Santorini

Sunday, April 22: Santorini

Our day to "do" Santorini. Don't feel quite as ill, but have a deep "productive" cough and am pretty low on energy. Oddly enough I don't have a runny nose, and my bad foot seems to be working better.

We took a bus ride with a new guide. Went to the highest point on the island, then to another scenic view, complete with ruined windmills. Then off to visit the ruins of a Minoan era city, Akrotiri, which was both destroyed and entombed when the vocano erupted ca. 1450 BC. The result, as the guide said, is that it is "the best preserved prehistoric city."

The main square seemed pretty small, but things are in remarkably good shape. They found lots of pots, the buildings, and several frescoes, but not any corpses, nor any treasures. Therefore the population must have had some warning of the coming catastrophe and had time to evacuate and take their possessions with them.

The art is similar to Minoan, but with some significant differences, although they did find the "sacred horns" common on Crete. These are apparently a feature of prehistoric religion in the Mediterranean area going back to the first city yet found (Catal Huyuk in modern Turkey). The pottery is more typical of Cycladic styles than Minoan ones--but then Santorini is part of the Cycladic Islands, albeit the one closest to Crete.

We then went to a black sand beach below the original Doric settlement of Thera. You could just make out part of the ruined wall of the acropolis from the beach. The site of Thera is pretty inacessible--take a 4 wheel drive vehicle, then hike for an hour and a half. The beach is quite beautiful, sat and watched the waves roll onto the black sand for a bit, then back on the bus for a trip to a modern Santorini winery. There we were given a tour of the winery, a slide show demontrating how the wine was made, followed by a wine tasting.

After lunch at the hotel we walked down into Fera and took the tram down the cliff face, which is the remains of the ancient caldera. The semi-circular steep-sided shape of Santorini is a result of the volcano blowing out the heart of the island. At the bottom of the cliff we caught the boat for the ride to the two volcanic islands in the center of the caldera.

We visited the newest volcanic cone first. The most recent lava flows date from the 1950s. Looking across the top of the recent lava field back toward Santorini you can see the houses along the top lip of the caldera, looking like snow. I opted not to climb to the top of the crater, but wandered over to the lava flow to take some pictures. At one point I realized I couldn't hear any of my companions, nor anything else. It was dead silent, with not a trace of life on the lava bed. Very eerie.

We then reboarded the boat for the trip to the old crater, which emerged from the water filling the caldera in 197 BC. Hot water is still welling up into the sea from the volcano. The boat ride was rather exciting--I never expected such big swells in the Aegean. Evidently Poseidon is still enjoying playing practical jokes on Ed. I should have insisted he at least pour a libation to the god when we were at Sounion.

When we arrived at the anchorage three girls accepted the invitation to jump into the sea and swim over to the hot spots. Since the weather was a bit brisk, and the water still pretty chilly, I thought they were crazy. Well, they were young, which amounts to the same thing from my aged point of view. An Australian man in his thirties, unable to resist such a challenge when mere girls had accepted it, jumped in after them and joined the swim. Brr.

We returned to the main island, took the tram back to the top of the cliff, and walked to the hotel. I opted out of dinner again and will try to go to sleep early, as we must get up at 5AM in order to be at the airport to catch our flight to Athens.