Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Santorini, Greece then sailing toward Naples, at sea tomorrow
Ahhhh, Santorini. What can you say that hasn't already been said? Nothing. Every superlative in our language, or any other, works for this place. It is what you see, and think of, whenever you see a tourism brochure or poster advertising the 'Greek Islands'. Blue sky, blue water, whitewashed small block-like houses, colorful flowers. And here on the island, what do you see when you get here. Just that, the blue sky and water, the white houses, splashes of color, and our huge cruise ship floating in the caldera there below us looking like a bath toy. The island delivers on the tourist hype.
This island has an interesting history, and was the source of the 'Minoan Event' that wiped the highly advanced Minoan civilization off the map of not only this island but every other Aegean island including Crete which was thier home base. That happened about 2500 years ago when the volcanic island that was the original Santorini (actually, the name of the island is 'Thera' in Greek, and adopted the name 'Santorini' - for Saint Irene - later in time) blew up in a cataclysmic blast. Some scientists say it was the largest explosion in the known history of the world, larger than Krakatoa's blast east of Java. The tsunami wave was gigantic, devastating Crete and the Minoans and leaving its mark on the coast of Egypt and Egyptian civilization also. The explosion, caused by steam from seawater leaking into the active volcano, flung many tons of matter into the atmosphere and vaporized much of the island, leaving behind a chain of six small islands in a ring around the caldera, and the current town is itself now up high on a vertical cliff rising straight out of the sea. So, a spectacular beginning indeed.
This island is one of the so-called 'Cyclades' group of islands that exist in the Agean sea in a roughly circular shape that is itself perhaps suggesting explosive volcanic origins. One other island in that group, already visited, is Mykonos. The other islands in the Cyclades group are sparsely populated, or uninhabited, as there is no fresh water to speak of. So Mykonos and Santorini are the poster children here, and are so stunning in their beauty that they are literally the poster sources for visiting the Greek Islands. What they have done is TO REQUIRE, BY LAW that all buildings on the islands conform to a building code that dictates the low, block-like rectangular construction, rounded corners, whitewashed exteriors, and blue window shutters and doors. The blue sky and sea kind of take care of themselves, seemingly every day of the year, and it is up to the photographer to position him or herself in such a way as to catch it all in an artful way.
We came ashore at our first tender port of the cruise, with the tender provided from Santorini under the agreement with 'The Santorini Boatmen's Association'. That must be a lucerative contract, as there were four cruise ships in the caldera basin today and everything that floats was pressed into service to bring the passengers ashore. We came ashore in a three-masted square rigged diesel powered sailing ship relic. But we made it. At the dock we lined up and piled into our assigned busses for the long climb up the hill. How high a hill, was it scary??? Just look at the pictures Jan selected, yes we were way up there.
Our first stop was for a 'Greek Breakfast', as our tour guide put it, consisting of hard biscuits, olives, and wine. Yes, we stopped at a winery at about 8:30am, huge busses stopping one after another, each vomiting forth a long straggling row of tourists that were 'eager' for the first opportunity to be fleeced of cash and loaded up with trinkets. There was a wine tasting, a white and a red, and an amber desert wine, with the opportunity to buy them if we liked them. I had a taste of the amber and it hit me like a brick in the early morning on an empty stomach, so I stowed my glass and focused on taking pictures the rest of the time. The wine was good though, and Jan bought a bottle to take home to London and the girls.
Back on the busses and down to a little town called Aoi. Again, from the bus park to the view points we had to run the gauntlet of shops and agressive vendors, but we were able to restrict ourselves to buying only what we planned on getting. But it was close, the Greeks are agressive and savvy merchants. This is the place that is featured on all the tourist brochures as the 'image' of the Greek Islands, and it is gorgeous. We bought the painting here that we had planned on acquiring, and it is just what we wanted.
Back on the busses for the haul to the main city. Again, we were dropped at one end of the long, long gauntlet of shops and had to work our way along the winding road. We stopped for sandwiches and beer/wine, and enjoying the view, then pressed on up the hill after a while. At the top of the hill is the way down from the peak, via cable car. The busses had left us there, at the mercy of the hungry merchants, a giant conspiracy I'm sure as they could have brought us down again but didn't. I'm sure that the tour company owner's huge extended family are all merchants selling stuff to the weary boat people that wind their way to the top for the cable car, but what do I know. We were in the line for about 45 minutes to get to the cable car, but chatted with those in line near us and the time passed quickly. Finally, down the hill in a steep drop, four minutes to the bottom followed by a ride back to the Ruby Princess via a covered lifeboat used as a tender, everyone clutching their treasures and trying not to become ill from motion sickness down in the bottom of the boat.
Aboard at last, and a nap before dinner.
