Friday, October 23, 2009 (Late Post)

Early in the morning we arrive at Santorini, jewel of the Aegean. This most scenic of all islands was created by a volcanic eruption over a thousand years ago. Perched atop 1,000 foot cliffs, this city is believed by some scholars to be the lost city of Atlantis.

We went ashore via small tender boats. Here we rode to the mountaintop city of Thira on a cable car.

The cable car on Santorini appeared in the 1961 movie “The Guns of Navarone.” The cave with the large guns, however, was shot on the Island of Rhodes. A little poetic license.

There were two ways to reach the top of Santorini, via cable car or by donkey. We chose the cable car. In this photo you can see the zig-zag route of the donkeys which took longer to reach the top than the cable car (and, by the way, a lot more smelly). We spent the day shopping and exploring the beauty of the island. There were a large number of shops, especially jewelry and souvenir shops.

Sharon and I ate lunch at a seaside café with a traditional Greek seafood lunch. The meal for two included: Prawns, anchovies, mussels, calamari (squid), octopus, deep fried sardines, and another larger fish that was also deep fried. The plate included a salad of eggplant, olives, lettuce and tomatoes. Including drinks of water, coke and mineral water the total bill was €41, approximately $60 US.