Santorini is Synonymous With...

Hills...sun...shopping...hills...sun...views...hills...whitewashed buildings with blue domes...hills! Last night we had dinner with our VERY charming Cruise Consultant Michael.  He not only works for Regent, but also has a newsletter and e-newsletter about cruise lines, cruises, and locations he has visited.  So it was natural that we asked him what was at the top of his list.  His answer: “Santorini”.   “Why,” we asked.  He said there was nothing better in the world (and the world is a very big place, we’ve learned!) than sitting in a restaurant on top of the hills in Santorini, drinking a glass of wine and eating a meze or two --- and then going to another restaurant on top of a hill and having another glass of wine and more mezes and going to a third restaurant etc etc, while laughing and relaxing with friends.

That pretty much describes Santorini.  It is built on the very tippy-top edge of what was once a volcanic island.  The caldera (or center part of the volcano) blew itself off and is now in the ocean, so you can see where it used to be -- but is now blue blue ocean -- and the view from the volcano’s rim, where the towns are, is amazing -- miles and miles of blue azure Aegean sea stretching as far as the eye can see.  That is the view part of this review.

Now, all these quaint little towns sit around that rim, so you have the view out to sea.  But, if you turn around, you will see thousands of little shops, primarily jewelry shops, but also touristy shops with tourist stuff as well.  And, if you stand still, you will be surrounded by wave upon wave of tourists pouring into all the little towns, ready to shop at those stores, with cameras clicking. I should mention that the little towns have been rebuilt several times, which is why they look so pristine now, thanks to that volcano!

The day we arrived, the “Monster Ship” came along.  When we were in Alexandria, Egypt the day before, we saw IT for the first time.  Our guide there said, “They have 6,000 people on board.”  Well, he was wrong.  They only have a little over 4,000 people on board, if you count the crew.  But our ship (maximum 490 guests) looked like a “baby ship” next to the behemoth!!  The Monster actually has a real grass lawn on the top deck...and it has a shopping mall with 14 stores.(I should tell you that that cruise line is building another ship to take 8,000 passengers!)  So, when we got to Santorini, all the passengers from the Monster Ship also got to Santorini.  Talk about hordes of people coming ashore!!

But: WARNING!!  If you go to Santorini, be prepared to “soldier” up the mountains. And that is no small feat!!  You see, those darling towns and those cozy little restaurants are all at the peaks of the volcano’s rim, where the view is! And I mean AT THE TOP!!!  So you need to be prepared to mountain climb up and, if you are lucky, you get to take the funicular down to the port.  You can walk down 600 steps that are slick with donkey doo or try to ride donkeys down.  But, they warned us, it is dangerous! You see, the donkeys don’t particularly like to take tourists up and down all day long -- so they try to rub you off on the stone walls on either side of the steps!

Our adventure at the funicular (or, to be more precise, getting to the funicular!) is worth mentioning.  You remember those hordes of people?  Well, after sweating up the mountain, because the bus left us at the BOTTOM of the mountain, we were told to follow the cobblestone path (no, not the “yellow brick road”!) to the funicular.  I know.  The view was still there.  But so were 184 gift shops, mostly jewelry, as we wound our way to try to find the funicular at the veryyyy long end of the cobblestone uphill gift shop row!  Bos said, “You know, the exit from all tourist attractions is through the gift shop!”  And he was right here...only they set up the street for many many gift shops, not just one...

  When we FINALLY chugged up to the funicular, sweating from every pore in our bodies, we had a 30 minute wait, with a long snaky line behind us, in the steamy hot sun.  Finally, when we were in reach of the door to the funicular, we heard angry yelling, screaming, pounding, clapping behind us!  It seems a Japanese guide had pushed her way ahead of the line and bought tickets for 30 of her clients and was waving them ahead of the line, rather than waiting patiently as everyone else was doing.  Those Japanese people, to add insult to injury, were laughing as they pushed forward!  But Bos, bless his heart, blocked the Japanese just in time for he and I to get into the funicular and take the ride down!  Talk about angry tourists!!!

We did have lunch at one of those special Greek Santorini restaurants, where the owner never used a cookbook, but learned the recipes at her mother’s knee -- and she demonstrated Greek cooking.  But the vegetables were really strange looking -- white round eggplants, white round zucchinis!  And that is because the island is all volcanic with little or no rain, so things grow differently.

And the view was just what Michael had said -- miles of aqua water stretching forever -- allowing you to relax and dream!!! Was it the best place in the whole wide world?  Michael thinks so, but I’ll leave it to you to decide.  Personally, we’d put Bermuda in that first place position!!