Santorini
We flew into Santorini this afternoon. It's only a half an hour flight! You fly out of Athens and you stay low to the ground so you can see allthe little islands on the way. This takes 10 hours if you take the Ferry, and costs the same as the ferry! No thanks, I'll fly! We hung out in the Athens airport for 2 hours drinking capacinno and purusuing Greek Books because we nearly missed our flight out of Rome on Aegean Airlines due to it taking an hour and a half to check in. We checked in at Athens in 5 minutes. Go figure, you never know the way these things are gonna go.
This morning as we packed in our rooms the wind was whipping outside. Not a soul outside below the balconies in the 5-Star. Mom goes out to retrieve her unmentionables from the balcony that are drying from some laundering and she is missing half of her items. She looks over the balcony? Little pieces of black and pink fabric? No? She searches to the left and the right. She turns around, They're gone! We can't imagine where they went to. Out into the Sarconic Gulf? Mom has made her offering to the Greek Gods in her own way. Tee Hee.
We get into the airport and go to rent a car. We ask if they have the little 2 seater smart cars because mom has been admiring those all over Rome and Athens. Let me check the freindly car lady asks. Usually its more. She has us slated for a Ford Fiesta on the paperwork. Bluck!! She comes back, YES WE HAVE for you, no extra charge! Hee hee. She says, I show you how it works. We have room amazingly in the back for our luggage and our carryons. Its semiautomatic she states. Hmmm.... little shifter but no clutch. You just keep shifting up and up and up to 4th gear. Sometimes it locks, the smart car. It means it is confused. You just turn off and turn on again. You be in N gear and you put foot on brake. It work. You drive to Messyna you take right to Fira. Zoom zoom, we head out of dodge. Its fun to drive the smart car.
We get to Thira and the roads are smalllll and on a very big hill. You drive up a road it dead ends you you have no where toturn around. A Greek just sits in his car and watches me to do a 30 point turnaround to go back down. We find a little parking lot and we are SO glad we're in a smart car because it fits into little little space no other car could fit in. Also, the semi automatic means you don't roll when on a 45 degree incline that is on a very high cliff.
We walk into Fira. There is a little foot path that is on the edge of the Volcanic crater, the Chaldera. We go the edge of the wall, and peer down... there is all these little adobe whitewash buildings down the entire cliff. It looks like a little dollhouse. The view is everything you see in a postcard and more. The cliffs are red and black where the volcano errupted here 1,400 years ago. The Aegean Sea is below you with blue blue waters and 3 little island bits that are left over from the volcanic smashup. It is one of themost beautiful places inall of Europe the guide books tell you and we can't agree more.
We see the rooftop terrace of our hotel with a little wooden sign, Villa Renos. There it is! We hop down the stairs that is a little cobblestone path that winds and weaves all the way down the cliff to the sea where the cruise ship people take their ferrys back and forth from their cruise ship. Donkeys go up and down the path to bring people from the cruise ships. Also there is a cable wire with cars that you can take.
We check in and we have double reserved and double paid. Is there anything to be done I ask? We will see he says. We head down to our rooms that lead out onto a balcony that overlooks the cliffs of the Chaldera. You suck in your breath at the view. The rooms are partly built into the cliff of rock. The bathrooms are compeltely inside the rock so that they are solid and you get in lots of light from the French Doors. These square and rounded top stucco buildings are called Cycladic architecture that all these Greek Islands that are in the middle of the Aegean in the shape of a circle are called. It feels very simple, and quaint and homey.
We head to dinner around the footpath and down the cliff a ways at Selena. Here we have one of the best dinners of all times, seriosly, with local grown herbs and local tomatoes and local capers and caper leaves. Mine is sea bass wrapped in a crepe with capers and caper leaves and fresh herbs. Momma's is lamb chop in the most delightful tenderness and herbs. Appetizer is sea urchins which kind of taste like clams and a grilled artichoke heart on top of a sauce of white fava beans that is delicious. We wash it down with local Santorini wine. MMMM.
We wax slightly silly from the wine and talk about mom's honeymoon across the country to report to Dad's post in California for Graduate studies and about how they only had a sleeping bag in the apartment when they first arrived, because they had no furniture. We think about this because the other diners in front of us look like they are on their honeymoon. We drift back to the little Cycladic villa along the rock cobblestones....... Lovely evening....
This morning as we packed in our rooms the wind was whipping outside. Not a soul outside below the balconies in the 5-Star. Mom goes out to retrieve her unmentionables from the balcony that are drying from some laundering and she is missing half of her items. She looks over the balcony? Little pieces of black and pink fabric? No? She searches to the left and the right. She turns around, They're gone! We can't imagine where they went to. Out into the Sarconic Gulf? Mom has made her offering to the Greek Gods in her own way. Tee Hee.
We get into the airport and go to rent a car. We ask if they have the little 2 seater smart cars because mom has been admiring those all over Rome and Athens. Let me check the freindly car lady asks. Usually its more. She has us slated for a Ford Fiesta on the paperwork. Bluck!! She comes back, YES WE HAVE for you, no extra charge! Hee hee. She says, I show you how it works. We have room amazingly in the back for our luggage and our carryons. Its semiautomatic she states. Hmmm.... little shifter but no clutch. You just keep shifting up and up and up to 4th gear. Sometimes it locks, the smart car. It means it is confused. You just turn off and turn on again. You be in N gear and you put foot on brake. It work. You drive to Messyna you take right to Fira. Zoom zoom, we head out of dodge. Its fun to drive the smart car.
We get to Thira and the roads are smalllll and on a very big hill. You drive up a road it dead ends you you have no where toturn around. A Greek just sits in his car and watches me to do a 30 point turnaround to go back down. We find a little parking lot and we are SO glad we're in a smart car because it fits into little little space no other car could fit in. Also, the semi automatic means you don't roll when on a 45 degree incline that is on a very high cliff.
We walk into Fira. There is a little foot path that is on the edge of the Volcanic crater, the Chaldera. We go the edge of the wall, and peer down... there is all these little adobe whitewash buildings down the entire cliff. It looks like a little dollhouse. The view is everything you see in a postcard and more. The cliffs are red and black where the volcano errupted here 1,400 years ago. The Aegean Sea is below you with blue blue waters and 3 little island bits that are left over from the volcanic smashup. It is one of themost beautiful places inall of Europe the guide books tell you and we can't agree more.
We see the rooftop terrace of our hotel with a little wooden sign, Villa Renos. There it is! We hop down the stairs that is a little cobblestone path that winds and weaves all the way down the cliff to the sea where the cruise ship people take their ferrys back and forth from their cruise ship. Donkeys go up and down the path to bring people from the cruise ships. Also there is a cable wire with cars that you can take.
We check in and we have double reserved and double paid. Is there anything to be done I ask? We will see he says. We head down to our rooms that lead out onto a balcony that overlooks the cliffs of the Chaldera. You suck in your breath at the view. The rooms are partly built into the cliff of rock. The bathrooms are compeltely inside the rock so that they are solid and you get in lots of light from the French Doors. These square and rounded top stucco buildings are called Cycladic architecture that all these Greek Islands that are in the middle of the Aegean in the shape of a circle are called. It feels very simple, and quaint and homey.
We head to dinner around the footpath and down the cliff a ways at Selena. Here we have one of the best dinners of all times, seriosly, with local grown herbs and local tomatoes and local capers and caper leaves. Mine is sea bass wrapped in a crepe with capers and caper leaves and fresh herbs. Momma's is lamb chop in the most delightful tenderness and herbs. Appetizer is sea urchins which kind of taste like clams and a grilled artichoke heart on top of a sauce of white fava beans that is delicious. We wash it down with local Santorini wine. MMMM.
We wax slightly silly from the wine and talk about mom's honeymoon across the country to report to Dad's post in California for Graduate studies and about how they only had a sleeping bag in the apartment when they first arrived, because they had no furniture. We think about this because the other diners in front of us look like they are on their honeymoon. We drift back to the little Cycladic villa along the rock cobblestones....... Lovely evening....
posted by Rojo at 10:42 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home