Today we slept in until 9am. Very restful, we’re recharged and ready for the day. We put on our swimwear and went to the galley for breakfast. We ran into Mason in the galley and chatted for a bit.
Shannon picked up two bento boxes of fruit, one tropical with kiwi, pineapple, mango, and grapes; the other had honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, and some yogurt. For the actual meal, I had a french toast burger which was the best meal on the ship so far. Between two slices of thick sourdough french toast was a big burger patty, american cheese, bacon, and eggs. I had to eat all the components separately, since there was no way to actually eat it as a sandwich. Shannon had bacon and a hash brown. She later got me a hash brown, and then some generic fruit loops and a pan au chocolate for herself.
With breakfast accomplished, we went out to the pool. We tried the other pool to start with, but the water was extremely cold, and it was as deep as Shannon was tall, so we went back over to the smaller pool. We got into the hot tub first, and again it was great. We ordered a “in the tropics” smoothie, which had pineapple, mango, papaya, and coconut water. I told them to hold the banana. It was good. We went back in the pool, then back to the hot tub.
Now we’re in the room getting ready to take on the day. We have to ride a tender boat over to Santorini. Today is also Shane and Lisa’s anniversary!
We got down to the deck 7 charting table area a bit early. We had thought to stop at The Social Club for a snack, but none were available as that location was not open until a few hours later. Around 12:30, the designated time, we were all there, and we checked in and were told to wait in the Sip Lounge. Not long after that, they told us to follow a worker down the stairs to the debarkation area on deck 4.
At this port of Santorini, we had to take a tender vessel to the shore. A different tender than people going to the standard Santorini destination, as we would be docking at Athenios, or Little Athens port. We sat on the top deck of the tender in the sun, and it was a pleasant ride over to the port.
In Athenios, we met up with our tour guide Elena (in Duolingo the most-used female name is Eleni, so this was close) and the driver Angelos. We had to take a 40 minute bus ride starting with switchbacks to the top of the island plateau, and then on to the city of Oia (pronounced Ee-ya and not Oy-ya).
She informed us that the island had many names over the years, but the current and most recent name was from when Venetian sailors populated the island, and named it after Saint Irene. Santorini is a crescent-shaped island now, but it used to be round until a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami that collapsed much of the middle into the sea. Now there are a number of smaller islands surrounding Santorini, and a couple of them are still active volcanoes, although not doing massive explosive eruptions. The eruption that sank part of the island wiped out the Minoan civilization, I believe Elena had said this. One of the little islands only has cats and old people, according to Elena. The few children there, when they get older, move to the main island.
Tourism did not begin here until the early 90s, because there was no electricity or running water until the late 80s. The television signal arrived in the 90s as well. The iconic white buildings with blue roofs you see are all either churches or for tourists, the regular native people live in earth-toned houses.
Traditionally, when a household has a daughter ready to be married they will paint their house pink, or blue when they have a son ready to be married, as in times past the houses were very far apart and this was a rural and sparsely inhabited island.
There was a point where the bus would drop us off, and then we had to walk another 15 minutes or so up to the top to the village square. Santorini itself was beautiful, and we had many opportunities to take iconic photos. At the square was the main metropolitan cathedral of the town, which had 6 bells. All the other smaller churches and chapels have only 3. Elena told us there were 79 churches on the island. All the ones we saw were not open to admit people today.
There were two paths to take from the square. To the right was the “traditional” path, and to the left, the more modern stuff. We managed to go on both routes.
To the right path we had been told there was a castle. At some point the road diverged to a higher path and lower path. We took the higher one, and could see at the end that the castle was from the lower path. We didn’t end up going down that way, but the castle was mostly ruined anyway from what we could tell.
On the way back to the square, we stopped in a wine shop. We decided to buy a bottle to share, and ended up with a white wine that the wine seller almost didn’t make a sale on, as he was telling us it was very dry. Santo Wines of 1911 was the brand, and it was a 2023 vintage of Santorini Selection Cuvee. As it turned out, it was very refreshing, not too dry, and when Shannon looked it up, it turned out to be considered quite a respectable variety.
We went down the left hand path to see the more modern side of things, and it really was not all that different. The goods did seem to be somewhat more well made, fewer of the lewd ones, and less of the mass-produced tourist items, but they did have all that available too.
Santorini overall seemed to be a more high-end experience than Mykonos, although also much more of an effort to get up to where the action was. Both were nice to visit, and I wouldn’t recommend skipping either.
The standard experience would have been to walk, take a cable car, or a donkey ride from the main port up to Fira, the capital city of the island. Elena said the locals are very concerned about the donkey business because the donkeys have been very poorly treated historically, although laws have been passed in recent years requiring them to be treated better. There are mandates on how long their “shifts” can be, how much time they have to have for breaks, etc., now.
Tonight the dinner is at “White Lotus by Razzle Dazzle” which is apparently Chinese food. We’ll see how that goes for me. Shannon stopped by the galley on the way back up to the ship and got us a fish portion, a beef empanada, and a slice of bread to tide us over.
I had low expectations for the Chinese dinner, but I think it was better than The Wake steakhouse. The name Razzle Dazzle is a reference to the Razzle Dazzle naval camouflage pattern of black and white stripes, and that was the decor in the restaurant, with the addition of red.
Our waiter was named Hati, and I think we also had a waiter named Hati at the Wake, but apparently it was not the same person.
I started with Peking duck on a bun. It was decent, not as good as the Peking duck I remember in Beijing, but I haven’t had Peking duck since 2010. For the main course I had a ribeye steak with peppers and pickled red onions, and it was doused in a peppercorn sauce. I wish it had been a bit more spicy, but it was good. For dessert I had a mango pudding. Shannon had some vegetable dumplings as a starter, then a pot of dark meat chicken for the main course. Her dessert was a key lime pie wedge.
After dinner, we were going to go to a trivia event at the social club, but were late getting to it, and it was too full. So we instead went out onto The Dock, which was kind of the back porch of the boat on Deck 7. We had wanted to go out there to watch the ship pull away, but it was already leaving as we were having dinner. We did get to see some of the island receding in the distance. Shane and Lisa had some anniversary champagne brought out to the table. It was also discovered that they had a Fig Sour drink, which was bullet rye, fig jelly, and sweet and sour mix, garnished with 3 cherries. That drink truly was delicious.
At 10:30, there was an opportunity to spin a prize wheel to win a Bulova watch or other prizes. Shannon, Shane, and I are now all in on the prize drawing for 8pm on the last night we’re on the ship.
Tomorrow, we will port in Crete.