An obvious song reference you might think. It made the grade only because that was the first song in English by the singer at the winery this evening.
We awoke to another windy morning but from the opposite direction to yesterday and it seemed stronger. After another late breakfast we went back to our hole in the cliff face to get ready for a walk into Fira. The cleaner was still folding towels and leaving a trail of flowers so we sat outside on the patio and watched the passengers from the cruise ships being ferried into Fira. There were three large ships in today so I imagined Fira would be crowded.
Once back inside I up-dated one of the blog posts and we generally lazed about until we really thought we should leave. The walk to Fira is via a series of paths along the top of the caldera. It is an undulating walk and although you get the breeze regularly there are many places where it is still and very hot. Today's expedition was a serious one - shopping. Jayne needed a loose top with sleeves to cover the burnt shoulders and I am after a smaller shoulder bag and a new pair of sunnies. They have some amazing bargains over here, Ray Ban sunglasses for €5 and more Chanel handbags than I saw at the 'outlet' place in Shanghai.
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| Walking to Fira |
We stopped to watch the people from the cruise liners come in. Fun, fun, fun. They would have queued to get off the boat to transfer to the queue to get on the cable car to get up the face of the caldera to do the whole thing in reverse on way back to the ship. The line-up at the cable car to go back down was quite long when we walked past.
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| The cable car down to the dock |
Jayne needed to catch her breath after the walk and went to look in a jewellery store window. As she was deriding some of the serious bling on display a woman came over to talk to her - she was a sales person from the shop. Oops, almost caught out.
Fira is a maze of stores many selling the same thing. It pays to shop around because we saw on top that varied in price by €23. The streets run up and down and around. The restaurants all stock the same over-priced food, I'm still longing for Koroni village prices. Not to mention the expensive alcohol. We paid €16 today for a 500ml carafe of white wine, a mere €10 more than Koroni.
The little side streets were crowded and it would be easy to get lost except for two things. If you keep heading up hill at some point you would meet the path back to Imerovigli and conversely, if you head down the hill you will meet the main road.
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| Winning |
We stopped for an expensive, over-fried plate of squid and frites - they served it with tomato sauce. WTF? Where am I? Australia? Not impressed.
The walk back was more strenuous than walk over because we were in the sun more frequently. In fact it was so hot we needed to have a Mythos to re-hydrate before we had sufficient energy to tackle Santos Wines.
Nikolas had arranged a car transfer for us to the winery. It was way too far to walk and the traffic over here is worse than any back-street in a Romanesque village is the south of France (yes I'm still scarred from driving over there). The winery, like just about everything on Santorini is perched on the edge of the caldera and has a view of the sunset. We were shown to our table which was on level two of three level terrace. It was quite crowded although there was the odd table that was empty.
On level one there was a singer and a guy accompanying her on keyboards. She sang a mixed set of Greek songs combined with some classics from the Beatles to Frank Sinatra. It was very pleasant. Gianni, our waiter, introduced us to the concept of wine tasting Greek style. You choose between a number of different wine flights, 6, 12 or 18 glasses accompanied by olives, cheese and sesame bread sticks, complete with tasting notes. Need you ask dear reader? We opted for the 18 glass wine flight and tasted their entire range.
It was a most pleasant way to while away the afternoon hours as the sunset approached. The most curious aspect of the afternoon was the spontaneous applause as the sun disappeared below the horizon. Clapping a sunset? Interesting. It was beautiful, but ...
The trip home was an interesting one. The traffic was more chaotic than the drive over because everyone was leaving to go home after their sunset viewing. Fortunately our driver knew the back streets. Unfortunately others did not and we met a car going down a one-way street, we were heading in the right direction (there's a song there). Around another corner and we came across a drove, pace or herd of donkeys - your call on the collective noun.
That was pretty much it for the day - except for a night cap with Harry. Someone needs to keep him company.
Until tomorrow dear reader.
Nikolas had arranged a car transfer for us to the winery. It was way too far to walk and the traffic over here is worse than any back-street in a Romanesque village is the south of France (yes I'm still scarred from driving over there). The winery, like just about everything on Santorini is perched on the edge of the caldera and has a view of the sunset. We were shown to our table which was on level two of three level terrace. It was quite crowded although there was the odd table that was empty.
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| Stylish |
It was a most pleasant way to while away the afternoon hours as the sunset approached. The most curious aspect of the afternoon was the spontaneous applause as the sun disappeared below the horizon. Clapping a sunset? Interesting. It was beautiful, but ...The trip home was an interesting one. The traffic was more chaotic than the drive over because everyone was leaving to go home after their sunset viewing. Fortunately our driver knew the back streets. Unfortunately others did not and we met a car going down a one-way street, we were heading in the right direction (there's a song there). Around another corner and we came across a drove, pace or herd of donkeys - your call on the collective noun.
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| A view of which you could never tire |
That was pretty much it for the day - except for a night cap with Harry. Someone needs to keep him company.
Until tomorrow dear reader.
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