Crete and Santorini

It was our last full day of island hopping and we had two stops - Crete and Santorini.
I had high hopes for Crete having studied the Minoan civilisation in year 12 and the palace of Knossos. Unfortunately while this was an optional excursion, no one else on the tour was interested in Greek mythology, no thanks to Dom our Contiki tour manager who didn’t highlight it as a tour worth doing.
So we decided instead to wander the city and explore it at our leisure. This also meant for the first time in weeks that we could sleep in and get off the ship when we wanted to.
The problem with this was, it was Sunday and nothing in Crete opened until 9-ish, meaning 9.30, 10, 10.30. We had to be back on the ship by 11. We had docked at 7am which meant the first couple of hours were virtually pointless unless you went on either of the excursions.
We took a long time to get going that morning, not least because of the drinks the night before.
When we finally managed to stagger off the ship, it was only 9.30 and it was already proving that it was going to be another of those unbearably hot days that had been coming thick and fast since we arrived in the Mediterranean. In fact, apart from one day in Florence and the day I stacked it in Siena, we had had sunshine almost every day.
So, off the boat and we wandered in the direction Dom had directed us, toward an old Venetian fortress closed to the public, situated on the headland.
It was much as you would expect a fortress to be and we didn’t spend long standing in the sun admiring it.
We wandered up into the town but it proved to be much as Dom described, quiet and not much to see.
Sam and I decided to give calling his parents a shot with his Greek phone card he had yet had a chance to use.
However, for whatever reason, the line wouldn’t connect and we were left more frustrated and cranky that the hot weather had already incited.
We walked back to the ship for our 11am meeting with Dom to discuss the Santorini excursion that afternoon and the disembarking process for the morning.
Dom explained that in the morning, we would wake docked in the port at Athens. We would have to leave our luggage outside our cabin door before midnight that evening so it could be taken to the dock by the porters, ready for us to collect when we got off. It would be another leap of faith like when we surrendered our passports.
Speaking of passports we had to collect them after our Santorini excursion and settle our on board account.
The whole ship was cashless, everything was charged to your room account including drinks and beauty treatments. Thanks to my hobbit feet, I had racked up quite a bill at the beauty salon.
With only a few more hours of free time on board the ship before Santorini, I kicked back on the pool deck in the sun while Sam took the time to catch up on some more sleep.
We were expecting big things from Santorini that afternoon. Dom had talked up the excursion we were going to go on, an island tour to the town of Oia, where many of the famous Greek postcards are snapped. White buildings, blue doors and windows and the famous blue domed churches on a cliff overlooking the sea and the other town of Fira.
We were anxious to see it for ourselves.
We docked about 4pm and had to catch a tender boat to the island itself, the island not really having a port. The island itself is amazing to look at. It used to be a circle but was partly destroyed by a volcano about 2500 years ago, leaving it a crescent shape with two out posts. It is also reputed to be where the lost city of Atlantis lies, the golden city claimed by the sea. The eruption was so huge, it changed the climate of the northern hemisphere. Ash from the eruption has been found in places as far away as California and evidence has been found in trees all over the world.
It changed the face of the island entirely, the island itself now an amazing environment of volcanic rock and pumice stone. The cliffs are steep and the homes of the inhabitants perched precariously on their edge. Many are built into the cliffs, like cave houses.
To get to the top, our bus had to follow a narrow road that zigged and zagged up the cliff face. It was some spectacular driving on our driver’s behalf.
As we drove, our tour guide gave us a history of the island, the volcano and the people who lived there today.
The island only gets about 10 to 12 inches (250mm to 300mm) of rain a year but sits at about 76 per cent humidity most of the time. Irrigation is impossible because of the rainfall but the moisture in the air makes some agriculture possible and in fact the volcanic soil is some of the best in the world.
The trip to Oia, the prettiest of the two towns, took about half an hour by bus. Others not participating on the excursion could catch the cable car or donkey - yes donkey - up the cliff side to Fira.
The heat and humidity in Oia was oppressive. We were soaked in sweat within minutes of getting out of the bus and our energy levels were pretty low.
When our tour guide released us for the whole hour we had in the town free, we hastened to see this amazing landscape and view we had heard so much about.
And it was beautiful. It was just as had been described - pristine white buildings built onto the cliff face, accented by blue doors and windows overlooking the sea. Blue dome churches; it was all there. The sun was beating down but we were determined to get the pictures we had come for.
Click, click, click. And it was back to the relative comfort of the bus. We were going back to the town of Fira, the capital of Santorini and where we had to find our way back down to the tender boats below, waiting to take us back to the cruise ship.
We had three options, walk the 600-odd steps to the bottom, ride a donkey down those same steps or catch the cable car which took less than three minutes.
When we had first been told about this excursion, many on our group loved the sound of the donkey, but as the day had worn on, the idea of riding a smelly donkey that the cruise ship advised us not to, became less appealing. Many were still keen, but we opted out and even the more adventurous of our bunch chose the bar for a few drinks over the 20-minute uncomfortable ride.
By this time, a strange natural phenomenon had occurred. What looked like low clouds has descended over the island, greying the sky and the humidity jumped to at least 98 per cent. I say 98 per cent and not 100 because it didn’t rain but they were humidity clouds. This was apparently where they got the moisture for agriculture without it ever raining. If we were sticky before, we were saturated now. Everything felt uncomfortable and the wind on this side of the island had blown up a gale.
We had less than an hour to make our way to the cable car or donkey and board the ship.
At the cable car, a large queue had formed and Sam and I decided to stop for a drink at a cliffside bar before heading down. The waiter offered us a seat protected from the wind but Sam wanted the table on the edge, that made it feel like you were sitting on air. And on a calm day it would have been spectacular. We could see down into the posh hotels than lined the cliff and the restaurants, the infinity pools and even the donkeys meandering their way down the 600-odd steps.
But I got the impression it was usually windy there when the waiter brought out our bill encased in a plastic tube so it wouldn’t blow away.
It was so windy, we had to hold onto our empty beer bottles once they had been poured so they wouldn’t blow away.
We hopped on the cable car for a quick ride down the cliffs and were hurried onto a tender boat.
The shower that night was the most welcome I have had since we arrived in London, six weeks ago.
It was our final dinner with many new friends before we docked in Athens.
We ate in the restaurant and had an early night. Most of us had to pack to put our bags out for the porters to collect and I knew that mine would need an entire repack.
Luckily, Sam was nice enough to do this for me. I had our Turkish rug and a few trinkets I had picked up here and there to get in and there was no way I would have managed it.
I think we got them out about 11.45 and then it was time for bed.
Alysia (August 29)