Santorini

Well, we have finished our travels through the Greek Islands.  Santorini, our last island, was spectacular. The island itself was different than all other islands as a volcano erupted on the island many many years ago creating a caldera and a huge cliff surrounding the island.  Coming into port was amazing as we got to see the volcano island and the amazing landscape the island has. 

We highly anticipated our time here as it is probably the most famous island for its unique landscape.  It was crazy just trying to drive from the port up to the top of the island.  The steep incline almost brought buses to a standstill.  We stayed in the town of Fira which is about on the middle of island facing the caldera. Despite the town being on the western side of the mountain, we actually had a view of the western shoreline due to the town being on such an incline.  However, it was maybe a quarter mile walk to the edge of the cliff where we got to enjoy an amazing sunset.

We did not get to spend too much time wondering around the first day as we got into port about 5:00 pm.  The second day, we rented a car so we could explorer the beaches and different parts of the island.  It felt like there were more rental scooters, ATVs, and rental cars on the island than actually people, so it was easy to rent transportation.  We explored the red sand beach, which was a bit disappointing. It was like pieces of red lava rock that you can buy at the store for you landscape.  However, once we got to the water it turned into very smooth stones.  However, it still was not comfortable to walk around bare foot, at least for my non-tough feet.  It was cool seeing small red stone as sand.  We spent most of the day at the black sand beach lounging around.  The sand was much more fine, but of course hot as !@#$ without sandals.  The beach was beautiful and so was the water, so we made due. 

We spent the late afternoon and evening exploring the famous town of Oia.  This is the town that you probably see when you think of the Greek Islands and definitely Santorini.  The white painted houses with a blue domed church and maybe a white windmill.  A lot of these pictures are from Santorini, well, because it is beautiful.  The ocean view with the sun hitting the water and the white buildings make it fascinating.  We loved walking around the hilly streets checking out the different views the city had to offer.  And of course, enjoying another beautiful sunset. 

For all of the Greek Island pictures, click here

Overall, the Greek Islands were what I expected, amazing.  We really could have spent twice as much time exploring them.  Each island truly had a different feel and different things to offer.  I could definitely come back to enjoy the islands again and see other islands that we did not have time for.  We met a couple who had been to Rhodes and stayed at this hotel.  Each room has an infinity pool over looking the sea and the rooms are built into a cliff.  It would definitely be on our itinerary next time.