Probably everyone has heard of Santorini. This is the “must see” island of the Greek Cyclades—the most popular in Greece but also one of the most beautiful volcanic islands in the world. You can try to prepare for what you will see entering the caldera but the view is so breathtaking every time, that you cannot imagine the scale of the ancient volcano and recent caldera until you get there. Sailing slowly into the giant caldera in the soft morning is one of the highlights of this voyage. Many of us stand next to the bridge with cameras ready to capture the moment. The giant cliff with layer after layer of lava and volcanic ash play colorfully in the light. It’s hard to imagine one of the biggest eruptions ever, taking place in the 17th century BC, that destroyed one of the greatest civilizations in the history.
The first place we visit is Oia, the little town situated on the northern part of the island. With colorful painted little houses, picturesque cave homes in the cliff and magnificent views of the whole caldera with the new volcano in the middle, this is one of my favorite places. We wandered through the narrow alleys along the cliffside, passing by the inviting small cafes and art galleries until we found the three-dome church that everyone knows from postcards. Everyone found something for themselves: either having a frappe in one of the cafeterias with marvelous view of the caldera, looking for some special gifts in the little stores or walking to the end of town where the captain’s houses were built.
Soon it was time for lunch. The restaurant of Nektario is one of the best in Pyrgos town. We tried different mezedes: stuffed Santorini tomatoes, tomato keftedes, fava, bougiourdi, meatballs… and all of this with great Santorini wine finished with a delicious orange cake and coffee.
Unfortunately there was no time for siesta since we still had to go to the main town of the island: Fira. First we visited an outstanding museum with artifacts found in Akrotiri, so once more we discovered how sophisticated the civilization of the island was before the volcano erupted. Full with knowledge we headed to the cable car looking at the windows of millions of shops with gold jewelry, souvenirs, shoes, clothes, Greek frozen yogurt—all in between cafes and restaurants situated at the edge of the rim. The younger and young at heart took a donkey ride back to the port having a lot of fun together, although all donkeys like to walk really close to the edge! The tenders took us back to the ship where the swimming platform was already set up. Has anyone ever swum in a caldera? Of course not, so our “swimming pool” was full of guests who wanted to have this unusual experience.
Fresh and clean we were ready to finish our day with the delicious dinner buffet on deck, slowly leaving the caldera in the orange light of sunset. This was a perfect night for overnight sailing so the crew set the lower square sails and we were sailing with a light breeze under a sky full of stars.
