Santorini, Greece

Sunday October 4, 1992 Santorini, Greece

We have breakfast top ship cafe. My stomach still feels fine except I am now constipated. At 10:30 we take the shuttle boat to the island. Once there we take a tram up the side of the mountain to the town of Thira where we wander around the shops and restaurants, stopping in one restaurant for a coke and a view.

At 1:00 we board a bus to Oia, a very small city, also built on top of a mountain. I have a sandwich there. We could have riden the donkeys instead of the cable car.

Back aboard ship, I nap and dress for semi-formal dinner. We stay up late dancing (12:30). The seas are rough. Thank goodness I have good seasick pills. Still taking the antibiotics.

According to Wikipedia, "Santorini is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis."

This sounds like a fascinating place to visit. The photographs of the white buildings built on the rim of the steep caldera make the cities and towns appear almost inaccessible, but with an incredible ocean view once atop the steep sides. Very picturesque!