Opa! - Santorini

After saying goodbye to Rhodes and a leisurely 7 hour ferry ride, we arrived at 2:00 am in Santorini.  We selected a taxi at the port, and climbed our way from the port to the cliff town of Firostefani to meet our friendly inn-keeper, Gaby, at her family hotel, Gaby's Apartments.

We selected this hotel because of the rave reviews we found online.  The room was basic- the towels didn't even fit around our waist and the shower was easily the worst we had on our entire trip, but the view was a million dollars.

Even though SE Asia provided us some wonderful landscapes, amazing sunsets and beautiful sights, Santorini was easily the most beautiful place we had ever seen.  Thousands of travelers, artists and authors have devoted the best years of their lives to explain it, paint, and capture it, but Santorini is just indescribable and was made even more unbelievable by all the spring flowers in bloom.

The natural beauty of Santorini derives from the caldera in the center of the island, a remnant of a violent volcanic explosion, which created a lush green island with stunning cliffs for the ancient Greek's to build temples and modern Greek's to build their towns. 

After tearing ourselves away from our view, we took a bus to visit the small town of Oia at the northernmost end of the island. 

We spent our time in Oia strolling through town drinking Mythos, stopping in cute shops and taking in the beautiful scenery.

Oia is famous for its picturesque windmills and of course famous Mediterranean blue church domes.

AB loved the colorful boats in dry dock surrounded by all the spring wildflowers.  Since the town is now all tourism based, no need for fishing.

Here is AB and ML enjoying the view while walking along the whitewashed houses over the caldera.

Santorini and all the Greek islands for that matter, are well known for their home grown white wines that grow well in the volcanic ash soil. We of course sampled them in ample quantities.  Most of the sampling was done in the most beautiful spot we could think of, our balcony.

After being overwhelmed by Oia, we were excited to explore the famous black sand beaches.  However, once we got to Thira, we discovered we were the only ones on the entire beach, so hopped the next bus out of town after a total of 45 minutes.

We of course has some great food while in Santorini.  In addition to our favorites, Greek salad and gyros, we had good Greek cookies, amazing lamb moussaka and for our last night out, roasted lamb and ML's favorite, grilled calamari, with Santorini white wine.  The restaurant owners were so excited we were celebrating our last meal after 4 months with them that we spent some time in the kitchen with the chef drinking his homemade limoncello.

Good morning Santorini

The view from our balcony

Day Tripping - Lindos and Symi

Lindos

Rhodes was a perfect island for us because it provided a great spot for gorgeous day trips to Turkey, neighboring towns and nearby islands.  Our first day trip from Rhodes Town was to nearby Lindos.

Ideally, this charming resort town is located approximately 1.5 hours from Rhodes Town by local bus however, if you decide to take the early afternoon bus, as we mistakenly did, it takes an additional hour to pick up kids leaving school for the day, turning the bus into a loud, sardine packed "school bus." Finally arriving in Lindos much later than anticipated, we quickly set forth to hike to the top of the Acropolis before closing at 3pm (every tourist attraction in Greece closes at 2:30 or 3 pm).  Located above the modern town, the Acropolis is a natural citadel,  which has been fortified successfully by Greeks, Byzantines, Ottomans and the Romans.

Out of breath, we finally made it to the top of the Acropolis and took in the magnificent views of the surrounding harbors and coastline. Like so many of our experiences during non-tourist season, we had the place to ourselves.

Similar to most famous Greek ruins, the Acropolis in Lindos was under construction as people constantly work on trying to put the puzzle back together.

We could have taken one of the adorable donkeys up the hill but we decided it would be nice to give their little shouldn't-have-to-carry-more- than-120lbs back a break.

The old town itself is a maze of picturesque narrow streets filled with restaurants (the one we ate at is pictured below) and small shops openly displaying their wares from souvenirs, jewelry, pottery and regional crafts.

Lindos also has clean, beautiful and sandy beaches, which were only being used by those who could brave the cold or by those who have eaten too many gyros (Dead sexy isn't he?). 

Symi

One of our main reasons for visiting Rhodes was so we could easily access Turkey and add another country point to our list (this is a huge obsession for us) but being out of season, none of the ferries were running and we had to find a new location.

(The Turkey ferry just sits in port day after day, looking lonely.)

After receiving advice from locals that we should visit the island of Symi, known for having the most beautiful harbor in Greece, we embarked on a new adventure.  Pulling into port, we were blown away by the towns magnificent beauty. The architecture, landscape and colors of the buildings immediately reminded us Italy.  Prior visits to the towns of Portofino and Cinque Terre with their light yellow, terracotta, greens, and blues danced in our heads.  We were amazed to learn Italy had control of island for almost 60 years, which explains the similarities to the Italian Riviera.

 

During our visit, preparations for the tourist season were underway and locals were quickly and quietly making repairs from the winter storms and getting ready for the influx of tourists.  Boats and houses were getting fresh coats of paint,  roads were being repaved and fresh flowers were being planted everywhere.

We were blessed with perfect weather and we really enjoyed strolling the cobbled streets that surrounded the harbor, visiting the local cafes and perusing the small shops.  In short, this place was perfect, and we spent our time enjoying the breathtaking views and just watching the world go by.