Bye Athens. Hello Santorini.
Our slow boat to Santorini was scheduled to leave Piraeus at 7:35am. The company (Blue Star Ferries) asked all passengers to be at the dock an hour before, that would be 6:35am. We needed to ride a metro train to the dock, a 20 minute ride. We had to walk to the metro station a 20 minute (1 mile) walk. You do the math. We had to get up at 4:45am to get to the dock by 6:35, allowing a little time for unforeseen circumstances. So we did.
Greece still has an 12:30am to 5:30am curfew, so we could not leave the apartment before 5:30. We walked out the door at exactly 5:30am, packs on our backs, headed to the metro.
They had washed the streets overnight so they were a bit slippery. They must be disinfecting the pavement because the faint smell of chlorine permeated the cool morning air. The metro was running.
We arrived at the dock (E7) at 6:25 and found the ship backed up to the landing already loading cars and trucks. We walked up the passenger loading ramp, handed over our COVID health papers, flashed our electronic tickets at the scanner and rode the escalators to deck 6 to begin our 7 hours cruise to Santorini.
We walked to the back of the ship to watch the loading process and found a table and chairs a few feet from the railing to plop our packs and butts in. We removed them (butts) from time to time over the next 8 hours, but generally remained planted, enjoying the views, the fresh air and our introduction to the Agean Sea. The boat stopped at Paros, Naxos and Ios to deposit and take on cars and people, then cruised into the caldera that Santorini encloses and backed up to the quay to disgorge us onto the island.
We found a public bus parked nearby, and after ascertaining that it would come close to the Lodos Hotel, we put our packs in the hold below and boarded. Once underway, the ticket seller collected payment from the passengers, 2 euros for the ride. The road switchbacks up the inside wall of the caldera until it reaches the rim.
Once on top, we made our way north toward Thera, the main city on the island. The driver dropped us at a bus stop adjacent to the Lodos Hotel. We walked down the access road and into the registration lobby to meet Renos. A half an hour of conversation and instructions and we were in our room.
Sally and I were thinking this would be the low point in accommodations for our month in Greece, but to our surprise we found it comfortable and more than adequate. A quick shower and a few moments of organization and we were out the door and hoofing it up the road to Thera.
When I was researching places to stay I read about the 3/4 mile walk up to town, but when cruising over it in Google Earth I could not see sidewalks and imagined walking on the shoulder of a fairly busy road. In reality, the fairly busy road gets upgraded to very busy, but there is a sidewalk. Luckily, the hotel is off the road, so the noise is a bit distant.
Bill Caldwell, this is right up your alley. Across the highway is a bakery that is open 24 hours a day. Only 100 yards away!
We stopped in to sample their offerings on our way up to Thera to explore. We found they also have deli type items, including a to-die-for spinach pastry. OMG was it good. With pastry consumed, we walked up to Thera to find it mostly empty, just like everywhere else on this charmed trip. We walked the length and breadth of the town, taking in the hundreds of restaurants and trinket shops with employees idly looking for non-existent customer.
But, what our eyes were really drawn to was the tremendous beauty of this expansive and exquisite volcanic caldera that lay 1500ft below us. What a spectacular geologic feature! It is fascinating to see how enterprising humans have built right on top of the ridge, extending their habitations and businesses as far as possible down the inside of the near vertical crater wall. All are painted blindingly white with blue trim. From the boat they look like snow on the ridge line.
This volcano is dormant, but not dead. A few good earthquakes could dislodge many of these buildings from the rim and send them sliding down to the sea. Let’s hope they were built under the inspection of earthquake codes.
We finished up our tour about 7:15pm, had a gelato and decided to stay for the sunset, which is the main attraction for the island. We checked our phones and found it occurred at exactly 8:30pm, about an hour to kill.
Rick Steves warns in his book of the tremendous crush of people that fill every vantage point on the ridge to secure a prime viewing spot. He warns to pick your spot an hour before sunset and defend it vigorously.
Our “crowd” was about 25 people milling about or passing through. The 100s of tables in restaurants all along the ridge were 95% empty with waiters standing around twiddling their thumbs (this is a mental image-I didn’t actually see any of them twiddling their thumbs).
By 8:10pm all the benches along the open area were full (6 benches, 2 or 3 people to a bench) with about 2 dozen others milling about. At 8:20pm the sun set into a cloud bank. A few people who had read their phones to find the setting time showed up in the next few minutes only to disappointedly walk away having missed the show. But! The sun re-emerged below the clouds and put on a fine display as it glowed red and sank to and finally below the horizon. Show over.
We walked the 3/4 miles back to the hotel, stopping at the 24 hour bakery to get a treat (a cookie each, a slice of a chicken pie like pastry, another helping of spinach pie) and then to home and to bed. What a wonderful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment