship were visible from the winery.

From there we drove to the north end of the island to a village called Oia (EE-ah).  Harra explained that the Greeks like to write a lot of letters that aren’t pronounced.  This is where most of the blue-domed churches are. 

The hottest item for sale here is nuts: pistachios, cashews, and almonds.  They also make a sweet treat by rolling the nuts in honey and sesame seeds and then roasting them.  They are so delicious! 

After some free time here to explore and “make photos”, as they say here, we then drove along the east side of the island where it flattens out and there are some black and red sand beaches.  The hillside is terraced to prevent erosion and assist with crop production.

Harra explained that a major earthquake in 1956 destroyed almost all of the buildings on the island.  When they rebuilt, they used whitewashed concrete instead of stone, and no dwelling can have more than 2 stories.  Most of the buildings are new (since 1980).  There's a law that construction can only take place during the winter so as not to cause noise during the wine making and tourist season.  It also provides jobs for those who perform seasonal summer work.  There is no unemployment.

We came into the capital city of Fira for our final stop.  We were instructed how to get to the cable car and given a ticket (it costs 4 EU each way, per person), and then we were turned loose to shop and explore on our own. 

We had already made all of our purchases, so we went straight to the cable car.  The line was unbelievably long and took almost 30 minutes to reach the cars.  Each train contains 6 cars which hold 6 people each.  There are 2 trains operating at a time.  It goes almost straight down and every few minutes it applies the brakes, which feels like a jerky vibration.  That was unnerving to me.

I didn’t like it very much, but it was the best of the 3 alternatives.  I hear the donkeys smell terrible and aren’t very cooperative.  Sometimes they stop and refuse to continue, and you end up leading them down.  The walk is long and strenuous.  Most people take the cable car.

We waited another 20 minutes to board our tender boat for the ship.  My advice to anyone cruising here is to be sure you allow plenty of time to get back to the ship from Fira.  You don’t want to wait until the last tender and then not get on, you’d be waving good-bye to everyone as they sail away. 

Aside from being shocked by the topography, Santorini is beautiful and I’d definitely return here.   

Stay tuned…