Once on the island of Santorini, we settled into an awesome AirBnB. Here we are hanging out on the roof, with an amazing view over the town, close to a local church.
Santorini is a really unique place. It used to be one big island, but a volcano erupted and left a large crater rim, with a few steaming islands in the middle. We spent the first morning strolling around Thira town, appreciating the amazing views over the Aegean Sea.
The 'Three Bells of Thira' looking out over Nea Kameni (new burnt island) and Palea Kameni (old burnt island), two volcanic islands. More on them later.
Poor Seth, he was barely tall enough to see over to appreciate the view.
That evening, we took a bus to Oia, a very quaint little town on the north end of the island of Thera. It has some great western exposure, so many people come out here to watch the sunset.
The white buildings really do glow a beautiful orange in the setting sun. Can you spot the windmill near the top of the hill? These would have been used to grind flour, and most that remain on the island today were built in the 17th Century.
The next day we headed out on a catamaran tour of the islands. It didn't occur to me until we were actually on the boat that this could have been a really bad idea with Seth, but he was totally awesome. The two guys taking us around loved kids (like all the Greeks, basically), and we actually got to enjoy ourselves. This was the coolest thing we did on Santorini. We boated from place to place inside the crater rim, and enjoyed a fantastic Greek BBQ before watching the sunset out on the water.
There were some fantastic rock formations along the way, thanks to all the volcanic activity
High atop the hill you can see the Akrotiri lighthouse. built in 1892.
We headed for the two volcanic islands in the center of the flooded caldera. The first stop was Nea Kameni, which is thought to have been formed around the time of Christ, according to the historical texts of the day. It is pretty barren, just a bunch of black volcanic rock, which is why we found it kind of wild there were people living on it. They even kept some pigs and goats. It was a bit of a ramshackle existence, but I suppose that's one way to live mortgage free...
We circled around to the other side of Nea Kameni, to the hot springs. Jared was the only one in our group to go for a swim. I was told the sulphur was bad for pregnant people, so I sat this one out. He said it got warmer as you went deeper into the mouth.
The next stop was to Palea Kameni, which is a little bit older, and looks to have just a bit more greenery on it. It was no problem for me to take a swim here, even though it was a bit brisk in November for ocean swimming, even in Greece!
Seth took a little nap while we caught the sunset. It was a fantastic day.
For our final day in Santorini, we headed down to the Old Port in Thira. Thira town is up on the ridgeline, it was built like this to protect the inhabitants from marauders. However, they needed access to the sea, so there was a bustling port at the base of one rather lengthy staircase. We took a little tram down, thinking how nice it was to 'take the easy way out.'
After walking around the Old Port, it was time to head back up. Unfortunately, the line was insanely long for the tram, so we decided to walk up all 900 stairs. Kudos again to Jared, who had to carry Seth. There was also the option of donkey rides, but due to a combination of cheapness and not knowing how the backpack carrier would fit into a saddle, we gave them a pass. However, I very much appreciated seeing them all tacked up and ready. It was very 'Greek island culture' for me.
Here we are about halfway up. Lots of breaks were taken!
Almost there! This was the donkey stable right before the top
On our last morning, I took Seth to a playground. We snuck in some nice views along the way, because you have to really keep your head down if you don't want to see beautiful things around here.
After Santorini, I had planned a very manic, surprise visit to Venice. All that Jared knew was that we were going 'somewhere' for 24 hrs before landing in Cagliari, Sardinia. It involved an early morning flight to Venice, spending the day there, and then flying out early the next morning to Sardinia. There we would meet up with Karo and Jaime, our old travelling buddies from South America.
Until Next Time!
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