Traveling with the Grobmyers : Santorini Greece

 I was really looking forward to visiting Santorini.  From the pictures it reminded me of scenes from Mama Mia and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  It just looked so beautiful, all those white buildings built up the side of the mountain.  

It was beautiful.  Here are some first looks as we pulled in.  There are two ports in Santorini. But the port must be shallow because we had to tender into town.  I was a little nervous about tendering.  Going from one boat to a moving boat..... Also we were told if it was windy we might not get to stop because we wouldn't be able to tender.   Lucky for us we were about to tender.

Notice the curvy road from the waters edge to the top?  Yes we had to travel that switchback road.

Our tender boat over.  Joe went upstairs and I went inside.  I met some really nice people.

One of the ferries between the islands.

A nice view of the Dream.

What looks like a pirate ship.  I think you could do an excursion on it today.

We got on our tour bus and met our tour guide for the Oleysa.  She really loved her island and sharing it with travelers.  

We make it to the town on the right side of the island.  We had to walk up one of those hills.  We saw some grape vines growing.  She shared with us that grape vines here on the islands grow very close to the ground.  The grapes are much smaller too.  They grow really well in the lava rock.  We also got a nice little surprise walking up. 

They use mules to carry luggage, supplies and even visitors to the top.  It is a novelty there.  Our guide told us to not ride the mule because you will smell of mule for about a week.  But it was fun seeing them go by.

At the top of the hill we saw our first blue domed church.

View from the top.

There was a very small alley that people were trying to push through to get some pictures of the blue domed churches with the water in the background.  You've seen those pictures.  Well we decided to not push our way through.  We wanted to stop and get something to drink and maybe find a restroom.  We stopped at this little coffeeshop, and guess what?  We had a perfect view of the the blue domed church.  Sometimes it pays to take the road less traveled. 

The start of the alley.

We ordered some baklava.  It was really good.

If you go to Santorini stop by Blue Domes and have something to drink and enjoy the view.  It's a lot less crowded and the view is beautiful.

Joe made a new friend.

We left that little town and. drove out into the country. After being in cities that were full of big buildings and everyone living on top of each other it was nice to see some wide open spaces.  We saw houses with yards.  The Greek islands get very little rain during the summer months.  It is an arid climate.

Windmills.  We will see more tomorrow.

The tour stopped at a winery.  They had some really pretty plants around the place. 

We left the winery and continued on to the stop for lunch.

We ate lunch here.  I think they are set up for tours only at lunch time.  We had what we think was a traditional Greek meal.  I didn't get any pictures of the food.  We ate family style on long tables.  The only bad thing was that the servers did not speak English so we had no idea what a lot of the things were.  Some like the salad and tzatziki sauce we knew what it was and we were told that the main dish was veal. 

We then went to the other little town.  This side of the island has a cable car that you can take from the top to the port to then take a tender back to the ship.  Some people chose to do that.  There is usually a line to take the cable car.

Eucalyptus trees.

 

You can kind of see the cable car in the distance.

Tender back to the ship.

One final look.  We enjoyed our time in Santorini.  It is a beautiful island.  Everything is very laid back.

A nice sunset on our way to Mykonos.