Santorini

Photo – Dianne, John and George half way up the donkey path. (he probably has a photo of me on the donkey path on his blog). George and Dianne passed us. Didn't even offer to help us old people up the stairs...young people today, I don't know!!!!!

29 June

What a great day in Santorini. We sailed in to great cliffs topped with shining whitewashed houses. Santorini is a tender port and, unless you are on a ship's tour, there are three ways up the cliffs to the town of Fira – a cable car with six cars, taking 4-6 people in each car for 4 euros per person, ride a donkey for 4 Euros per person or walk up the donkey path which zig zags up the cliffs, 588 steps to the top. We arrived at 7.00 am and my plan was to let most people go ashore figuring that the queue at the cable car would have diminished. This was before we were eating breakfast and saw three other ships arrive. We were waiting for Allan and Sally and at 8.30, because Allan was still having breakfast, we decided to go on our own and meet them somewhere. When our tender number eventually was called and we arrived ashore, the queue for the cable car was about a kilometre long so we opted to walk up the donkey path. An interesting exercise !!. The 588 steps were the least of our worries. The two way donkeys, those carrying people up, and those coming back empty were an interesting addition to the path and there were dozens of them at a time, going both ways. Neither way had any method of actually steering the donkeys, the donkeys just decided for themselves where they would go. It was an experience I wouldn't have missed but was glad to get to the top. The walk down didn't have as many donkey obstacles, more people opted to go up on them than down. Took 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down. The town of Fira at the top and the views around Santorini are stunning. Next year's cruise doesn't go there but to Mykynos I think. My son, Peter, says he much prefers the island of Ios so if it is nicer than Santorini, I would like to see it. On the tender going over, we met up with Rosemary and Barry who are at our dining table and had a great day, finished by having a late lunch in a restaurant with magnificient views over the town and the Aegean Sea. I bought a leather handbag – first new handbag I've bought for about eight years – told you I'm not a shopper. John, of course, bought another shirt + a belt, a wallet etc etc. We were to stay in Santorini until 8.00pm but because of our revised itinerary due to the general strike in Athens, we sailed at 4.00pm. Didn't give us a lot of choice of things to do. Either travel around the island or stay in Fira but not a lot of time to do both. We were supposed to be back on board by 3.00 and we arrived at 3.00. When I started writing this blog, I could still smell donkeys then I realised it's my shoes. Yuck!!! They are living on the balcony for a while.

Note: John and Barry did the downhill trip in less time than Rosemary and I and were having a cold beer at the bottom when we arrived. Rosie and I could have fallen and broken our legs or been knocked over by a donkey and they wouldn't have known.

We have almost two days at sea now arriving 1.30pm in Venice, Thursday. We are down to two weeks until the cruise ends for us. I hope you are all feeling sorry for us.

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