Monday, Santorini, Greece

Monday, June 29, 2009 – Santorini

Pictures are HERE.

Today, we didn’t dock until noon which was really nice. Grams knocked on our door at 10:00 and was completely dismayed that we were still in bed. Ahhh…sleeping late. What a nice change. To avoid the wrath of Grams, I got ready and went to eat breakfast with the fam. It was really crowded, so we ate with a couple from the Netherlands.

We left for our tour around 12:20. We took a boat in from the big ship to the dock. It was pretty rough getting out of the tender, and an older man almost fell flat on his face. I was thankful that right after that, they stopped people from exiting and tied the boat to the dock again.

Our tour was one of my favorites. We went to the highest point where a monastery is, and the scenery was FABULOUS. We walked around and took some pictures. Seeing the terraces (rock walls) and the white buildings with blue domed churches everywhere was such an amazing sight. We saw a few donkeys, some fig trees, olive trees, and grape shrubs (they make them into shrubs there).

We went to the town of Oia after crossing across the narrowest part of the island where you can see both sides. There are three types of volcano rock – red, brown, and black. It is a spectacular sight to see the different colors in the cliffs. The town of Oia was charming, and I could see spending a week there. We shopped (I got two necklaces, a slider for my other necklace, and some earrings), took pictures, and went in a little café.

We went from Oia (pronounced eee-ya) to Fira. We did a little shopping, Morgan got some gelato, and we walked toward the cable car to get back to the ship (it moved while we were in port). Mike let us know that he and Tracy had arrived in Fira after their ATV drive, and we met at the Kastro Café on the top of the cliff in Fira. As we were walking to the café, Morgan stumbled on the cobblestone and hurt her ankle. We had to help her get back to the ship. We had a few glasses of wine and headed back to the ship.

We ate in the dining hall and saw a beautiful sunset (supposedly they are the best here although we heard the same thing in Corfu). I had mahi mahi with some crab legs, and Mike had veal cordon bleu. Morgan had the “perfectly grilled chicken.” There was a party on the lido deck, so we went up there to check it out. They had chocolate fountains (Biko, I was good and so was Mark) and lots of other desserts. They also had line dancing, and I got to do the Cupid Shuffle. We were thinking that we need Mikeo to do the YMCA when they were doing it, but he and Tracy stayed in town for dinner.

We sailed at 11:00 pm, and I think we were all excited to have a relaxing day at sea the next day. Morgan’s ankle/foot was still bothering her and was kind of swollen. I hope it is better tomorrow.