Day 21 - Monday July 19, 2010 - Santorini, Greece

Day 21 - 3 weeks into my around-the-world 2010 trip. Full day on Santorini.

Top picture: On the tour boat to the cone of the volcano looking back at Fira.

Bottom: Sunset over the Mediterranean from our balcony at the Hotel Kavalari. Breath-taking.

We were able to sleep until 8:30 - both of us needed that. Got dressed and went for the breakfast that came with the room - huge breakfast with bowl of fresh cut fruits, huge croissant, jams, butters, large bowl of yogurt, and a variety of breads in a bread basket. And coffee. It was very filling.

We went back to the room and enjoyed the cool breezes from our balcony which is in the shade this morning but will be in sun soon. We walked around Fira for a couple of hours and stopped just before noon for a gyro sandwich - pork and chicken. The breakfast had been so filling that neither of us was very hungry. It was good. We bought tickets for a boat trip over to the cone of the volcano in the middle of the caldera.

We decided to walk down 588 steps to the Fira Port where the tour boats leave from. I almost fell a couple of times (it was quite steep and the stones slippery) and Tim did fall and almost sprained his wrist. We were walking down the steps that the donkeys climb up with tourists from the port, so it was smelly, very smelly, and littered with "donkey". Yuck. We had to maneuver through packs of donkeys twice - Lillian would not have liked that!

We made it safely to the bottom and had just a short wait for our tour boat. It was filled with French young people. Some of those young boys were "all over" the young girls and the girls were enjoying the attention!

We sailed around the caldera for a while and then put into port at the island that is the cone of the active volcano. It last eruped in 1950. The original eruption for 3,500 years ago which destroyed the city of Akrotiri and formed the island as we somewhat know it today. We docked and then began "the forced march" up the cone of the volcano (Nea Kameni) to the summit. Dusty, rocky, and hot. The views were interesting but not really spectacular. The crater of the volcano was a bit disappointing - nothing at all like the crater in the island of Hawaii. But we marched up anyway.

The views back to Santorini were great.

After reaching the top, we walked around the main crater and then made our way back down. Easier coming down than up. This is building up my knees!!!

The boat then departed for the volcanic hot springs. We had to jump or dive off of the boat out and swim in to the hot springs. We could feel the warmer water as we approached the springs and the water turned from blue to light brown. It was a big smelly and very salty. The spring water wasn't that great but it was easy to float and we had a good time.

We swam back to the boat and then made our way back to Santorini. We took the cable car back to the top of the rim and went for our afternoon gelato. By this time it was almost 6 pm and time for cocktails so we had our afternoon martinis while enjoying our balcony. We had the receptionist make dinner reservations at Selene in Pyrgos, a short taxi ride away from Fira. We stopped a taxi letting people off near our hotel and he agreed to take us but he had to drop someone else off first at the taxi stand. We were glad we got this taxi as there was a long line of people at the taxi stand waiting for an available taxi.

We enjoyed the ride to Selene and were seated outside on the porch overlooking the island with the sea in the distance. The stars were shining brightly. We were glad that we weren't seated at the edge as it was quite windy and many people changed tables to get away from the winds. But we had a protected table and enjoyed it.

The dinner was spectacular. We started with an amuse bouche which was yogurt ice cream with herbs. Delicious. It was actually ice cream made from yogurt and very unusual. Then I had the best cold tomato soup (like gaspacho) that I've ever had. Instead of having a dallop of sour cream in it, it had plain yogurt ice cream. It was SO good. Tim had a tomato salad that he ooohed and aaahed over. We both had fish for main course - excellently prepared. Then the best - cold strawberry soup with basil ice cream. An ususual and very delicious combination. This restaurant was fabulous. We enjoyed a bottle of Santorini white wine with dinner.

The restaurant called us a taxi and we were driven back into Fira. We went to Tropical for a nightcap (didn't really need it) but we enjoyed the music and people watching. It was about 12:30 when we left and made our way back to the Kavalari Hotel for a much needed rest. An enjoyable day. Tomorrow we rent a car and go exploring in the island.