Rose Bay Kamari

... 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.

... boat and dried themselves off and told us about the ‘lukewarm springs’ that included a lot of dubious sludge and more floating rubbish at the shoreline than you could imagine. By this time I was really regretting my decision not to go – it all sounded so much fun! I was so grateful to Heath for being my in loco parentis.

We headed back to Santorini and after docking went to see about the cable car. A sign on the ticket office window told us ...

... 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 ...

(I've created a couple of entries before this one, mostly just photos, that I didn't notify you about. You can go check them out if you feel like it). I've been much like a butterfly, flitting about from island to island, staying longer on those that please me (when ferry connections allow), and less time on those that don't. I was looking forward to settling in for a few days on the island of Santorini; alas, it's ...

... to the hotel, our rooms were not quite ready so we walked around for a bit in the main town of Fira...it starts to bustle at 8am, with tourists, locals, traffic, etc...we shopped a bit buying postcards, maps, and other stuff, as well as grabbing breakfast...we went back to the hotel to check-in and arrange the boat tour to the active volcano and the hot springs at two of the islands off the main coast...the tour was at 2.00pm, so we decided to nap prior to the tour ...

... of what we got to do the next days. We woke up the next morning and tried to find some info on some walks that we wanted to take. Apparently the 'General Tourist Info' is not what is claims to be. Every tourist office is just a tourist office for a particular company trying to sell you something. The answer to our questions was actually 'walk up the street this way and ask someone else'. What a friendly place!! We decided to head towards ...

... art gallery, Mati .

















And this is Atlantis Hotel. Which reminds me Santorini is actually one of the possible location of the legendary Atlantis .












After a tiring walk around Thira, we retired to our room's balcony, and write some post ...