Santorini - Island of wine & vampires!

Fira, also known as Thira, is the main town on the island.With its gorgeous whitewashed villas and restaurants and tourists… ..lots of them. Archeological museum had many treasures discovered from pre-Grecian times. Then with ice creams in hand we wandered amongst the myriad of tourist & jewellery shops.

We had lunch overlooking the caldera, for the word caldera is used to describe the centre of a volcano, and it is how the locals refer to the Lee ward side of the island. The Caldera is the volcano that blew many years ago, around 16th BCE. It ended the contemporary Minoan civilisation on this island. The volcano blew to far as Iceland and USA. Now the caldera is under the water and has smaller volcanoes are inside. So the island forms a large side of the old volcano. As we ruminated on this history we ate freshly caught grilled seafood…..joy!

Akrotiri – a minoan settlement

Discovered and excavated by the famous Professor Spyridon Marinatos, who later also mysteriously died on the site. At this time of writing, only 3% of the estimated city has been unearthed. What they found was a city made up of wealthy families, no signs of poor or second class citizens. All houses were beautifully decorated with frescos and inlays, some three stories high. They had running water and flushing toilets on the second floor!Ironically our tour guide told us these were excavated in the 60’s when the island still didn’t have indoor toilets.

Afterwards we went to the old port there and had lunch at the Cave of Nicholas along a rocky shoreline. Originally it was carved by a fisherman as a local hangout drinking spot away from their wives, and When the archeologists came to nearby Akrotiri, nocholas and his wife started serving homemade Greek food as well as drinks and now it’s famous. Still run by the family, now their children and the food is delicious! We had a huge seafood platter! Sitting right by the water, just outside the cave.