Santorini Part 1

Well,
It's been almost a week since we left Santorini. We had a lot of fun there. The weather was in general much better than when we were in Athens. The first day as we arrived, it was still raining a bit and dark and cold. The 'taxi driver' we had to the hotel was a nice kid. He pointed out the sights along the way. He told us where he likes to go for sunset watching, and which beaches might be good or not. He also suggested that we rent a car as the bus system is hub and spoke, thus to get from one point to another, you always have to go to the center of the Island, unless your destination happens to be along the spoke you're on. We arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday. We were staying in Atlantida Villas (formerly the Volcano Villas), just outside of Oia (pronounced eeah-the O is silent and the 'i' is pronounced like the i in ski). There are hundreds (over 350) churches on the island, and our hotel had it's own. Oia is a pretty little town at one end of the crescent shaped island. After getting installed in our room we all walked down the street for lunch at some place named after windmills. We walked past this place called Santorini Mou, but it appeared to be closed. This was a bummer as we had heard it is a great place to visit. After lunch, the girls decided to stay at the hotel and relax, and Cindy and I walked into town-minus cameras. I wish I had had mine with me. The towns have very small streets, and some of them are so small one can only use an ass to get around. We saw a donkey with a "taxi" sign on his forehead. We saw many more donkeys throughout the next 4 days, but this is the only taxi I saw. Oh well, cannot get everything. As with most of the major towns on Santorini, Oia is situated on the cliff of the caldera of the volcano which created the island. This gives it very steep streets/sidewalks/stairs down to the lower parts from the main road and walkway through town at the crest of the ridge.

After a nice stroll through the town, where the main walk is mostly a collection of art galleries and restaurants with spectacular views, we went back to the hotel, collected the girls and went for dinner at a restaurant we spotted during our outing. It was rather expensive, but very nice food. The view was spectacular out over the caldera. This picture is from another evening, but gives the right idea .

Thursday, Cindy and I went into town and rented a little little car. It was just big enough for the 2 of us in front, and the 3 in back. They only had one which was smaller (Smart Car) and we would have gotten that, but couldn't have taken everyone. After a bit of a slow start in the morning, we got everyone in the car with the intent of going around the Island a bit, and visiting Fira. Fira is the main town on the island. We had spotted a book store on the drive through from the airport and Maya needed a book. This one was supposed to have english books(or so I understood), so that was on the agenda. We decided to head off to the other end of the island. We never made it as there was road work just a bit more than half way. I was driving and I took a side road into a "traditional settling" as it was labeled on the sign. The road got very narrow-one car wide. I was following two other cars so I was hoping that no-one was coming up the other direction. I was literally worried that I would scrape a mirror off of the car on one of the two walls on the sides of the road. At one point we dove over someone's stoop, as there wasn't enough space to fit between it and the wall. I was also concerned that we would end up in a dead end, or facing some reason to have to back up. Now I can back a car up pretty well, but when I have to fit between two walls on a curvy road, not more than 20 centimeters wider than the car--no thanks!!

Luckily we made it through the town to a point where we could turn off. I did so and got us back up the hill on a side road (one way I think). So I decided that we would not proceed to the end of the island. Cindy wanted to stop and taste wine at one of the many wineries on the island. Fortuneately one happened to be at the top of the ridge there, overlooking the Caldera. So we stopped. Cindy and Isha got the tasters, and I had a few sips, but not too much as I was driving. It was decent wine, and we bought enough to bring back a few bottles to India. Ari just enjoyed the weather--looking like a European model in her sunglasses.

After the wine tasting, we drove to the top of the island. On the way we went through a small town called Pyrgos. At the top, we could see the whole island, and several in the distance, mostly to the north and east. We couldn't see Crete though.
I took a 'wrong turn' in Pyrgos on the way down, and we ended up much further away from Fira than we would have if I had taken the proper road, but it was a nice diversion and really didn't take more than an extra 5 to 10 minutes. Then we stopped in Fira for lunch, and went to the bookstore. Maya found a book she has read already in English, published in Spanish. She picked this up (this was her agenda all along), so she could practice her Spanish. Actually everyone but me got a book there that day. Then we drove back to the hotel. We relaxed a bit with the view. I went and got some sunset pictures a little closer to Oia, and we had wine, cheese, bread and fruit for dinner.