Ferry to Santorini
21 April 2013 | Thira, Greece
Ange & Steve
Saturday 20th April
The forecast was for the wind to keep blowing from the north so we decided to catch the ferry to Santorini to catch up with Dennis & Sandra & see the island. Santorini is south of Naxos and if we sail down there in these conditions, we may not be able to make it back, so the ferry looked like a good option. Caught the ferry at 1pm & arrived at the port in Santorini at about 3.30pm via Ios. Hired a car & off to see Dennis & Sandra at the island's marina. Chatted to them for a couple of hours & off to Oia at the north of the island to find some accommodation & watch the sunset. Had trouble finding accommodation, so parked the car & went to the tip of Oia to see the sunset. Amazed at the number of people standing everywhere watching the sun go down, even though it is still low season & not a very nice day at all. Found a reasonable hotel near the church in Oia & then had a nice dinner at a small tavern along the main walkway along the top of the cliff. Oia is very spectacular at night - looking down towards the caldera at all the lights, pools lit up etc. Almost like a fairy wonderland! A big day!
Sunday 21st April
Woken at 7.30am by church bells! Up, showers & a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Had another walk around Oia, then into the car & along to Fira (the main town on Santorini) for a walk around - very touristy with lots of expensive shops, boutiques etc. Back to the car & a trip to the local 'Lidl' - like Aldi, however being Sunday it was closed, so no cheap beer for Steve or cheap face cream for Ange! Drove back down to the southern tip of the island to have a look at the ancient ruins recommended by the car hire lady. As we drove down, we could see Dennis & Sandra's little cat sailing alongside the island on their way to Sikinos. Hooray, they are finally on their way & off the island!!! (They had been caught for 9 days due to wind). Two minutes later we received a text saying they had to turn back & to meet them back at the marina if we wanted! We'd abandoned the idea of having a look at the ruins anyway as entry was too expensive, so we drove to the marina & had another chat with D & S for a couple of hours before we caught the ferry back to Naxos. A quick two hour trip back to Naxos. Both of us pretty tired after a couple of big days. Checked the weather for Monday - looked OK to sail across to Paros for a short day before heading either to Mykonos or Siros on Tuesday.