The Island of Santorini

Somebody demanded that we have a pool at our hotel in Fira, which really limited the options to expensive, and expensiver. The largest pool on this ISLAND is about 15 feed wide and 25 feet long. Pool on an island with beaches...never mind. Fira sits on the edge of the cliffs, so we hiked up and down the stairs of each little enclave negotiating prices--with all of our belongings on our backs. We finally about the time somebody was getting tired we found a hotel with a pool at an *ahem* satisfactory price for rooms.

Santorini is a new island with a catastrophic birth, death and rebirth. It is thought to be the basis for many legends of Atlantis, because some time after settlement for by some ancient colonizing Pheonecians, one major eruption sank the island back into the sea. It sputtered a bit thereafter, throwing a huge tsunami toward Crete, which many believe completely and abruptly obliterated Minoan civilization on Crete.View from the balcony of our 'reasonably priced' hotel room with the expensive pool that nobody ever used.


View from an island in the middle of the Santorini caldera. Fira, the town containing our hotel, is in the background. Some of the rocks I am standing on came from an eruption in 1950, making them younger than Dad; who is now officially older than dirt.One of the famed novelties of Santorini are the Donkies. When you reach the port below Fira, you can either walk a half a mile up the steep stairs (there are over 600 of them, and they are looong steps), take a chairlift, or ride the donkeys. We took the donkeys. Kim thought they were awesome. I though they stunk and were stubborn.


You can't tell, and there is nothing there to mark it, but around the mesa behind me lie the remains of a large fortified medieval castle that acted as a fortification against pirates. The walls are mostly gone, but there are multiple openings in the rocks and doorways underground suggesting that before the earthquakes and volcanic activity destroyed it, the hill was also largely dug out with basements and tunnels.

When the sign directing you to horseback riding looks like this, you need to lower your expectations accordingly.

My horse, a young dunn, didn't have very good brakes, and wasn't to savvy to western style riding, he and I wore each other out.

I was pretty happy with my horse until I rode up next to Kim's. Kim says my horse reminded her of me. I have secretly disliked her ever since. We rode to the beach and spent a bit of time there. My horse, unlike the others, don't kin to big water, so we stayed up on the beach.


My attempt at an artistic photo. This photo was taken after climbing and descending thousands of steps exploring Fira. If you look closely,Kim's expression is worth a thousand words.I think we all might agree that this is a pretty useful staircase.