Island tour, wine, sun and last day in Santorini

Sunday April 2 was a glorious sunny day.  Our weather app was a bit off as the temperature got to 19C!  It was the first day since we got to the islands that there was no wind and just blue sky and sun. It is going to be very hard to leave Santorini.

Our host had arranged for us to have a driver for four hours.  We had wanted to visit at least one winery.  Our driver, Stravos, a native Santorinian picked us up at 11:00 a.m.  Our first stop was Oia, one of the premier tourist destinations in Santorini, located on the highest northern tip of the island.

I am adding a photo of the map of the island from the bus station in Fira. It highlights all the places we have visited on Santorini.  Our fast ferry landed in Athinios Port and our volcano tour took us to the smaller islands of Nea Kameni and Palia Kameni (hot springs).  On April 1, we went to Akrotiri and the Red Beach (south west corner of the island).  We are staying in Karterados, about a 20 minute walk from Fira, the capital of Santorini.  On April 2, we visited Oia in the north and Pyrgos in the centre and Santo Wines, a winery located near Pyrgos.  As our driver said today, the towns are not far from each other, but during high season in July and August it can take a long time to get from town to town.





Oia is a prime destination for sunset watchers and has lots of high end shops and accommodation.  There were still many places not yet open for the season.  Before we went into the town, our driver took us to Ammoudi beach just below the town.  It is a pretty spot.  There was a path from the town, but it was quite steep.

Ammoudi beach - many restaurants not open yet

Stavros then took us into the town, where we spent about an hour exploring.  It is a pretty town, with very expensive restaurants, shops and accommodations.  It is a very popular spot for Chinese weddings.  Stavros told us that the Chinese wedding popularity started about five years ago and lately there has been an increase in Indian visitors due to a Bollywood movie featuring Santorini.

Everywhere there was signage in Chinese!

Ekklisia Panagia Platsani, a traditional Greek Orthodox church, is located near the main square. The original church was replaced after the 1956 earthquake.

Panagia Platsani

Beautiful streets, white-washed buildings and blue domes

View to the sea

We headed for the main street and passed by a clothing store for both men and women.

Outside of Andronis clothing store

Alain made a purchase.

Cool for Cats- Alain got a jacket

Ferry coming into port of Oia

Be warned!

Our driver then took us to our second stop- Santo Winery.  The Union of Santorini Cooperatives (Santo Wines)  was founded in 1947 and is the largest wine producer of the island, counting 1200 active members.  Greece has a history of wine-making that dates back 3,000 years.  The volcanic soil on Santorini makes their wines very unique.  Assyrtiko is the leading Greek variety.

The grapes are grown in a unique way- the vines are shaped into small basket-like structures very close to the ground.  The vines do not grow straight up due to the strong winds and lack of water on the island.  The white wines are excellent and there are a number of good reds and dessert wines (Vinsanto) as well.

They do their wine tastings differently than in the Niagara or Napa Valley.  One sits at a table (with a superb view) and orders a tasting of 6, 12 or 18 wines (they have 18 wines on offer).  They bring you a selection of wines along with wonderful goat cheese, olives, tomato dip and bread.  We had a tasting of six - three whites, one rose, one red and one dessert wine.  All were very good- the whites superb.  The winery shop also features local products- we bought some of the special Santorini fava beans to take home.

Fabulous setting for a wine tasting-- note Alain's tan

Everything one needs- and a list of the wines with the ones we were drinking circled

Inside the shop

Beautifully displayed wines and products

After a very pleasant hour at the winery, Stavros drove us to our third destination, the village of Pyrgos.  This is a more traditional village, where there are traces from medieval times.  There is a Venetian castle on the top of the hill "Pyrgos" (castle in Greek) and several Byzantine churches.  We walked up the hill to the castle.

Small houses and stores (still closed)

An old church

More blue domes

Memorial to war dead in front of old church

Donkeys going up the narrow streets

Old door

View from on high

Lots of wildflowers

Pyrgos was a good contrast to busy Fira and Oia

Very beautiful plants

Other side of memorial

Stavros dropped us at the Fira bus station and we decided to head back to Oia, as we had only started to explore the town.  The fare was only 1.80 euro and it was about a 25 minute ride.

The windmills of Oia

Alain on a ridge in Oia

Beautiful houses and churches

View to the port of Oia 

We passed by Atlantis Books, where a cat was holding court.  Very funky bookstore.

Cat guarding the bookstore

After a bit more wandering in Oia, we took the bus back to Fira and went to our favourite bar, Palia Kameni (known as the PK Cocktail bar) for one last drink and one last sunset in Santorini.  I had an Aperol Spritz and Alain had a glass of white wine.  We were getting ready to leave when the manager asked if we would stay and have a drink on the house as we had been such good customers over the past four days. We agreed! I had one of their signature cocktails and Alain had another glass of white wine.  We were also treated to a beautiful sunset.

Cocktail on the house

Gorgeous sunset in Santorini

A few minutes later-- sun setting over Nea Kameni (the volcano island)

We headed back to the apartment for a light dinner of potato and spinach pie slices from the nearby Cretan bakery, cucumber and tomato salad and halva for dessert.   We head off to Prague for the last week of our holidays on Monday April 3.