Santorini - expensive but glorious

It really is surreal staying on the rim of a volcano and simply crazy how they have built into the layers of rock down and down, with houses stacked on houses, some accessed directly off paths, others up / down tens of stairs. 

Our day started with 8am breakfast delivery, omelette and scrambled eggs, a croissant each (I eat croissants now, sourdough and croissants!) and fruit salad. I had deteriorated somewhat overnight so went back to bed for an hour before we set out into the warm but very very windy day. 

Our plan was to walk the windy paths down to Fira (the nearest big town), bus to Oia and walk back the 9km to our village. But a combo of the wind and my cold meant we ended up bussing both ways. 

These pics are from our walk to Fira. Top left Steve on a quiet part of the track. Top right and bottom left are both looking back towards our wee house with the blue domed church in front. Bottom right a cruise ship with it's tiny boats ferrying passengers to shore. 

Fira is the capital and a larger town with hundreds of cafe's, restaurants, bars and shops - so many shops. Mostly linen clothing, Santorini souvenirs and gelato. There were loads of people on the path walking in both directions, it was a walk down for us from Imerovigli and as we manoeuvred through the pathways we commented to ourselves how even though it's touristy it's nothing - Nothing - like Rome, Florence or Cinque Terre touristy. 

We stopped first to buy hats and then for lunch in a fabulous cafe where we had a greek breakfast platter (so yum - bottom two pics) and some avocado on toast with a glass of local rose and beer. 

Then went to a pharmacy for more supplies for me - this time a vitamin C drink and lozenges which are some kind of voodoo cause they completely numbed my throat and stopped me coughing for hours. 

Top two photos a slightly renegade church painted off white and Steve ahead of me walking through the 2kms of shops in Fira town. 

After this we hopped on the bus to Oia, the local buses are cheap, comfortable, clean and air conditioned. The drive up to Oia at the far end of the island took about 35 minutes (I slept most of the way). 

Oia is completely different town wise. Lots of high end shops, leather goods, gold and silver jewellery, fancy restaurants and galleries. I loved the ceramics but we don't have bag space to take anything home. Both Oia and Fira are less perfect than Imerovigli but still beautiful in themselves. We wandered the streets for about an hour, checking out the views, beautiful bougainvillaea and renegade churches which aren't white with a blue roof! 

Both Fira and Oia have a port below and we could see donkey's navigating down the paths, they also both have a gondola to take people down to yachts or cruise ship boats or for trips around the island. 

Unlike Rome the pedestrian areas are closed off to vehicles - and to be fair most are too tiny for any to drive through plus have steps continuously. 

Sad we didn't manage the planned 9km walk but pleased to have seen these two major towns. Steve was convinced I wouldn't have made it anyway. We didn't quite do 20,000 steps but certainly clocked up over 15,000 today with 25 floors of elevation. 

We bused back (yep I slept again) and somewhat exhausted we stopped for - you guessed it Gyro's - and returned to our photography watching spot on the deck for the evening. 

Right - I love the bougainvillaea in Oia, a cliff top church bottom left and some coloured shops. We saw so many churches and decided there must be 1 church for every 20 people ratio. 

Below are 3 photos taken from our spa and our spa lit up at night. The wind calmed down so it was really quite lovely sitting out there at dusk. It's all a little surreal. This blog Monday 29th April 2024.