Friday Nov 19, 2010
All photos for our port of call at Santorini, Greece can be seen in the Santorini photo gallery.
After an amazing and busy day in Ephesus and Turkey, our next stop was Santorini, Greece. Located in the southern Aegean Sea approximately 145 miles southeast of Athens and about 85 miles (according to the measurement I did in Google Earth) north of the Greek island of Crete, it is the southernmost island in the Cyclades island chain, and an island with much history - and cataclysm. Santorini is the site of what is likely the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. Sometime between 1645 and 1600 BC (some evidence precisely dates it to sometime in 1628 BC), during the height of the Minoan Civilization, the volcano that makes up the island of Santorini quite literally exploded. Called the Thera or Minoan Eruption (as Santorini is also known as Thera), it wiped out the Minoans living on the island, and devastated the northern coast of Crete with a massive tsunami. Some estimates place the height of the tsunami between 115 and 480 feet high, but I know I saw someplace (that I can't find now...) that put it around 800 feet. It probably wasn't that big, but it sounds good, and either way, that's still a big wave. Some theories have been proposed that the eruption and the problems caused to the Minoans are the basis for Plato's story and legend of Atlantis. Regardless of story and legend, the event was huge and had a global impact. There are stories from ancient China, and scientific evidence has been found on every continent in the northern hemisphere that correlates with the big kablooey. While the volcano has been quiet and stable since about 1950, the island in the middle of the lagoon, called Nea Kameni, didn't breach the surface of the water until the early 1700s. There is even some suggestion that the building up of the magma dome in the lagoon is a repeating cycle in the life of that volcano: it'll build up, explode, collapse back into a caldera similar to what we see now, and then it starts all over again.
And there we were that Friday morning, floating all fat and happy in our big ship in the middle of that volcano's caldera. I was on the starboard side of the ship, so when I woke up I peeked out the window and could see Nea Kameni. Santorini was the only stop on our trip where we didn't actually dock in a port. The water in the lagoon between Thera and Nea Kameni goes to 1,400 feet deep - too deep to anchor, so our ship used its engines and thrusters along with GPS station keeping to maintain position. Anyway, I got dressed and proceeded to the Windjammer for some breakfast. The arrangement as we had left it the previous evening was that we would all catch a tender to the island at our leisure. We would also turn on our cell phones so we could communicate and find each other once ashore. Even though I slept in a little bit that morning, I considered myself fortunate to run into mom and dad finishing up their breakfast about 10:00. They were nice enough to wait for me, and then we caught a tender to shore. The Windjammer, though, was where I was able to catch my first glimpse of Fira, the town we would visit once ashore. After seeing it, I was excited about getting over there, getting on top, and hopefully taking some good photos. I was also looking forward to a "free" day where the only schedule we had to keep was not missing the boat. Santorini was also our only stop where we didn't have a guided excursion while in port.
We boarded the tender and took the short boat ride to the shore at the base of the caldera directly under Fira. A few shots from the tender.
 Santorini   |
 Oia, Santorini |
 Imerovigli from Tender |
 Santorini |
Once ashore, it was definitely an impressive sight to look up the caldera cliffs to the town above. It is, plus or minus a smidge, roughly 1,000 feet from sea level to the top, and it is pretty darned steep! I know mom was having flashbacks and reminiscing about her first visit to Santorini on a multi-month immediately-post-college tour of Europe back in 1967. Even before we began planning this trip or knew where we would go, I can remember her talking about the donkeys and the switchback path up the bluffs of the caldera. Sure enough, the donkeys were still there carrying people up and down the path. However, in recent years, a more modern mode of transportation had become available. For €4 (which is about right; I think we paid $6 through the cruise line) per person each way, and a three minute ride, a cable car is available to whisk you to the top of the hill. Needless to say, that was the mode of transportation we chose. Of course, we would have to be on it, and about a third of the way up, when the car system slowed and then came to a complete stop for...well, it felt like about an hour, but it was probably no more than 45 seconds, a minute tops. Each car holds 6 people, and there are 6 cars. Every car going up was full, as many people were making their way to the top from our ship as well as the Star Princess, a Princess Cruises ship (another casualty of Carnival) that happened to be in port at the same time. Turns out we would run into them a couple of days later in Naples, too. Anyway, my first thought of the situation was, "Crap, we've overloaded it!" None in my family is, should I say, small...and we were all in the same car...so I thought it was a legitimate concern. However, the cars eventually started moving again, and we finally made it to the top.
We exited the cable car station onto an incredibly narrow street, and right next to the station was a café. Turns out we would have our lunch there a few hours later. My first mission: pictures! We weren't far from the cliffs/bluffs, and I could see an area that might make for some good pictures. It didn't disappoint!
 Brilliance on Top |
 Cable Cars |
 Fira and the Caldera |
After a flurry of pictures (and by the way, there are more in the Santorini gallery; and that isn't all all I took, just the "best" pics), the folks and I made our way into, for lack of a better term...town. You have to realize the streets are very narrow, and due to the geography of the island, there is virtually nothing flat. As you walk on the street there, you're in an almost constant state of some sort of vertical movement, either up or down. As we walked more towards the center of town along the street next to the cable car station, we hit an intersection, and on the corner was another café with a nice porch. Sitting there on the porch was Reba, Mac and Barry enjoying a Mythos beer. Naturally we felt compelled to join them in the consumption of the local fare. 
After consumption time, everyone sort of went their separate ways. Most went in different directions for shopping opportunities. I tagged along for a little bit, then spied a street that looked like it might get me to some higher ground for some more photo opportunities. But not before finding a spot to take a shot of the "back side" of Santorini. Turns out there's quite a lot more to the island than the famous lagoon-facing bluffs of the caldera and the villages that sit on their tops. I took a shot of the back side; you can see it in the gallery. Anyway, I told the folks I was setting out and would meet them back at the cafe by the cable car station about 1:30 (our agreed-upon meeting time with some others of the group).
So off I went. The farther I got from the area where I'd left the folks I got, the less turistas I encountered, and the quieter it got...until I ran across the din from what turned out to be kids on the playground of a school. I also passed a beggar or two, and began to question the logic of setting out on my own away from the main tourist area. But it wasn't bad, and I have to say that Fira is a beautiful little village. As you've likely seen in many of the pictures of Santorini (if you've looked before), everything is whitewashed or covered in white-painted stucco. This helps during the summers when temperatures can easily reach into the triple digits. But it was gorgeous!!! Even though Fira isn't known for the "blue domes" that typically cap Greek Orthodox churches and other structures on Santorini (those are far more common in Oia, and I didn't have the time or inclination to walk all the way over there - it was far!), I was able to capture a couple of domes. Anyway, I believe I walked about a mile, perhaps a little farther, and finally reached an area that offered some great views of the lagoon and caldera, as well as the other islands in and around the lagoon.
 Blue Domes |
 Fira |
 Ships in the Lagoon |
 Therasia |
 Oia and Imerovigli |
 The Lagoon |
Soon, it was time for me to make my way back down towards the café by the cable car station, as several from our group was meeting there for lunch. I was running a little late, but hey, it's me! Wha's new? Earlier when we passed by, the place was jammed and there was a huge wait - and understandably so. The café had a FANTASTIC view over the lagoon. Luckily by the time I got there, nobody had been seated yet. Either they were late, too, or they had been waiting and I had timed my arrival perfectly (I prefer the latter explanation). So we sat down to a nice lunch. Luckily I wasn't starving, and the prices were pretty high, so I had a fantastic Greek salad, some bread, and of course a couple more Mythos beers!
After lunch, we wandered around a little more in the immediate area of the cable car station for some more shopping, and I ended up buying my only souvenir of the whole trip: a ball cap. I know, I know... But I'm not much of a shopper. Dad and I also walked down one of the streets leading to the south out of Fira a little bit to see if there might be some more photo opportunities. Unfortunately, that direction had a lot more structures between the street and the views, so I didn't get any shots down that way. But we did have a surprise as we were making our way back up. The guys were bringing the donkeys back up to the top to take people back to the bottom. They were a treat to see up close, and as you'll see from one of the photos, there is a definite clash of old and new.
 Donkeys |
 Donkeys |
Soon it was time to make our way back to the ship. We were definitely not in a hurry, but were ready to get down the hill and back on the boat to relax a little - and have happy hour! We also wanted to miss the rush at the cable car and tenders, so we made a relatively early exit. Once down at the docks, I remember laughing heartily at Reba dragging a brand new suitcase she'd bought there. "I've got to have more room to get all this shit me and Judy have bought on this trip home!" was the gist of her comment at my laughing. 
After the tender ride back to the ship, I unloaded and relaxed in my cabin for a little bit before heading up to the folks' cabin. The combination of their balcony and being on the port side of the ship - which faced Fira - was too much of a photographic temptation for me to pass up. As sunset time approached, I made my way up to deck 12 to catch some shots of the sunset, which I had heard were famous. My shots didn't necessarily do that evening's sunset justice, but it was still spectacular to see. I also ran into Judy, Rebecca and Kathy up on the top of the boat, and they were there for the same reason I was. Rebecca was nice enough to snap a few pics of me desecrating the beautiful sunset, too! You'll have to visit the gallery to see that one, though.
 Fira |
 Fira and the Moon |
 Fira at Dusk |
We were anticipating the Star Princess to sail before us, as we'd heard their departure time was earlier than ours. However, all of the people on our ship were back on board way before our scheduled departure time, so we left first. Little did we know we'd run into them across the dock in Naples a couple of days later. Needless to say, though, as with the beginning of the trip, we'd had three busy and action-packed days in a row to this point since our last break: Athens, Turkey and then Santorini. The next day was a day at sea as we sailed to Naples. I was definitely looking forward to another break. It was also bittersweet to realize that this unbelievable trip was actually winding down; we only had three days left before we were back in Barcelona, and just five days until we were back home in the States.
Continue the story with our Naples stop article.