Rats. It’s our last day. Up early to hit the bakery for a last coffee and pastry, and to watch the dawn break over the harbour. Lovely morning, but of course it’s predicted to go down hill from here. Greece has been magnificent. The warmest, friendliest and most patient of any of the nations we have visited on this trip. Genuine smiles, lovely food, reasonable prices. What’s not to love.
I had visions of sailing into Santorini harbour late afternoon as the sun set, having a final drink to celebrate our mastery of sailing, and pledging eternal fealty to our fellow crew, but that was nowhere near what transpired. That old north wind that annoyed us at the start of our cruise is coming back with a vengeance tonight. Depending on which weather site you look at, there will either be force 8 or force 9 winds from about midnight. At the docks, everything that could be tied down has been. Cruises starting tomorrow have been delayed until they have some idea of how long it will last, and passengers have been told to organise their own accommodation.
Ferries have been cancelled for tomorrow, so everybody is on board today. We chose to go from Ios to Santorini on the biggest, slowest ferry as it’s also the most reliable and most stable in rough weather. We weren’t the only people to have that thought. I really have no idea how many thousand were on the ferry, but it took over an hour when we arrived to get us all off and to send the ferry on it’s way to a few more islands before heading to Athens overnight.
Actually a very smooth ride, though it was only 30 minutes. Took longer than that for the Chinese tour groups to get their luggage up and down the lifts to the sixth floor because, of course, that’s far safer than leaving the luggage in the luggage storage area on the lower deck and having it locked up.
Seems the hotel didn’t get my email about organising a transfer to the hotel, even though I have a ‘sent’ confirmation, so we wasted about an hour finding a taxi amongst the melee.
It’s hard to adequately describe the Santorini port. Santorini is the top of a volcano poking through the Aegean Sea. It is a large caldera with an opening to the sea on one side. The town has been built on the top of the volcano’s flank, and the port has been excavated from the side of the caldera. There is a cliff between them that goats shake their heads at. They have built this zig zag road into the cliff face all the way to the top for cars, buses, taxis, trucks, mopeds, motorcycles and probably the odd donkey to navigate. The switchback corners are so tight that only one vehicle can take the corner at any time. I’m not sure whether it was etiquette or necessity that saw all the buses and trucks coming down held at the top until all the disembarking buses and cars had got up, but there were a squad of police blowing whistles in a futile attempt to tame the confusion.
By the time the tour groups had got their luggage down from the sixth floor, wheeled them off the boat, found their bus, and the bus had got up the hill, we had realised that our transfer was missing in action, so Brendan used his calm demeanour and negotiating skills to find a reasonable taxi whilst I prudently kept out of the way.
Finally got to the hotel, and checked in. Right on the other side of the island built on the lava plain at the end of the main airport runway, so we are certain that flights are still departing. Only a few yards from the beach, so we walked down and chose a nice looking Greek restaurant for our last Greek meal. Different sort of habits. Here they charge you for your water and your bread, but then give you free dessert and free ouzo afterwards.
A reasonably early night before a reasonably early morning departure.
Last Greek Sunrise
Farewell Dinner
Our Santorini Ferry
Santorini Beach
Kayla Suites Santorini