Stunning, stifling Santorini.

 Wednesday 12th July

Today was supposed to be the highlight of the cruise - a visit to the island that everyone talks about and everyone wants to visit. We set off on all our excursions nice and early in the morning - but so does everyone else. Today there were 5 cruise ships in town. Ours was a nice little ship but the others were much bigger. There was a huge line up of buses on the dock ready to take us tourists into Santorini. 

The first stop was to the village of Megalochori where we wandered from one side of the town, through the main street to the other end. Narrow streets, white houses, coloured doors and windows, narrow stairways. Lovely little village.

Then we moved on to the highlight of the day which was the village of Oia where you find all the blue domed houses. These were just amazing, but the crush of people in the heat made for a not very enjoyable experience. It was a slow shuffle, one-step at a time up the hill, then a wander down the main street (path?) to find the views of the domes. There were also magnificent views out over the ocean - the water was just vivid blue, beautiful.

After a wander around it was back on the buses and to the city of Santorini. Again crushes of people. Views again were spectacular. We popped in to a jewellery store to look at a necklace and the man there recognised we were Aussies. Where are you from he asked? And when we answered he told us he was from Geelong - parents Greek, moved to Australia, he was born in Australia and as an adult moved to Santorini and been there ever since (40+years). Small world!

We wandered the main street heading for the cable car to make our way back to the boat. There was a very long queue and we stood in the queue in the sun for 40 minutes waiting. We both got fed up with those trying to push in and didn't hesitate to tell them to get to the back of the line. We debated waiting till later in the day for the cable car because some people were saying it would get less later in the day, but we heard later that some people were waiting over an hour and a half. Our friends we met on the boat decided to walk down the 800 steps - hard work but only took them 25 minutes. 

The cable car was apparently built from a donation by a wealthy Greek couple. Now some of the proceeds from the ticket sales from the cable car go towards a free air ambulance on the islands. Our guide also told us that some of the proceeds from the cable car go to the donkey owners so they could still keep their donkeys, but not have to use them for carrying tourists.

The road up from the port. Very narrow, lots of buses and cars, always someone stopped waiting on a hairpin for someone else to get past, buses having to take two bites at the hairpin. Challenging!

These grape vines grow as little bushes where the vines are not grown on trellises, but rather the leaves droop down and protect the grapes.
The tour guide explained to us that they don't irrigate (no water) but a mist comes in from the sea and enough water drops from this to water the vines, and soak into the volcanic soil. 

Walking the streets of the village of Megalochori, where the houses don't have numbers, but are identified by the colour of their doors. No help at all for a colourblind postman! 😀

Church in the village of Oia.

The colour of the water is just stunning.

A bit of a symbol of Santorini. Donkeys are still used for some purposes (apart from carrying tourists up the hill from the port) like rubbish collection.
Thankfully use by tourists has become less and more people use the cable car.  

The blue domes in the village of Oia.

We passed this string of donkeys - the only person on board was the 'driver'.

The line up of buses ready to take the tourists away from the village of Oia.

View from the cable car.

Shopping in Santorini. 

5 cruise ships in Port.

Cable car - long way down; 800 steps.