Blog One: Santorini, Cyclades, Greece
[26th-29th September 2024]
They say you should never go back. For some places, like our dear Menorca, this obviously isn’t true. Perhaps for Santorini it is.
Fiona and I first visited the island way back in 1983, when it was a wonderland still being discovered by travellers and tourists. We are staying now in the hotel we stayed in 41 years ago, which overlooks the volcano and its caldera – the bay of Thera. Time can’t diminish the grandeur and unmatchable beauty of the island, and the location of its capital Thera, perched on the top of massive cliffs, is still unbeatable.
The city has developed outwards and downwards, with many new streets and myriad new buildings, mostly restaurants and bars, where before there were some tiny cafes and restaurants perched precariously on the cliff face.
Thera is still beautiful, but its face has been pockmarked by less attractive buildings and its beauty looks faded to us. The formerly immaculately whitewashed buildings, and the sparkling blue and red domed churches now look tired and untended to. The town has an atmosphere of trading on its location and the spectacular views, and feels like it can’t be bothered making too much effort these days.
This impression starts as we arrive, a couple of hours later than planned around midnight, due to a flight delay. The room we are shown to bears little resemblance to the one we booked, months ago. There’s no one to argue with at that time of night, and in the morning we are met at Reception with spurious arguments and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude.
Locals often seem to be hacked off with the way their island has turned out. The narrow streets are football crowd busy, but the local shops don’t seem to be doing a roaring trade. Cruise ship passengers pour through the streets – we resolve that, should we ever be on a cruise that stops at Santorini, we’ll stay on the boat.
The alternative is to queue to get off the boat, take a tender across to the Old Port, queue for an hour with little shade to go up in the scary cable car, wander the packed streets, queue to come back down in the cable car, queue to get on a tender, etc. Better just to enjoy the views.
Having said all that, we have an enjoyable day trip by bus to Oia, the town at the northern tip of the island. Oia is much more picture postcard Santorini – bright white buildings with colourful church domes and much more of an air of civic pride and wellbeing. We while away most of the afternoon in a bar with stunning views across the sparkling blue Aegean, back towards Thera, with a new angle on the volcano Nea Kameni on the way.
We also take a 4-hour boat trip from the Old Port of Thera out to the volcano, which we have visited before, so we stay on the boat. Then on to some hot springs, which turn out to be an uninviting muddy green in colour, and offer swimmers the opportunity to take on some extra radiation while ruining their swimming gear.
Finally, we stop in the middle of the caldera to watch the sunset, fittingly accompanied by a couple of local songs well played and sung by a crew member. Which Fiona couldn’t hear because the two women sitting next to her prattled incessantly at the tops of their voices, whilst taking photos of their hands cupped in a heart shape around the sun or supporting it in the palms of their hands. So amusing.
A quick bite to eat in a bar/restaurant perched dizzyingly above the gaily lit cruise ships which are currently moored in the caldera, then it’s back to the hotel to get packed for Cycladic Island number two, 50 minutes away by Seajet, the (hopefully) much quieter Folegandros!
My dozen favourite images from our stay on Santorini are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.
Image Gallery
