The day started very early with breakfast in the Windjammer. After this, we met in Studio B, the ship’s ice rink, to be dismissed off the ship and onto our tour buses for the Greek island of Santorini. Unlike other ports, we had to board tender ships to take us from the cruise to the Athinios port, and also unlike other ports, the rest of the island was not accessible on foot from the Athinios port. We boarded a bus which climbed the tall mountain to get us to the rest of the island, which had to make seven hairpin turns as we climbed! Fortunately, our driver was well prepared.
Our first stop on the tour was the ruins of an ancient city called Akrotiri. The ruins are very intact, though they were not as intact as Pompeii. Our guide explained, however, that the ruins at Akrotiri are around 1,700 years older than the ruins at Pompeii! We spent about an hour looping around the ruins and seeing the different sorts of houses and shops. Our guide also explained that we would see the remains of frescoes and a golden ibex artifact from the ruins at the prehistoric museum in Fira later in the day.
After this, we got back on the bus to drive to Oia, one of the two cities in Santorini famous for their blue domed architecture. Our guide explained that the blue domes signify Greek Orthodox churches, though these churches are almost never open.
While in Oia, the group visited the Santorini Maritime Museum, but we split off from the group to visit one of the famous overlooks with the blue domes. We got some great pictures there! After this, we had lunch at a place that overlooked some of the islands around Santorini, and the view was stunning! Interesting enough, the island of Thera near Santorini is the island associated with the story of the sinking of Atlantis, and the island of Ios, also near Santorini, is where it is said that Homer, the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, spent his final days.
After rejoining the group as we boarded the bus, we drove to Fira, the other famous city in Santorini. Here, we visited the prehistoric museum and saw the frescoes and the golden ibex figurine from the ruins of Akrotiri, which were very cool! After this, we went on a shopping spree in one of the shops in Fira, and then we boarded the bus to head back to the Athinios port.
After tendering back to the ship and reboarding, we had snacks at the Windjammer and some soft serve ice cream from the pool deck before heading back to our stateroom to rest for a while and clean up before dinner. During that time, I caught up on some of the posts I’d gotten behind on. I’ve not been able to put out blogs during my time on the cruise because the ship’s WiFi is limited in what it allows you to do, so I’d let writing some of these posts slide. I figured it was a good time to catch up since disembarking the ship and being able to post again was coming a few days later.
After this, we went back to the main dining room once again. I ordered mozzarella cheese sticks, fettuccine alfredo, and a chocolate cake, all of which were very good! We concluded the evening by seeing the ship’s ice skating show, which was so cool! We then went back to the stateroom to rest up for our first and last day in Turkey!
