Friday, the 29th of April, we were anchored in the caldera of the island of Santorini. There was one other ship anchored with us, the Silver Spirit, another small one. The last time I was here was 10 years ago in July and there were several mega-ships with us and it was hotter than blazes. That was certainly not the case today. It was overcast and chilly with a very brisk breeze all day. It was windy enough that they had to move our champagne and caviar sailaway party into one of the lounges.
Santorini is one of the Cyclades Islands of Greece. As I said above the ship is in a caldera of a still active volcano. The area is extremely active geologically and they are actually overdue for an eruption (luckily there wasn’t one today). On the northern side of the island towns are perched on the sheer cliff walls and it makes for a very dramatic scene. I tendered ashore and we set out for a visit to the town of Oia (pronounced EE-ya). If you’ve ever seen pictures of Greek islands this is probably where some of them were taken. Oia is atop the caldera wall with houses carved out in tiers going part way down several levels. The buildings are all painted white with blue roofs, although not as many blue ones as I remember seeing in the past. Almost all the structures everywhere on the island are painted white, among other reasons because it reflects the sun and keeps the buildings cooler, and the roofs were blue partly because blue and white are the colors of the Greek flag and also because the blue represents the sea. Georgina, our guide, told us that more and more people are painting their roofs white too because white doesn’t have to be repainted as often and thus is less expensive. Anyway, it still looks stunningly beautiful.
I strolled a little on the main street and made a few purchases and ran into my new friend Hilary. She had come ashore on her own and wanted to have a coffee at a restaurant she and her late husband had dined at on a vacation in Santorini. I had time left before I had to meet my group so we went to a café a level down from the main street and sat overlooking the caldera. We were just going to have a cappuccino but a couple at the next table told us we ought to try the crêpes with strawberries (as if I needed more food!) so we did. Oh, my goodness! We each got a plate with the most wonderful crêpes drizzled with honey and filled with fresh strawberries. Between the view and the taste it was heavenly!
Before I knew it, it was time for me to meet my group so we said our goodbyes. We next traveled to the southern end of the island near Akrotiri where there is a wonderful museum which I visited last time. If you’re ever here it’s worth a stop because it has lots of artifacts from the island dating back to 1600 BC. They were preserved in ash so they were amazingly intact somewhat like things found in Pompei. I’m not writing about the geological history because I think I’m a little long-winded sometimes.
I do want to say something related to the activity of the island though. Most of the island is constructed of volcanic rock of different kinds. The island gets very little rain except for a few months in the winter, but it is always very humid. The ground is very porous and overnight there is a sort of dew that builds up because of the humidity and it of course falls on the soil and the plants and is the irrigation system. Santorini actually has a lot of grapevines but instead of growing up and in rows, they grow low and in circular spirals. All the crops are irrigated that way. There are few trees on Santorini so the houses are constructed of volcanic stone and concrete. They built with lots of arched, curved structures. That design allows the humidity when it condenses, and rain when they get it, to roll down and be absorbed in the porous soil or up on roofs into cisterns. The curved structure also is more earthquake resistant because they have lots of those too. The buildings are beautiful, but they are that way for lots of very practical reasons not aesthetics.
Enough about that. We arrived at the shore near the southern end of the island and walked to our interesting lunch and cooking demonstration restaurant. It was along the rocky beach (all the beaches are rocky) and we sat on a covered terrace. The restaurant was carved into the side of the hill and the kitchen and some eating areas were actually caves. The restaurant is a family business started by the grandparents many years ago. I must tell you a little about them. Grandpa was a fisherman and the cave was where he would pull his boat into when a storm was coming. He had 12 children, many of whom worked with him. Grandma would make food and bring it to them to eat while they were working. Her food was evidently delicious and someone suggested that she sell it, so the restaurant was born. The chef who cooked for us and the man who explained what we were seeing were cousins and grandchildren of the original owners. They told us they had 64 cousins and their family comprises more than half of the little town’s population. They laughingly told us that when the town votes if their family wants a particular outcome, they always win.
We proceeded to be served an absolute feast; in fact, there was so much food on the table that it was overwhelming. We had bread bowls filled with tomato, cucumber, onion, and feta salad. There were stuffed tomatoes, fried fritters made with tomatoes, cukes, onions, garlic and flour mixed together. We had tzatziki and hummus. There was fried white eggplant (which was heavenly) and marinated seared beef. We had olives and ouzo and the house white wine. I think we were all positively stuffed when we were done. We could probably all have used a siesta but we were on to the next stop, a winery for a wine tasting.
This was a co-op for lots of grape growers on the island. I was amazed that this place produces about 500,000 bottles a year, 30% of which is exported. We tasted a white, a red, and the most wonderful sweet dessert wine I think I’ve ever tasted. It was similar to some very fine grappa which I’ve had at vineyards in Tuscany and the Veneto. There were tidbits to eat to cleanse our palates between wines, but I couldn’t eat anything at all.
Our final stop was the town of Fira, also perched on the edge of the caldera. It was there that we said good-bye to our guide. To get down to the tender dock there we had to take a cable car for which she gave us a ticket. If you’ve been to Santorini you know there are two other ways to get down. One is to walk down nearly 600 steps. The other is to ride a donkey. The donkeys walk the same steps as do people so needless to say there are donkey droppings along the way and it’s more than a little smelly and scary. Thanks, but no thanks. I walked (more walking!) up to the station and headed back. I don’t know why, but to my weary feet and body it seemed every street in Santorini was uphill. Clearly what goes up must come down, but for some reason I never found myself going downhill.
Back on the Encore I propped my feet up and had a rest. I met Hilary for drinks and dinner and then we went to a very nice show by the singers. After the show we went down to a lounge, the Club, where they have dance bands playing to the wee hours. One of my trivia teammates who is traveling alone said she goes there every evening and dances. Hilary and I decided to take a look and we had a great time. There were several couples but evidently the men weren’t dancers so we women got up and just danced away to 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music. I’m so glad we did. I think it made us all feel a little younger again. Then it was time for bed so we all went our separate ways. It was a truly lovely day.
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