Santorini, Greece

Santorini lived up to the hype! It was the perfect setting to end the tour group part of this vacation. Our first stop from the ferry was Fira, a picturesque city on the edge of the cliffs. We had a quick lunch at a deli that had gluten free bread and brownies. We quickly learned that Santorini was the most knowledgeable about Celiacs, so it was a treat to spend three days here with some variety of safe food.

We stopped at a winery on the top of a mountain, the views were almost as good as the wine. They grow their own grapes on the island and because it is so windy they shape the ‘grape vine’ close the the ground so they resemble bushes.

Our next stop was another winery :-) where we also ate a very lovely dinner. The restaurant grew their own vegetables and herbs right on the property. If you ever go to Santorini, I highly recommend Aroma Avlis Food and Wine. It was an excellent restaurant.

The most popular, most recognizable spots in Santorini are the cities of Fira and Oia (pronounced E-ah). They are also the most crowded. We ended up staying in the small beach town of Kamari and we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

The hotel was right on the black sand beach, complete with beach beds and umbrellas. Six or seven sailboats were anchored right out front in the Aegean Sea. We would have been happy to sit by the water for the next three days but our tour guide had other plans. :-)

We visited a traditional Santorinian village where they were preparing for their Orthodox Easter celebrations. Then we headed to the Minoan Ruins of Acrotori. This settlement dates back to 5000 BC and was a prosperous fishing and farming village that established trade relations with many other cultures. They had paved streets, extensive drainage systems including flush toilets. Around 1545 BC, this all ended when a massive volcanic eruption of Thera wiped out a majority of the settlement and people. It was a very special place to visit. The Greeks have done an amazing job on the excavation of the town, many of the buildings and home being three stories tall. Work on the site has been closed for a few years due to lack of funding.

That evening we went to Oia, the city you see in almost every movie or Instagram photo of Greece. It was beautiful but it was also very crowded and we weren’t even there at the height of tourist season. We snapped some photos right before sunset and then headed to a quiet bar away from the crowds and enjoyed drinks and french fries.

Saturday, our last full day with the tour group, we were supposed to do a catamaran sail but the winds off shore picked up to unsafe conditions. A little disappointed not to see the island from such a beautiful vantage point, but we planted ourself by the pool and beach and had the most relaxing time. We did a little shopping in the village and ate too much food. That evening we had our farewell meal in a pretty restaurant by the Aegean Sea and said goodbye to the friends we made. And our fabulous tour guide, Yianni.

It was our first tour group vacation and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to have someone else do all the ‘leg work’ and work out the logistics of everything we experienced. But it was sometimes a little hard to get used to so many traveling companions, who were all very pleasant and chill. Especially Barbara and Eric. It has been a long while since we traveled with them and we had an absolute blast sharing this time with them. And even though we said goodbye to the group, the four of us returned to Athens to have some relaxing time seeing some sites. It has been an epic vacation.

We spend four days in Athens but this will probably be our last blog post. We are hanging out in a very nice Airbnb, shopping, cooking and doing a little sightseeing. I hope you enjoyed our adventures and can’t wait for the next one.

Photo Album

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