From Paros, we ferried down to Santorini. The 3 hour journey was on a big, stable ship, Blue Star Delos, which was quite comfortable. We choose an outdoor table to enjoy the weather and to have a good view of Santorini on the approach.
While we knew Santorini would be over crowded, expensive and not extremely kid-friendly, we felt it was a must-see on this virgin Greek island voyage, so we made our booking for just 2 nights to help with the wallet and the kids' sanity. I was most excited to see the sunsets over the ocean so I choose a hotel on the caldera to have the best views (Prekas apartments). I have seen many remarkable sunsets in my time so I don't say this lightly, but the beauty of those 2 sunsets were the best I have ever seen. I was in my extreme happy place. I'm so glad Pete timelapsed it on the second night so we'll have that to look at always (see below)! After the sunset, the sky continued to change and then the twinkling lights of Oia could be seen. And the way the water moved the whole time! Just magic!
The hotel had a postage stamp sized swimming pool, overhanging the cliffs and we took full advantage in the hot weather. Otherwise, our itinerary was limited. We spent a morning hiking from our town, Imerovigli to Fira to see more of the cliffside buildings and blue domes churches. There was a cruise ship in port and the town was just so crowded, it was not a highlight of the trip. We bused back to our town, suffered through a meal with 2 overtired kids, retreated to the hotel and didn't leave again for the remainder of the trip!
Margaret and Claire arrived to Santorini from Milos on the same day as us and came to watch the sunset with us each night from their place in Oia. Watching the incredible sunsets with special family while drinking Santorini white wine really ranks up there with the euro vacation highlights!
My blog process is this: Take pictures, upload to Iphoto, flag the ones I like, edit the flagged one, pare them down (I know I am bad at this!), upload them into the blog and then write some commentary. Well, I flagged 91 pictures from our less than 48 hours in Santorini; it was that beautiful! So trust me when I say the below are the pared down set!
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| On the ferry, leaving Naxos port |
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| Jude was really excited to see the former volcano that is now the island of Santorini. He had some many questions, some of which were about what would happen to people if they were hit by lava. I think he was worried it was still a volcano. |
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| Oia town on the approach to Santorini, before we joined the mobs to depart the ferry. |
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| What an ordeal leaving the Santorini ferry port with the hoards of other taxis and vans! It took forever to snake up to the volcano rim. Jude fell asleep in Pete's arms, but bounded awake when it was time to walk down to the hotel. |
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| I was snapping away with the pictures, not realizing that the complex above was our hotel! Our two bedroom apartment was above the walk that connects the towns. |
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| Pool time! |
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| I mean, seriously?? |
Pete's awesome cannonball (much better on the slow motion instagram post!):
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| Pool views |
Margaret and Claire arrived while we were swimming and we could see them on the trail above. We went to the apartment to relax, watch World Cup, make diner and wait for the grand sunset show! Sunset was at 8:30, which was close to bedtime for the kids, but I didn't want to miss anything so we let them stay up, watching cartoons, running in and out to catch bits of the show.
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| Jude loved playing Uno with them |
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| The show is about to begin! |
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| Waiting with great anticipation |
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| Boats lined up to watch the show |
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| That light on the white washed buildings! |
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| I will cherish the picture forever! |
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| Jude was impressed! |
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| Going |
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| Going |
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| Gone. Encore, encore! |
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| She can't yet express it, but I think she was also amazed. |
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| Jude loved seeing the twinkling lights of Oia. He was so pleased to be staying up past his bedtime. |
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| Goodnight, M & C. Same time and place tomorrow night? |
Next morning, ready to embark on our morning adventure.
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| Epic wedding pics |
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| Fira town |
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| Afternoon by the pool again |
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| More take-out Greek food, Uno and sunset watching |
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| Maeve yelling hi to the people walking below |
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That light on the water!
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Goodnight sun. Goodbye Santorini. We left the following morning, direct to Amsterdam. Jude says as we enter our house, "It is so good to be home!" Sorry, kids, but we're leaving again in 3 days for 5 weeks 😅
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