Merovigliosso Apartments Imerovigli

Our relaxed schedule meant that we had one last day to enjoy what Fira could offer. We visited the museum that houses the finds from Akrotiri – lots of pottery and some interesting wall paintings. A small gold animal figurine was particularly impressive. The museum is modern and well displayed, but as we were the only visitors there we didn't really enjoy the personal security supervision that followed us from exhibit to exhibit like a distrustful overseer.

As we ...

... camp up here? The arrow in the other direction had a Greek symbol on it that looked like an r so we took that route. This involved skirting the main crater, which was steaming and smelling strongly of sulphur. In my mind I was wondering how much warning you get before a volcano erupts, but I didn’t let on.

We reached the summit and took a few snaps just to prove that we made it but we had no time to gloat because we were due back at the ship. Going ...

... had given them.

We set our heading for Ancient Thira. Climbing back up the winding road we parked at top near the entrance. I opened the car door only to have it wrenched from my grasp. The wind at the top felt strong enough to blow us off the side of the mountain. We found the ticket office closed but the gates open so in we went. There was a fellow sitting just inside and when I asked him whether we need to buy a ticket he simply replied 'tickets tomorrow’. Good ...

There are simple ways of getting to Oia (or Ia as it is also know and how you pronounce it), such as bus, taxi or hire car. But who needs simple? I had read as part of my research about the wonderful walk between Fira and Oia and I thought we'd give it a try. Loading up the backpack with some supplies (but forgetting water of all things) we set off through the town of Fira which seamlessly turns into Firostafani. Along the way there are so many photo opportunities to get pretty pictures of ...

... 11:15. Megan and I had heard that to get a hotel you could wait til you got to the port in Fira and much like the tavernas you could bargain on hotel prices until you found an offer you wanted. But that's if you come in by ferry...apparently they don't do the same thing at the airport and when we arrived and stepped outside we were greeted with nothing but an empty stretch of road and not a taxi in sight. We found a bus stop there though and decided to wait to try and catch one. So ...

... Turkey, and after the hectic week in Rome it was good to just chill out for a while. Our hotel in the main town of Fira had a pool, so we spent much of our time there escaping the heat. Chris also began teaching Caroline how to dive properly (she was always too frightening to learn after hearing horror stories as a child about some kid who jumped off the 10m board at the pool in Hobart and split his stomach open ...

... dinner.. the worst soup so far!! We walked a little more after dinner and were able to presence a gorgeous sunset from Thira. Day 2 We rented a 4 wheeler to get around the island. We decided to start with the south of the Island today and do the north tomorrow but we ended up doing it all in one day. In the south, we visited Megalochori, a traditional village. Then to Perissa, which is a black sand beach that we found by mistake as we got lost ...

... br>

A great view of the Caldera, and I can already imagine the night view of the Caldera.










After lunch we took a walk throughout the Thira area.
The ice creams and dessert selections blew us away!!







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And I have to take a picture of this ...

... t very tall, and the pistachios nuts grew in bunches.












In the evening, Reveplanner arranged a Caldera Sunset for us. We were so excited! We are going to see sunset in a boat ride! We took a bus down the winding road, and onto our boat!
The boat aren't very big, and it doesn't look like the Black Pearl nor the HMS ...

... visit the Prehistory Museum and check out some of the details from various volcano-addled peoples resident on Santorini throughout time. Basically it's a showcase of Minoan relics sourced from their ancient settlement of Akrotiri, buried Pompeii-style back in 1,650BC, and it shows once again the advanced nature of their culture ...