Santorini, Greece

Our last cruise stop in Greece was to the island of Santorini. We voted this port the prettiest of all the places we went.  We left the curtains open the night before, and were woken up by a gorgeous sunset over the island.

 

the first peak of the sun

 

While the crew anchored us in the lagoon, we had breakfast on the ship and waited for our tender boat to shore, similar to Kotor and Mykonos.

view of our ship from the tender

Our ship anchored just off of the Old Port, which is right below the cliffside town of Fira. From the port, there are three ways you can get to the top: 1) hike, 2) take a cable car, or 3) ride a donkey. We chose the donkey ride, which I would recommend doing if you are up for it. The cable car has a realllly long line, and if you hike you have to take the same path as the donkeys...and their poop. No thanks. It was about a 20 minute ride to the top, and it wasn't too bad except when my donkey tripped and almost fell, which was mildly terrifying for a minute.

the donkey path - let's do this!

I only got a few pictures of the view on the way up before my donkey stumbled, at which point I put my camera safely in my bag and held on tightly with two hands!

Once we got into Fira, we caught a local bus to Oia, which is the very picturesque town you see on postcards and that you imagine when you think "Greek islands", with all the blue-domed churches situated on the cliff. We spent the entire day just walking around and stopping at all the viewpoints.

turret viewpoint

 

 

We stopped for lunch at Lotza Restaurant - the food was amazing (we loved loved loved all the seafood in Greece!) and the view was to die for.  

Bo had the lamb shank - his favorite meal of the trip

I had seafood pasta, which was second only to the mussels we had in Athens

couldn't ask for a better lunchtime view!

When I posted a picture of our Mythos beer in Mykonos, my friend Lindsay suggested we try Alpha, which she and her husband liked even better than Mythos. We were on the hunt for it all through Oia, and found Neptune Restaurant, a shaded rooftop bar and restaurant that served Alpha. We agreed with Lindsay and Dryw - thanks for the recommendation! We sat here for quite a while enjoying the beer and the view.

The bus only runs twice an hour, so we shared a taxi with some other people to get back into Fira, and then took the cable car down to the port.

here you can see part of the donkey trail, and the town of Fira atop the cliffs

that's a lot of donkeys!

view of Fira from the ship

That evening we saw yet another gorgeous sunset over the Mediterranean Sea. I love watching the colors in the sky change so drastically in such a short amount of time. It was the only day we watched both the sunrise and sunset, which is a pretty perfect day if you ask me. In case you somehow haven't noticed yet, I just love pictures of the sun over water :)

We absolutely loved Oia, and again wished we had more time to spend there and to see the rest of the island.  So much for crossing it off our vacation list - now we've added a whole "Greek Islands" trip to take one day!