Day 4, Santorini, Greece

Wow!!  What a day!  We set alarms good and early with a plan to meet for breakfast at 6:15 am. We wanted to be in line for tenders as soon as they opened at 7 am. And so we were. We learned some others around us had arrived at 6 am to queue up for the tenders. We arrived at the embarkation station at 7 am and were given numbers in the 360’s and we ended up catching the fourth tender offered at 7:40. Not too bad!!

Tenders were large sized and offered by the port authority (ie not the same friendly staff on board that Princess would offer). Santorini looks stunning.  The town of Fira is atop a steep outcropping and you ascend the 200 to 300 metres a variety of ways. You can take a cable car up, ride a donkey up or walk up. 

We carried out our plan to ride the “Fast line to Oia” - something that couldn’t be booked in advance but you have to trust is an option when your get to the dock. This involved 1: From Fira port to Oia Fort by speedboat (not too speedy, just right!). 2: from Oia port to Oia Downton by shuttle bus. 3.  Leisure time in Oia. 4.  Every hour on the hour shuttle back to Fira town.   All this for 30 Euros - and it was a pretty saving from the organized tours on the ship. 

Oia (pronounced ee-ya) is an exquisite town with beautiful white buildings and blue roofs high above the Aegean Sea! DG and JP are both artists who appreciate photography so they particularly loved the Oia. We all did!!

I had three criteria for a stop - restaurant with food or drink, shade (it was somewhere around 35 C) and a view!  Mezza provided this in spades!!

After our wonderful refreshing stop - we headed out in search of more blue roofs. We found some along with more people and more heat. 

ME and I decided we wanted to try to catch the noon bus back to Fira Town so we hustled down and JP and DG decided to take a bit more time.