Today's post is all about a fun, relaxing day! We did not book an excursion for Santorini and we really enjoyed a day of wandering. This was a perfect way to spend a day sandwiched between Ephesus and Athens! The view as we sailed in:
The port of the island of Santorini is near the main town of Fira. It's too small for cruise ships so they anchor near the cliffs of Fira. We then took a tender boat to shore.
We were told that there are two ways to get to Fira from the port. You either ride a cable car or take the foot path. Amber, the assistant excursions manager, said the foot path was very unsafe with no railings. She strongly recommended against anyone taking the footpath. From our stateroom we could see the path zigzagging up the hill...
While riding the tender boat to the port, we could see lots of people on the footpath. We could see that there actually was a wall, about waist high, and it looked safe to us. Pretty sure the cruise line was getting a percentage of the cable car ticket price, while the foot path was free!
We decided to take the foot path. While the path was free, we also shared it with donkeys! They were available to ride (for a price) but we just walked on by.
Some were coming down while we were going up. You just have to get out of the way!
There are almost 600 steps from the port to the town of Fira.
When we got there I told Les, "We'll be riding the cable car down." I didn't mind the walk up, but didn't think I wanted to go down that way.
The views were spectacular!
We spent several hours wandering the streets. First we were in the shopping district:
Not one, but TWO gelato shops!
We continued walking away from the shopping area and came upon these buildings and views:
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| We want to stay at this hotel! |
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| I love all the white buildings with blue roofs |
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| The view of the Aegean Sea from the other side of the island |
As you can see, Santorini is a very small island! We walked back through the shopping district and made our way up another hill...
I love the reflection off this ship...
and these colored flower pots.
It's really amazing how they were able to build on this island.
The cable cars:
We went back to the shopping district for gelato then made our way to the cable cars...
The line was super long. "45 minute wait, at least." Um, no. I'm not wasting my vacation time waiting in line for 45 minutes when I can walk in less than that! So my "we're riding the cable cars down" changed. We joined many others who felt the same way.
While we were making our way down the first few steps, several donkey handlers tried to get us to ride. "Donkey? donkey?" they said and pointed at us. I finally looked at one and said, "In some cultures calling someone a donkey would be considered an insult!" I'm not sure the handlers understood my joke, but several Americans nearby did.
This was taken earlier in the day, but this is what my face looked like pretty much the entire walk down. Many of the stones were slick and slippery, along with donkey droppings that were scattered. Les is as sure footed as a mountain goat, I am not!
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| "I hope I don't trip or slip!" |
We made it down and this guy thanked us for not making him carry us.
Les had spotted a hat on Mykonos that he thought about buying but didn't. He saw it several times on Santorini, but none of the stores had one that fit. There was one more store down by the port and while I got in line for the tender boat, Les checked out the hats. They had one that fit! So now you'll be seeing my cute bag and Les' cool hat in future posts. He put it on top of the Italian hat he was wearing so it wouldn't get dirty!
This was a beautiful, relaxing day! When we got back to the ship we took a few more pictures of the donkey trail, now that we knew what we were looking at.
And of course, there are more pictures HERE!
2 comments:
Wow, I want to jump into these pictures.
Santorini was beautiful!
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