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Santorini - Views from Oia
and the archaeology of Akrotiri
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Saturday 27th September 2014
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It was another early morning arrival
- this time at the unmistakable circular shape of islands making
up the Santorini archipelago. |
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Santorini caldera is a large, mostly submerged caldera.
Visible above water is the circular Santorini island group,
consisting of Santorini (aka Thera), the main island,
Therasia and Aspronisi at the periphery, and the Kameni
islands at the centre.
Our ship sailed towards the port of Athinios. As it is
only a small port, we anchored nearby and were taken ashore
by smaller ferries sent from the port. A fleet of four
coaches awaited us ashore. We were then driven up a very
steep and winding road to the top of the cliff (formerly
the edge of the caldera).
The planned route for the day was to head right up to
the north of the island, to the village of Oia, then back
to the centre of the island for lunch at a restaurant
in Pyrgos (the old capital of the island). After lunch
we were to drive further south to the archaeological site
of Akrotiri.
Finally we would drive north again to the capital, Fira
for a bit of retail therapy before making our own way
down, in a cable car, to the old port of Fira to be met
by one of the ship's tenders for the short crossing back
to our ship.
It all sounded very interesting.
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On the ferry from the ship to the
port of Athinios, with Evelyn & Ken (plus Yorkie, the stowaway
bear) |
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The small port of Athinios - definitely
not big enough for a ship the size of ours. |
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Leaving Athinios and driving up
the steeping and winding road. The views got better as we climbed. |
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About forty five minutes later,
we arrived in the lovely village of Oia on the north of the island. |
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The views would have been better if
we'd had a bit of sunshine. It was dry, however and we felt
very lucky to be here. It is amazing to think that we were
looking at the site of a huge volcanic eruption around 3600
years ago! |
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As we sailed from place to place on
this cruise, the sight of our ship anchored or docked somewhere
in the distance was always good. It felt somehow comforting
to see our floating home and know that we would be returning
there later. |
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Caldera Square and the church of
Panagia of Platsani |
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The village of Oia is full of expensive
looking designer boutiques... |
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...with equally desirable and expensive
looking places to stay. |
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After our photo taking bonanza in Oia,
it was back on the coach for about another half an hour
to get to our lunch venue in Pyrgos. We managed to get a
table next to a window with a lovely view. The main course
was Moussaka, which we both enjoyed. There was a starter
and a dessert too, but we can't quite remember what they
were. |
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After lunch, it was only a short drive to the archaeological
site of Akrotiri. By the time we arrived there, it had
started to rain quite heavily and so it was quite a relief
to find that the entire site was under cover!
Akrotiri is a Minoan Bronze Age settlement which was
destroyed in a volcanic eruption about 3600 years ago.
Volcanic ash preserved the remains of fine frescoes and
many objects and artworks. Sadly, there aren't many of
the finds to be seen on the site itself, because they
are exhibited at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, which
we didn't get to visit. Nevertheless, seeing the actual
site and the excavations there was very interesting.
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This is a photo of a model of the site. |
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The visitor path around the site
allowed us to see everthing very clearly. |
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| It was still raining when we left Akrotiri and drove back
to the capital, Fira. The coach couldn't take us all the way
back to the cable car station so we had to walk for a short
distance in the rain. If the weather had been better, we might
have lingered and had a good look around, but instead we decided
to go back to the ship, by way of the cable car and ship's
tender. We were later told that we were very lucky that we
didn't have to queue for the cable car. Perhaps this was because
there weren't that many cruise ships visiting that day. It
might also have been a seasonal thing, but either way, we
were able to walk straight into a waiting cable car. |
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Geoff isn't too comfortable about cable
cars, so he just had to close his eyes and do it! Actually,
he seemed remarkably relaxed as we descended. He must be getting
used to them. In under five minutes, we were down at the old
port of Fira (also known as Skala). |
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The donkey path (as seen from the cable
car) is the only other way to get from Fira down to the
little port below. We were warned not to attempt the path
on foot at the (high) risk of slipping in donkey droppings,
especially in wet weather! |
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From the tender station, we didn't
have long to wait for the ship's tender to arrive. We were looking
forward to afternoon tea on board. |
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The view of Santorini from the ship,
with the village of Oia in the distance on the right and Thirasia
island on the left. |
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From this distance, it looked like
seagulls had been making their homes on the cliff top. |
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A zoomed in shot of Fira... hmmm,
is that sunshine? A bit late now! |
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Another zoomed in shot... this time
of the cable car and the donkey track next to it. |
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Video: Looking back at the main
island as we sailed away, late in the afternoon. |
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Next stop, Kos. Well, that's what
we thought at the time! |
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