Oia

We head out on a tour today by combining with another small group staying next door at the Hotel Greco.

The trip takes us to the archeological site of Akrotiri discovered in 1967 when archeologists spoke with local farmers and fishermen about man made pieces they had been finding over some time.

The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BC and was buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and many objects and artworks that we saw here and the museum in town.

Only 10% of an ancient civilization has been excavated. The site is covered, and boardwalks built so you can walk around to see what they revealed. Our tour guide Yanni gave us an excellent insight into what happened here. It is older than Pompeii. The indigenous people had three story homes that had sewerage systems flushing with seawater. The ladies were the planners, and the men did the hard labour. The eruptions and tsunamis destroyed everything, but the site shows they knew it was coming as they have not yet discovered human remains.

Next stop we visited is one of Santorini’s best wineries . Domaine Sigalos presented four wines with a small meze. The dessert wine was popular with the group. The vineyard grapes are ripe and harvesting starts next week.

Now for the highlight of Santorini.

Oia is a coastal town on the northwestern tip of Santorini island. The town has whitewashed houses carved into the rugged clifftops, and overlooks a vast caldera which is what Greeks call the water in the middle of the volcano.

We went to Oia about ten years ago and we promised each other we would return one day and here we are. It is almost impossible to take a poor photo here. Just about every Greek advertisement for holidays use this location because the blue and white is brilliant. The history of the two colors is that they combine the two worlds of the earth and sky. The blue is only allowed on churches. Did not disappoint and was well worth the journey.

We battled the masses and returned to our hotel. In the evening we caught a local bus to another sunset location and then wandered back to Fira. It was busy but we found a gyros place and ate late.

Tomorrow is move on day. News is filtering through about the wildfires and evacuation of tourists on Rhodes Island. We will keep an eye on our plans.Read more