Santorini to Athens

August 8th, 2010

Hot sunny day in Santorini, the home of eternal sunshine it seems. We spent the morning packing up, checking out and then lying by the pool. "Bake twenty minutes until brown and then turn. Serves four."At lunch time we headed on foot into Fira to do some final shopping and to admire the scenery one last time. We walked through the narrow streets crowded in the usually quiet midafternoon as two cruise ships were anchored below, their passengers flooding the streets with eager shopper pressed for time. Aside from being able to unpack only once, I don't envy the cruisers who never get to spend a long evening sitting in a cafe without a deadline.

We decided to be adventurous and descend down to the old harbor. We did not want to walk down all the steps nor climb back up welded to the butt of a donkey, so we took the modern Santorini method of the cable car up and down. [It did not exist when I first came to the island.] I am proud of my girls whose fear of heights is somewhat legendary. The overcame it and enjoyed the rapid descent of two minutes down to sea level with only a mild perturbation of blood pressure and colour. We spent a few minutes at the water side and then rode back up again via the cable car system. Video and photographs were taken to document the event.

Gazing out over the caldera

Going Down

Lunch at the Argo Restaurant on the lower cliff area was also relaxing with good salads and good moods. We walked back to El Greco, did a long last swim and then were picked up by a bus driver for the short ride to Santorini Airport- a small building added to the former military airfield.  Transfers, check in and flight were all on time and even early. The 45 minute flight on a Dash 8 was uneventful with nice service from two hostesses. We landed in Athens and were shuttled to the terminal building to claim our baggage. A few minutes wait and the baggage reappeared soon to be followed by a taxi driver, Stellios, waving a Haichin sign as instructed. He whisked us away down the highway in a magic Athenian cab to our hotel Athenian Callirrhoe. The room was nice but withour a good view.
A few minutes after checking in at night, we were out walking 10-15 minute to the Plaka. We ate at a crowded but pretty out door cafe at 9:30 and it was very busy. The service was not as friendly as on the islands but the food was good. The view we had walking back was of the Acropolis and its new museum lit up at night. The heat and humidity were bearable at night, but we'll have to experience it tomorrow.