Into the Volcano!

Friday March 31 started cloudy but by early afternoon it had turned sunny.  It was still very windy.  The high was 16C.  We had an exciting day.  We walked to the town of Fira and took the cable car to the old port.  We were taking a tour to the volcanic islands of New Kameni for a hike to the top of an active volcano and Palia Kameni, where there are hot springs.

We learned that it was about 1626 BC when the huge volcano eruption took place on Srongyli (the old name of Santorini).  Millions of cubic metres of ash and pumice were blown up to several metres above the island.  The eruption lasted about 72 hours and it resulted in the collapse of the centre of the island and the creation of the caldera.  Tidal waves reached a speed of approximately 1,000 km/hour and wiped out the Minoan civilization.

The remains of the eruption are the island of Santorini and a number of small volcanic islands including the two on our tour.  It was during the Venetian regime between the 13th and 16th centuries that the island was given its name; it was named Santorini after the Byzantine church of Saint Irene in Persisa (a small village on the island).

We left the port at 11:00 a.m.

Shadows of cable car as we were going down to the port

View from cable car

View up from the port

Another boat like the one we boarded in the port

View up to the town of Fira

Another view

Landing at Nea Kameni-- lava rock

Lava rock and water

Green sea from the sulphur

We had to disembark from our boat by crossing over the other boats.

Row of boats stopping at island

Heading up to the top

About a 25 minute walk to the top of the active volcano

View from the volcano

We passed an inactive crater on the way up and then reached the active part of the volcano.

Inactive crater

Walking up to the top

One of my favourite rocks with the crack

We reached the active part of the volcano.  One can see smoke coming from the rock.  Our guide told us that with the constant measuring that takes place,  there would be signs well in advance of any possible eruption.  So, we were safe for our walk.  The smoke is sulphur and it would be very hot to walk close to the smokey area.  We had a path to follow around the "hot spots".

Smoke is the sulphur from the active part of the volcano

Getting near the top

Windy on the top of the active volcano

View back to Fira

Near the top of the active volcano

Alain just starting back from the top of the volcano 

After climbing down the volcano we got back in the boat and went to the second volcanic island called Palaia Kameni where there are hot springs.

En route to the second island- the sea was a beautiful blue

It turned out the hot springs were in a cove just beside the island.  Folks who wanted to go swimming had to very quickly change into their bathing suits, jump out of the boat, travel through a cold part of the water and then into the brown water of the hot springs.  As the air was still chilly (about 15C) and it was quite windy, I decided (even though I had brought my bathing suit), as most people did, to stay on the boat.

Brave folks reaching the hot springs (brown water)

Returning to the boat

The visit to the hot springs was short, and we then headed back to town.  The clouds started to blow away and it was beautiful with blue water, blue sky, the gorgeous caldera, and the white town on the hill.

Return boat getting close to Fira-- gorgeous patterns in the rocks

We were hungry when we got back to town at about 2:15 p.m.  We went to a recommended street food place called Yogi, where we both had delicious chicken gyros (much better than in North America)

Alain with his chicken gyro

We then went for a coffee at a small place called Lila Cafe Wine Bar.  We sat outside in the sun for quite a while as there was WIFI.

At Lila's

We walked around and bumped into a group of people and photographers - looked like folks in town for a "Beijing wedding".

We wandered some more and I took a picture of some of the fancy hotels below where we were walking.  Swimming pools are started to get filled and dot the landscape.  The architecture in the cliffs is very unique.

View from the top of Fira

We ended the day with a glass of white wine at the Palia Kameni Bar, where we had been on Thursday.  It is such a gorgeous spot.  We could see the two volcanic islands we had visited in the morning.

"Our bar"

Alain waiting for his wine

We were both pretty tired from the walk up the volcano.  The restaurant we were going to eat at only opens on April 1 for the season.  We decided to eat at the apartment and go to the restaurant on Saturday.  We bought some lovely spinach and vegetable pies at the Cretan bakery near our apartment.  We had the pies with a green salad, a glass of white wine and some halva for dessert -perfect!

Discovering Santorini

Thursday March 30 started cloudy in Mykonos.  Out host took us to the port to catch the fast ferry to Santorini.  It left at about 10:20 a.m. and got into Santorini two hours later.  It was a very smooth ride and fast.  

Santorini is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea.  Santorini was once a circular island, known as Strongili (the Round One).  Thousands of years ago, a huge volcanic eruption caused the centre of the island to sink, leaving a caldera (or crater) with towering cliffs - now Santorini's trademark landscape.  There was a major earthquake on the island in 1956, but by the 1970s tourism was big again.  Santorini has oddly become the scene of many Chinese bridal parties, in part due to a film Beijing Love Story, which was filmed partly in Santorini.  There are many signs in Chinese around town.

We landed at the port of Athinios, where it was pouring rain. It is a very small chaotic port, that one immediately leaves.  We caught a local bus heading to Fira, the capital of Santorini.  A long and winding road uphill. We asked the bus driver to stop at Karterados, where we are staying. It is a town about two km from Fira.  We are only about a five minute walk from the bus stop.  We are staying at Kelenis Apartments, which we rented through airbnb.  There are about five apartments in the building and a pool.  It is more like a hotel apartment suite as there is a kitchen, but is also cleaned every day or so.  

Athinios port-- dark volcanic rock                                        

Pool at our apartment building-- but probably too cold to go in

 Our hostess came quickly to meet us and give us the lay of the land.  The place is fine and very reasonable in the off-season, but Karterados is not much to look at, though there are a number of hotels and pensions in the area.  Accommodation was hard to find in Fira as it still the off season and there were not many airbnb listings.  There is an excellent Cretan bakery, Erotokritos, about five minutes away with a vast array of breads, pastries and coffee.  The locals all shop there.  We picked up some treats, found a fish store and a supermarket all nearby.

Bedroom 

Kitchen and dining room area

Alain outside our apartment

Cretan bakery- so much choice

It was still cloudy when we walked to Fira.  The central square with a number of shops and fast food places was not much to look at, so we decided to walk to the cable car which we will take on Friday to get to the old Port of Fira to take a boat tour of a small volcanic island and hot springs.   What emerges is an incredible view of the islands off Fira, the caldera, and the beautiful houses on the cliffs of Fira.

View of another island and cruise boat anchored offshore

View of the town and caldera in the background

Many hotels on the caldera are not open yet

Wow and wow!

City on the cliffs

Fortunately, the sun came out and it warmed up to a very pleasant 16C.

Enjoying the incredible view

Cable car with view of port below

After finding the cable car we headed into the main part of Fira, passing a number of beautiful churches and buildings on the way.

Beautiful arches

A well preserved bell tower

As was the case in Mykonos, donkeys are everywhere and one can take a donkey ride rather than the cable car down to the old port of Fira.

One donkey train- rider being greeted by friends

We were walking down one path and a man with a camera was waiting to take a picture of a donkey train coming up the hill.  I took a similar shot.  The donkeys here seem to be in pretty good shape.

Donkeys with view of city behind

The third way of getting down to the old port is a winding stairway.

Winding stairway down to the port

View looking away from the houses

Painting to get ready for the season

The caldera

Numbered steps with one step named "Donkey Photos"

More houses on the cliff

Interesting looking art gallery- not open yet

Nick the Greek Jewelry and Watches....

Ladder in the tower

Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral built in 1827

We finally ended up having a glass of Santorini white wine at a lovely small cocktail bar right at the cliff's edge.  It is one of the few open, but had one of the best locations.  We were there for a while, chatting to our waiter from Romania who was in Santorini working for the season.  When we mentioned that we were heading to Prague next, the young woman next to us said she was studying in Prague for the year.  She was from Missouri and visiting Santorini for the weekend with her boyfriend (from Sarnia) who was studying in Salzburg.  They were taking advantage of all the inexpensive flights in Europe and doing as much travelling as they could.

The view

Our waiter

We kept changing our seats until we ending up at the edge of the bar with the best view of the sunset.

What a view!!

The clouds had come in, but the sunset was still glorious

We walked back to our apartment and Alain cooked the fish we had bought earlier in the day.  We were both tired and I decided to finish this post on Friday morning.