Santorini – Thira
The Panorama made her way through building seas throughout the night, heading south toward Sunday’s destination of the island of Santorini. The ancient Greeks have called this island Thira for a thousand years and during our day on this island this ancient name surfaced again and again!
At approximately 7:00 a.m. the Panorama entered the caldera of Santorini from its northern entrance with the town of Oia 300 meters above us, perched on top of the northern tip of the island. The sun was just starting to rise, bathing the curved tips of the island in early golden light. Santorini is the most southern of the Cycladic Islands and is actually a circular archipelago of islands which are remnants of one of the most legendary volcanic explosions in Mediterranean history. The eruption buried the sophisticated civilization that once flourished on Santorini and was based at the present-day archeological site of Akrotiri, also creating a caldera that is 76 square kilometers in size.
As breakfast was served the Panorama motored slowly towards a set of mooring buoys underneath the main town of Firá. A local tender would be ferrying our group to the island, bringing us ashore at the port of Athinios, slightly south of Firá. Two busses were awaiting our arrival and would be our transportation for most of our day on Santorini. Our first stop was Oia at the most northern tip, where we would have an opportunity to walk the narrow streets, exploring the most-photographed village in all of Greece. The caldera was far below us, the blue Aegean white-capped but still lovely from our high vantage point. Our group maintained its run of good luck, and we were fortunate to be part of a small group of visitors in Oia! Our morning was spent losing ourselves in tiny alley ways, finding flowers, old doors, windmills, and many, many blue doomed churches to include in our photos.
In the late morning we returned to our busses to continue the second half of our scenic drive back along a different route, returning to the southern end of the island and the small village of Pirgos. Lunch ashore afforded more time to explore Santorini, and the opportunity to enjoy a traditional taverna meal at a local restaurant called Kallisti. In a lovely setting a delicious Greek “meze,” consisting of an ongoing series of small plates or appetizers, continued to come to our tables accompanied by locally made white wine. After lunch we returned by bus to the central town of Firá. Our first stop was the archaeology museum where some depth was added to the archaeology and the Minoan history of Santorini Island.
From this point we would have to make our way towards the cable car and/or donkeys, which were the only methods of transportation when returning to the port more than 300 meters below and access back to the Panorama. Through the densely packed jewelry, clothing and souvenir shops, cliff-side cafes and many narrow alleyways we wandered, heading in the general direction of our transportation of choice to return to the seaside port and local tenders that would ferry us back to the Pa orama.
During our visit to Santorini the God Poseidon had stirred the winds of the Aegean, and once back at sea level it was apparent to us all that we would be looking for protection from high winds and hoping for a quiet anchorage for the evening. The Captain traveled approximately two hours, heading for Mylopotas Bay located on the southwest side of the island of Eos where we had a peaceful evening at anchor, allowing for a comfortable recap and evening meal.
Our day at Santorini, considered one of the high lights of the Cycladic Islands had been rewarding in many ways. Our evening meal had included a gift of 5 kilos of home-pressed wine from Nektario, the owner of Kallisti, where we enjoyed our midday meal! A gift of wine—a last reminder to us all, of the island of Santorini and the kindness and hospitality that is a constant in Greece.
