Santorini

This is the most famous, the most beautiful, the most Greek of the Greek Islands…  

It is the remains of a volcano… a volcano that erupted spectacularly and fatally 3,600 years ago, leaving a half moon of an island, one wall of the crater, with misc smaller islands nearby.  Fria and Oia (pronounced as if the O was an I… there is no O should in Oia) sit high on the edge of the rim of the volcano, while our ship sits within the caldera, and we take tenders to the dock at the bottom of the cliff 1,100 feet below.

This begs the question of how one should get from the dock, up the hill to the town.  The options are ski lift style cable car or a steep switch back path.  The path offers its own options, walking, or riding a donkey, of which there are many available for only a few Euros…  There is much debate about the donkeys, and whether it there use is humane, about whether or not the ride or hike is scary, whether the donkey exhaust is disgusting.  

We at least initially avoided the issue by taking a “fast” boat from base of the cliff at Fria to the base of the cliff at Oia…  There was a shuttle bus to the top but we walked… (Tina is still mad about it...)  The town once we arrived has been well described as 40 jewelry shops perched on a cliff…  this is only slightly inaccurate, there being cafes and the occasional church with a blue dome as well.  There is also a book store (Atlantis Books) with cats, but it never opened while we were there… Initially it would open in a few minutes, then several hours later it would open in a half hour, but don’t hold them to it… Beyond the snark Oia was wonderful, and we had a wonderful time exploring before taking a bus back to Fria where we wandered a bit before dealing with the trip down… 

The cable car can accommodate about 800 guests an hour… today we were one of 4 cruise ships in port, with something close to 10,000 passengers…  Many of whom wanted to take the cable car down at about the same time, many more than the cable car can accommodate…  But as we decided it was time to go down, the cable car line was not long, so Tina took the cable car while I hiked down…   The trails difficulty was overrated… the donkeys were not particularly mistreated, and were not scary, and with the exception of one spot, the site of a natural spring the donkey leavings were not significant, and half way down I met a man sweeping the steps.

Even with the short line, I beat Tina down… we took the tender back, showered and changed and found a place to sit and relax.

Kusadasi - Back in Turkey, again

We were in Kusadasi a little over a week ago.  Kusadasi is the port from which one visits Ephesus, but we visited Ephesus a week ago, and had no need to visit Ephesus again (as least so soon after the first visit) so we had no tourist responsibilities…. We could browse and explore.   The was a fort nearby… Tina and I walked over, finding it closed, undergoing restoration… Nearby we found Erik and Mia who had also seen the fort and came to explore, but they too found it closed… 

We headed off into town, through the leather shops, tee shirt shops, souvenir shops and such.  Evenually we found a café, we each had a beer, Tina had stuffed “vine leaves” and we singed on to the internet and checked email.

We wandered about a bit, went aboard ship, then back off to a different café, with more beer and more email…

Now the next morning…  we are at dock in Rhodes town.  This is the last port call on this cruise (beyond Athens where we will leave the ship)  I am at breakfast, the sisters and brothers and Mia and Toby… Tina is still in bed…  We will go ashore in a few minutes… eventually I will find a café and post this… This is likely the the last blog post from the road... the next post to appear after we return

Randy