We arrived in Santorini after our last and quite rough ferry trip. We disembarked with 100’s of others to be confronted by the very steep cliffs of Santorini. We were met at the port and taken to our hotel perched on the Caldera.

Santorini was created after a volcanic eruption about 3600 years ago. It destroyed the island and left a massive water crater or caldera with steep vertical cliffs.

Our first impression when arriving at our hotel, Hotel Villa Renos was WOW!!!

We had our own spa on our balcony and we overlooked the cliff face and the stunning Caldera view. It was magical.

We settled in with a welcome drink before heading out for an early dinner , then back to watch the sunset from our private balcony and not the 1000’s queuing up along the street.

Dinner was fabulous. Rhonda’s sea bass was the best one for this trip and Greg enjoyed his calamari.

After the sunset we walked along with the crowds to jostle for some night shots. Must admit it was spectacular even though it was wall to wall people.

Our hotel provided us with a wonderful breakie each morning, different every day. We enjoyed special savory plates and even a dessert!! Not the usual breakie dish but delicious.

We decided, along with Julie to undertake the Fira ( which was where we stayed) to Oia walk along the rim of the crater, a 10 km walk which was said to take 3 to 5 hours, depending on photo stops.

We left Fira and the first village on the track that we came across was Inerovigli, similar to Fira with white washed buildings tumbling down the cliff face.

We had great views of the Caldera walking along the rim.

The weather was perfect and not a lot of people! The track was a little up and down but nothing too strenuous, thank God!

We came across many churches along the track. The Church of the Prophet Elias was the quintessential. Cycladic style with white washed walls and a blue dome.

We continued along passing by the Holy Cross Chapel where we rested before our descent into Oia.

Finally we made it, 12 kms later and 21,000 steps and in a great time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, not a bad effort at all, and we stopped for heaps of photos too! Luckily you are not seeing them all!😂

First photo stop in Oia was the Virgin Mary of the Akathist Hymn Church in the main square. Thank God for Greg’s new phone that can “erase” people who we don’t want in our photos!🙄

As we ventured further along the narrow pathways into Oia, it became very difficult to walk, probably due to the fact that 2 cruise ships with over 6200 passengers had arrived early in the morning and we think they were ALL in Oia! We finally managed to find the quintessential photo of the blue domes along with all the instagrammers and influencers trying to get their best photos shots and hogging the views whist checking the hair was perfect!🤦‍♀️

Greg however managed to push his way through and get some good shots.

We saw what we needed to see and then decided to reward ourselves with a cold beer for a job well done before heading back to Fira……. by bus……not walking.

We had a drink on our balcony to watch the sunset, and then headed out for a late dinner.

Dinner was great. The white eggplant with beef and tomatoes and the veal roll with veges were both delicious, as was the red wine.

The next morning we headed out for a walk and visited the 3 bells of Fira. It was a stunning view with the blue dome and white church. Again we jostled with many others and again Greg’s phone was invaluable!

Donkeys are still used to transport those hoardes of people from the cruise ships up the cliff face and although we heard them often, they were tricky to get a photo of them but we could easily make out the track that the poor things needed to go on.

We caught the bus with hundreds of others, at least it seemed like that on the bus, packed like sardines, to Perissa to see the Black Beach, a result of volcanic activity that created the island. We stayed for lunch which was our last meal on the Greek Islands. We enjoyed grilled stuffed calamari and grilled swordfish.

Back home for a swim in the very cold pool, and then into our hot tub to warm up.

Then it was last drinks on our balcony and our last sunset and a farewell to Santorini.

We would have liked to have seen Santorini 20 years ago, before social media made it into a bit of a circus. Our balcony and the cliff face were simply stunning but head back a street and it was touristy shops , fast food outlets and quite simply horrible and not our cup of tea. The bevy of beauties everywhere taking the 20 or 30 shots to get that “perfect one” was at the beginning great for people watching but after the first day it became unbearable!

Very happy to have seen it, stunning scenery but no need to go back.

We said goodbye to Julie and Jude, and then we headed to Bologna in Italy where our next blog will be from.

So goodbye from the Greek Islands.

Love Greg and Rhonda.