Anny Hotel Santorini Island Messaria

... time to chat with the locals they told us how lucky we were to be visiting at this time of the year, how much nicer it is when it is quiet. As one shopkeeper told us 'Now you can see the real Santorini’

We had one last stroll around the laneways overlooking the caldera, one last meal at the excellent Pelican cafe and one last ice cream from our favourite sweet shop and one last soak in the Jacuzzi.

Ah Santorini, thank you for sharing your beauty with us.

... was much easier and we met up with the rest of our party and got back to the ship with minutes to spare.

The next stop was the hot springs, and after visiting Rotorua in New Zealand and Dalyan and Pamukkale in Turkey I was looking forward to it with some anticipation. We sailed from one volcanic island to the smaller one right beside it. We reached another cove and tied up to a buoy. I figured we were transferring on to a smaller boat to take us to shore ...

... We were headed for the ancient ruins of Thira. We couldn't get in because it closes at 2.30pm each day and we were half an hour past that time. It looked worthy of another visit so we decided to come back the next day.

We drove back down the mountain then along the beachfront at Kamari, noting the numerous trendy bars (all closed) and cafes (all closed bar 3 or 4). We continued along the waterfront for as long as we could until the road diverted us back inland. It ...

... buildings with stunning caldera backdrops that you will need another memory card. It took us almost an hour to reach the village of Imerovigli, another town perched impossibly on the top of the cliffs. Although there was nothing open in this town except the supermarket, this allowed us to get the water we needed (but not the coffee stop we craved...)

We were told that the walk to Oia is two hours, but the literature (once we read it) said 3 hours. We took more than four ...

The morning of our 25th anniversary, we just about couldn't wish for a better place to be than here on Santorini (unless our kids were over here with us).

We took a bus to Kamari beach, the "Black Beach", named for the black volcanic rock which makes up the very long stretch of beach along the flatter, opposite shoreline to where Thira sits. Numerous rows of li-los & thatched shade umbrellas line the shore as far as one can see.

The views were very relaxing and ...

Tuesday 17th July, 2007 Well, today we are still in Parikia in Paros. We have an exciting day today - we are going to the doctor (called Dimitris - pronounced Dim-ee-tree) he is a lovely guy - somewhat a bit of a colourful character. He has been on the island since September 2006 (lucky he is here actually as there was no orthopaedic surgeon here on the island before him). Anyways, the cast has been taken off so that the arm does not get stiff ...

Today, we decided to get up early to watch the sun rises from the black sand beach. We had to get up by 5:00!! @_@












We waited and waited, and we still couldn't see the sun even though the surroundings are a little brighter already.














Well, I might ...

... br>




These two houses out of nowhere, are actually painted very nice, and they aren't any special buildings. We just cannot resist and had to stop our car just to take a picture of them!













Greece also export a lot of pistachios. And it is from here that we first see a pistachio tree. They ...