Greece-Santorini Antiquities Museum and Wineries (Day 123)

We took a very relaxed day on Santorini since we’d done so much the previous day.  We started by visiting the Antiquities Museum.  It was a cool little place recovered from an ancient city on Santorini.

Pots with swallows.

Wall paintings from the House of Ladies (yes what you are thinking)

Wall paintings of the blue monkeys.

Little golden calf.


It was a cool little museum.

The plan for the rest of the day was to visit some of Santorini’s wineries.

I blew the bus departure time so we had 30 minutes to kill and took a walk to the Fira caldera overlook.

Volcan Wines.

They had these caves with a strange little museum down there.

It was like a really old theme park and the figures moved too.

It was cool though as it talked about how Santorini wines are different from Italy or French wine because they do not water the grapes because there is not enough water.


Then we exited the muesum and got to taste some wine.  It was really cool because this place was setup for big tour buses but we were there all alone.

Rick and his donkey.

We walked down the road and found another tasting room to have some more wines.  Yum.

For dinner we went just down the street from Villa Rose to a nice little place.

For sunset we went just up the road from Villa Rose to the edge of the cliff and watched the sunset over Thirasia.

Greece-Santorini Day Tour (Day 122)

I twisted Rick and Linda’s arm to go on an all day tour to the caldera, hot springs, and sunset at Oia.  My dad really wanted to go to the caldera and Linda wanted to see the sunset at Oia so I wanted to knock them out on the first day.  The tour was 38 euro each.  We started the day with a short bus ride.  On the ride I started talking to an American in the seat behind us telling him about our trip.  Somehow it came up from him: “My son lives in Jackson Wyoming” “Cool, my brother in law lives there.  He works at Hoback Sports.” “My son Andy worked there” “Lane’s been there years” “They must know each other”  “Hey and that’s his dad over there”. 

Lane from Jackson sis and dad and Andy from Jackson’s dad in Santorini.  How small the world we live in seems sometimes.

We then had a little boat ride to the caldera.

Anja and I of course immediately started running around leaving the group and not listening to instructions like we were small children.  We were with our parents after all. 

Look little crater on the caldera.

On top of the caldera with the cliffs of Sanotorini behind us.

If only Rick were not so serious all the time…

The trail down from the top.

The next stop was the hot springs.  We were informed we would have to swim through 60 degree water to get to them.  Drag.  This was all Linda needed to not go so it was just Anja and I and Andy’s dad Bob.

Anja and Bob in the muddy hot spring.  Sadly, it was only about 95 degrees.  Not warm enough for me.

We had fun and enjoyed the swim though.

The boat then stopped at Thirasia for lunch.

Anja and I of course had to walk up the stairs.

We made it up quick.

Grabbed a shot from the top and headed back down.

It was cool to get a different view of the caldera from here.

Then it was on to Oia.

An more stairs this time with donkeys on them taking people up and down.  At one point we heard screaming I looked up and saw a stupid lady on the back of a donkey which had come to a steep spot in the trail.  Of course the donkey just charged up the steep step not wanting to get smacked.  The poor stupid donkey

Everyone got a new understanding of my hatred for donkeys in the high Sierra-Nevada Mountains as these donkeys almost run you over as you are walking on the trail.

The old ruins on the top of this hill in Oia is where everyone goes to watch the sunset.

It was a great sunset.

A quick bus back to Fira and we finished out the day we got gyros at Lucky Souvlakis which we loved beer and cheap good food.  What more can you ask for.

Greece-Santorini Ferry (Day 121)

Today turned into a lot of running around.  We were checking out of our hotel around 11:30 am to catch our 3 pm ferry and someone told us it was cancelled due to high winds.  I guess it was a hydrofoil and in high wind they cancel a lot.  We were told there was a 4 pm on another ferry line but it would fill soon so Rick and I immediately rushed down the ticket office and switched and made it just in time to get some of the last seats on the ferry which was at 4 pm.  I think our cost for this ferry was 57 euros each.  Pricey I thought.

Big crowds waiting for the ferry.

It was kind of funny as we got on we figured out we had assigned seat so we headed to them but someone as in them and said it doesn’t matter so we sat somewhere else and said the same to other people but then a woman came to move people and we got our assigned seats.  They found out later the people were right, assigned seats don’t matter unless the ferry is full then they do.

This boat was a catamaran which airplane style seats and wasn’t a very fun ride.

We made it to Santorini which was for me the most famous Greek Island.  I’d heard about its’ famous sunsets from my good Greek friends Stan, Nicos, and Stas.  I was also excited because I had it is one of the possible locations of Atlantis.  

Notice the huge cliff in the background, all the accommodations are on top of these cliffs.  We got to our hotel the Villa Rose ($68 a night) and immediately got to setting Anja up for a conference call but the wifi was down.  The hotel owner was really helpful and immediately got working to fix the wifi.  The group got a glimpse of the ugly side of our travels as Anja tried to rest for her 9 pm call and I ran around trying to secure wifi and then when that failed to find an internet café.  Luckily, I found one just 10 minutes down the road and got Anja there setup at 7:50 pm.  By the time we got back to the hotel at 10:30 pm the wifi was fixed.  It was a crazier day then I would have liked.