Santorini - Part II

OK, the last post on Greece. Here goes...

On our second day in Santorini, we did a bit of driving around the island.

We started by making our way to Ancient Thera, only there is no real road map available for Santorini - only hand drawn sketches of what the roads generally look like. And they are SO not helpful. If I can provide one bit of advice - if you travel to Santorini and intend to drive at all, print maps from Google Maps, because no one on the island has a real map.

So we very quickly ended up on the wrong road, headed to what might have been the highest point on the island. Oops. Dead end.

Looking South... ...and North.

But eventually, we found our way, driving on roads so tiny they looked like sidewalks (more than once asking each other - are you sure this is a road??), to Ancient Thera.

3 of the 20 or so switchbacks on the way up.
It looks bigger here, but I swear at the bottom, it's cobblestone and looks like a sidewalk.

From the parking lot at the top, there is a small hike up to the ruins. Boy did we feel bad for the people who parked at the bottom because they thought the road was a sidewalk! (And there were plenty who did and who were mega-jealous when we drove by!)

But, it really wasn't all that interesting. Maybe I was just ruin-ed out. So we took pictures.

From Ancient Thera, we wanted to go to modern Thira. Only we couldn't find ANYWHERE to park.

So we gave up, and went back to Oia (where we watched the sun set the previous night), which seemed like a prettier town anyway. Oh, and it was was beautiful in the daytime too!

Oia is on the caldera and the entire town is built into the sides of the cliff. The walkways that wind down are so beautiful, and so I took a few pictures of those.

The views everywhere were stunning. This was the view from our table at lunch.

The churches in Santorini all have the same look, but I loved the bell tower on this one. (Oh, and the blues! Unbelievable!)

From Oia, we did a bit more exploring and headed to some of the wineries on the island. Everywhere we turned, there were beautiful views.

One of the wineries had a terrace with an amazing vista.

Oh, and we got plenty of chances to work on our self portraits.

I can't even tell you how nervous I was to leave my camera up on a step, but this one was pretty good. :)

We even got one more picture in at our hotel. If you ignore the weird look I'm giving the camera because I was trying not to squint, it may just be our best remote control self-portrait yet!



We had two very full days in Santorini, so we spent our last couple hours relaxing at our absolutely amazing hotel. I don't think I've ever stayed anywhere with a nicer, more considerate staff. Before we headed out, I took a few pictures.

Our room was in this building (the one on the top floor).

And then we got to spend 10 hours in the Munich airport (4 hour layover + 6 hours of delays). If you cannot tell from the picture, we really enjoyed that.

Possibly one of the most unflattering pictures of me, ever.
I have no idea why my need to prove that I was upset overwhelms my pride in this case, but it does.

But really, we had a great trip. And United gave us each a $300 gift certificate for our pain and suffering, so we can take another trip. :)