Santorini Day .5

We woke up this morning at a reasonable time and after some exercise with the TRX we had some breakfast.  It was a nice time to lounge before getting on the ferry for a few more hours out to Santorini. 

The kids continued to fish and caught a few more things until Rilley and Vivian thought it was time to go in for a dip. The Aegean can apparently be a little cold at this time of year. Riley who is our notorious blue lipper, did not fail to get chilled to the bone and had to take a long shower to warm up. 

We boarded the ferry with the plan to eat lunch to keep consistent with our goal of making lunch the most expensive meal. The seas were pretty rough today. While waiting the 15 minutes or so in line to order and pick up our food I began to feel a bit queezy and began to second guess the whole idea of food. But we persevered. The kids had a bunch of laughs trying to get back to our table with a tray full of food without wiping out. We passed the time by looking out the window and playing Rummy by the sea. 

We stopped at a few islands that had some rather beautiful houses and churches on them. 

You quickly realize how far from the task of capturing these images your little camera is when the view is so expansive.

The shot above and below are the village of Oia on Santorini Island. It is amazing how these hamlets cling to the mountainside. 

 

We are staying in the Village of Kamari which is a beachside, not a cliff side, town.  But, beach is in the eye of the beholder. This was a black volcanic sand beach of which the grains a bit coarse (think BB size) and the surface under the surf is as hard as concrete and undulates in 6 inch high ripples. The waves would have made for great body surfing but the finish would have made for a bloody mess. 

When we landed we were just a little late for the last cab to climb the hill from the ferry landing which left us wondering what to do. We could take the local bus but that would put us up to 60 mins out of the way. So we negotiated a deal with the speediest racer of them all. This guy was tripling the speed limit in his van full of souls in a way that made the Englishman next to Patti go white knuckle on the 'Oh $h!t' handle.  Just so we are clear, he was 120 kph in the 30 kph zones.  I was praying that this guy was not a dog lover because if one crossed the road it was either the dog or all of us. 

Exhilarated as we were, we finally made our stop as the first to exit the land missile, not sure what ever happened to the Englishman.  Upon our exit we inquired of the driver where our place was, he pointed down the street "that way".  Gee, thanks!  As it turns out it was just down the street where it turned pedestrian only.

Our place was great, Patti picked another winner.  This place had a pool and an outdoor bar complete with bartender/DJ.  We have stayed in some really crazy places over the years and this one ranks among the nicest. Unlike this one in Defeng China for instance.  These are the communal showers down the hall.  I won't even show you the communal toilet. 

The kids and I did jump in the Aegean to experience the aforementioned concrete bottom. It was cold. So cold that, surprise, Riley turned blue, but we pressed on. This was supposed to be the beach vacation segment of our trip and we are having to modify that slightly. After our dip we hustled back to jump in the nice warm pool.  It turned out to be unheated and only slightly warmer but much less exciting then the sea. Later we talked to the owner and she said she never gets in the water before August ;-)

Patti and I were served another great dinner spread by the kiddos. This time they impersonated French waiters by drawing mustaches on their fingers and talking in their finest French accents.

After dinner we went for a stroll by the water and discovered a cache of Milka so bountiful that the girls almost went into cardiac arrest. 

Finally, as we were bedding down about 9:00, everyone else was getting up. We share cute little adjoined patio with two other rooms and it was party central. So we fired up an iPad on each end of the room with our favorite sleep noise generators and dreamed we were on a beach, in a downpour holding out against a windstorm. 

Images in 2015 Santorini Day .5.