July 22 2014 Santorini

July 22 2014

Today is Disney Cruise Line’s first stop at Santorini, Greece.  Our group is getting up at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise and see the ship’s arrival into Santorini.  Once again it is a beautiful morning.  As we are approaching, it looks like the snow is on the top of the hills, but on closer inspection it is actually white houses all along the top of the cliffs.  It is stunning.

The curved path going up the side of the cliff is the 582 stairs you climb to get to the Old Town.  But, for those not that adventurous, you can catch the cable car from the bottom to the top for $5 euro, or you can ride a donkey up for $5 euro.  We chose to ride the cable car.

All ashore was 7:30 a.m.  and we had to tender into the port, so we met at the Buena Vista Theater at 7:15 a.m. so we could insure getting on the first boat tender.  We knew the longer we waited, the longer the line would be for the cable car.

We were successful in being on the first tender and arrived into Santorini about 8 a.m.  We met our tour guide and walked through the old town to head off on our tour.  The view of the Magic below was incredible.  Behind the Magic is the volcano.

Santorini is one of the Cyclades Islands in the southern Aegean Sea.  The island of Santorini was formed in 1450 BC after a volcanic eruption created the spectacular crescent shape (the caldera).  Ships anchor 900 feet below the island capital of Fira which overlooks the caldera.  Fira is the largest community on the island with a population of 2,000.

As we made our way through the city, we passed the donkeys as they were headed to work for the day

We went to the town of Oia (prounounced with a long ḕ and a short ă)  ḕă.  Oia is the little town where Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was filmed.  It is a pretty good movie (for girls) and I remember watching with my daughter Jamie.  The town has 72 churches and about 800 residents.  They built churches more like family worship places, so families would have their own church, so when the man came back from their long fishing journeys they could give thanks for having been on the seas for so long.

Santorini main income is from tourism, although they do grow their own grapes and make their own wine.  They also grow tomatoes and pistachios.  The island is too dry for olives.  They hardly get any rain at all each year.

There is not a place on the island where it is not beautiful, and the views from this end of the island are just too hard to describe and I am sure the pictures don’t do it justice.  It was kind of a hazy day, so couldn’t see some of the neighboring islands.

Also, some pretty flowers on the island.

One of the bigger churches on the island.

We then went to the other end of the island to visit the Prehistoric City of Akrotiri or Thera.  The settlement is at the southern end of the island of Thera.  The ruins date from the first phase of the Late Bronze Age (1650-1500 BC).  The excavation of Akrotiri began in 1967 and is still in progress. 

The large deposits of volcanic material covered the prehistoric city, and there is probably 200 years worth of work to be done to uncover the whole city.  Over 30 building have been uncovered so far.  However, excavation isn’t currently happening because of Greece’s state of the economy.  

The city was originally destroyed by an earthquake, sometime between 2100-1650 BC).  Then rebuilt in 1650 BC.  Before the end of the 17^th century BC an earthquake ruined the city again and the inhabitants embarked on reconstruction.  However, their efforts were then cut short by the volcano.  The city still bears the scars of the seismic destruction and was buried under all the pumice and volcanic ash which preserved it to this day.

We then went to two black sand beaches.  The second one we had lunch at a restaurant called Terra Nera.  I had souvlaki for lunch.  Everyone’s food was delicious.

Jason, Noel and Katy had a family style souvlaki

Scott and Michael tried out the Red Donkey and Yellow Donkey beer exclusive to Santorini.  They said it was very good.

After lunch we went to the local winery, where the local grapes are made into wine.  Most of the wine stays on the island, however they would like to increase the exporting of their wines.  Those who enjoy wine in our group helped the economy and came back on the ship with their wine souvenirs.  Don’t know if the wine is good or not, as I don’t drink wine, so can’t give any feedback here.

However, at the winery there was a great view of the ship and volcano

It was then time to work our way back to the ship.  We wandered through the town and did some souvenir shopping and then at 4:30 pm decided we were done.  It was probably our hottest day and more humid than we had experienced the whole cruise and we were all ready to go back.  There are only 3 ways back to the ship:  ride the cable card down ($5 euro), ride a donkey ($5 euro) or walk down the 582 stairs while trying to avoid the donkeys and their souvenirs on the stairs.

George, Scott, Lynn and myself decided to ride the donkeys and Michael, Ken, Christie, Jason, Noel and Katy rode the cable cars.  The cable car long was quite long, but they actually got down and back to the ship before we did.

The donkeys were quite the experience.  I would recommend riding a donkey up and not down the stairs.  They get moving pretty fast going down and when you are trying to balance, and hold onto a backpack, shopping bags and cameras, it gets a little nerve wracking.  

Scott named his donkey Phineas, I named mine Ferb.  Ferb ran into another donkey and I got donkey a** rash on my leg. 

Sailaway was at 6:45 pm and we all met up on deck to get pictures while leaving the Island of Santorini. 

It was then time for Bingo.  We didn’t go to the show in the Walt Disney Theater because we wanted to be up on deck for sailaway (the movie Planes, Fire & Rescue was playing).

For dinner we were in Lumiere’s and when we got there, our table had been split and the four of us who rode donkeys were banned from the other table because they said we smelled like donkey poop.  Michael bought a Santorini Donkey as a mascot for our table.

It was also pirate night so we had pirate gear on to celebrate the occasion.

After dinner it was time to work our way to deck 10 for the pirate party and fireworks.  Quite windy out tonight, but Captain Robert turned the ship just right for the wind to stop during the show.

Michael, George and I then went to Fathom’s because it was Karaoke night.  Michael sang Summer Lovin’ and a I got a girl to sing with him for the duet at the last minute.

We get an hour back tonight!  Turn those clocks back at bedtime.  Hopefully, I will get a good night’s sleep and can sleep in tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is a sea day.  We are all exhausted from our port days so we are all looking forward to some R & R.

Reflecting on Santorini.  I loved it and the views were just unbelievable.  Like I said, I don’t think the pictures can show just how incredible it was.  Would love to come back again.  Definitely one of my favorites of the Greek Islands.  Mykonos is also at the top of my list.

Cold is getting better.  So a good night’s sleep will help, I’m sure.

Goodnight from the Disney Magic!