Our day on Santorini

Wow! What a day!  We were at the bus stop for local buses just before ten and caught the bus for Red Beach and Akrotiri.  Akrotiri was buried by a massive eruption in 1630 B.C.  The people were able to flee the island before the eruption.  The city was buried and preserved in ash (like Pompeii).  The Minoan civilization that lived here were as ancient to the Romans as the Romans are to us. The excavatians  are vast, about 30 building have been excavated.  Tomorrow we will visit the museum of prehistoric Thira and learn more about it.

After our tour of the dig we walked to Red Beach.  It was quite a hike.  Mountain climb more like.  The views were great and the red stone in the rock in the hill (mountain) above the beach was very dramatic.  We got almost there and I chickened out for the last tricky bit.  Roy went down and walked  on the beach.  We should have had bathing suits on  to swim as there was no place to  change.   We stopped at a beach side place for a pizza and then went to White beach.  Red Beach has red sand. White Beach has the white sand and there is a black beach too.  We took off our socks and shoes and went wading. The water was so warm - it sure would have been nice too go for a swim.  Caught the bus back to Fira, walked back to the hotel for our fleece jackets, back to the bus to Oia for the sunset.  Yes, we have been doing a lot of walking.  The streets are uneven stone and hard on your feet and back.   We went to Oia to view the sunset. Oia is the place that is much photographed with it's white washed buildings with blue domes.


  At the far tip you get a 360 degree view and the sunset is spectacular.  You are viewing it with thousands of other people.  Last night we watched an equally spectacular sunset across the street from our hotel with a handful of people.  It was a darn sight easier to get home after too.  We had dinner while we waited for it to be time for the sun to set.  I had biram, a traditional vegetable dish. Yum!  We both had raki - a traditional Greek drink.  Very potent! Our server was very concerned that we'd get drunk.  Drink it slowly, slowly she told us.  Roy said she was pleased that we had liked it and she was probably happy that we weren't drunk.
We missed the first bus back but that was OK as we had seats on the second bus. It is quite a long way on a twisty road.