Santorini, Greece September 11-14, 2019
Wednesday Sept 11 - We arrived in Santorini after an hour on the subway in Athens and a 30 minute flight on Volotea Airlines. I had originally rented a car to drive around Santorini, however, I discovered that you need an international drivers license in Greece, so I cancelled my reservation. It’s required by law. I stopped by the Hertz rental car agency at the airport and they told me that they would rent a car to me, but if I had an accident, insurance would not cover me. Also, if I was pulled over and could not show the international drivers license, I would have to pay a 1,000 Euro fine!! No thanks.
After I had learned about the IDL issue, I contacted Jackie at the Airbnb house we had rented. She arranged transportation from the airport to our Cave house in Megalochori. Megalochori is a small village south of the main town of Fier. We usually try to find places where there it’s less crowded, and Megalochori fits that description. There is a bakery next to our cave house, and a number of cute restaurants within walking distance.
After getting settled in, we walked to the town square, and found a nice restaurant with some very relaxing music playing on the outdoor patio. After a delicious fava bean appetizer, Jeri ordered the largest Greek salad I’ve ever seen, and I ordered the grilled squid. We were both very satisfied with our choices!!
We decided to walk off our dinner and ended up finding a small family owned winery. They were closed for wine tasting by the time we got there, but we will stop back another day and sample their wines.
Thursday September 12 - I awoke really early, around 3AM. Our cave house is great, but it does get a bit humid and the humidifiers were full so I got up to empty them. Once I was up I decided to update our blog. After a couple of hours, I went back to bed and slept for a couple of hours, until Jeri woke up.
I showered, walked to the bakery and enjoyed a cafe Americano, along with a delicious apple pastry.. Next I ventured down the road to find some produce for Jeri. We had attempted to find the Mini Mart the previous day, but we had not walked far enough. This time I did walk far enough and procured some apples, grapes and a nectarine. Jeri will be pleased!!
Our agenda today includes visiting the Akrotiri archeological site. It is called the Pompei of Greece. Akrotiri is a Minoan Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini. The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BC and buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and many objects and artworks. There was an earthquake sometime before the eruption so the inhabitants evacuated the settlement before the big eruption.
We took the KTEL bus from Megalochori to Akrotiri. It was really crowded, but hey, it’s better than driving. The archeological site was really amazing. An entire building has been constructed over some of the ruins to allow visitors to get a close up view. There are walkways that allow you to stroll over and through the ruins.
After we toured the site, we found a table at the waterfront cafe and had some fresh fruit and a couple of drinks. The KTEL bus stop was right next to the cafe, so we caught the 12:50 to the town of Fira. Fira is the main connector town for the whole island. It can get quite busy when the cruise ships are in, so we were somewhat skeptical about going mid-day. The main streets were crowded, but we found a nice rooftop restaurant called Ampelos, overlooking the caldera, where we enjoyed some delicious fava bean dip, tzatziki, and saganaki cheese. It seems like all we are doing is eating, but the restaurants have all the great spots to just hang out!!
Friday Sept 13 - Today we have decided to visit Santorini Brewing, and to also visit Oia (which is pronounced eeh-aah). Oia is the village that everyoine visits to view the most beautiful sunsets. It is usually very crowded, but our host Jackie told us there were not as many cruise ships on Friday, so it wouldn’t be as crowded. After a lazy morning we caught the bus to Fira, because in order to get anywhere on the island you have to go to Fira first. Once in Fira, we got on the bus that headed to Kamara beach. Santorini Brewing is the last stop before Kamara. We arrived, and Blaine was anxious to try the local craft beers. The brewery is small, and the servers were quick to offer us a tasting. We had anticipated sitting at the brewery for awhile and enjoying the local flavor, but were disappointed to find that they could only offer tastings of 3 of their beers, and could not serve any pints on premises. Dang!!
OK, now we will head back to Fira to catch a bus to Oia. The ride to Oia takes about 30 minutes, and the bus was not very crowded, so we thought, great, Fridays there will not be that crowded. We arrived at the bus terminal around 3:00, and OMG!!! It was packed and there was a line 50 yards long waiting to board the bus to leave!! We briefly thought about staying on the bus and returning to Fira, but we had come all this way and decided to at least see what Oia had to offer. Big mistake! I would sure hate to see what Oia looked like when the cruise ships were all in because the streets were so packed that you could barely walk. Oia is a beautiful little town, but it has been overwhelmed by tourism. We got in line to catch the bus back to Fira, and after 30 minutes were able to get on. We were fortunate to miss the first bus, as they jammed it completely full, and we were close enough in line that we got seats before they jammed it completely full!
We figured that we would grab a late lunch in Fira because it had not been as busy when we were there yesterday. Today was a different story. As soon as the bus pulled into Fira we saw huge crowds. I guess everyone was coming to view the sunset in Fira as well, so Jeri and I jumped on the next bus back to our little village of Megalochori where we had a lovely peaceful dinner, relaxed in our quaint little cave house and packed for our trip to Luxembourg tomorrow.
