20191113 Wednesday, Santorini, Greece
The seas settled down as the ship dropped anchor outside Santorini. We signed up for one of the ship’s tours that started with a wine tasting, and then included tours of Oia and Fira. There were two bus loads of 40 passengers for our tour. Santorini is part of a ring of islands that formed the rim of a collapsed caldera . The island is rimmed with steep cliffs of granite and volcanic ash. There are very few beaches, and the few commercial areas at the level of the water are reached via steep switchback roads. The main port for Santorini is Fira. There is a commercial harbor served by a steep switchback road up the cliff side. Running along side this is an even steeper switchback staircase for non-vehicular traffic consisting of pedestrians and mules.
It was heavily overcast as we boarded the tenders, which were island based local passenger ferries. The ride into the harbor was fairly quick and smooth. Everyone on a ship’s tour was going to be transported up to the top of the cliffs by bus, while those on their own could choose to hike up the stairs or ride donkeys. The ship’s destination expert lecture went to great lengths to discourage people from using the donkeys, which can slip on the marble steps, or dash off unexpectedly. But walking up the slick marble steps amidst donkey manure didn’t sound like much fun either.
Our first stop was the Santo Wines winery. Unfortunately, our two buses weren’t the only ones to arrive at exactly the same time, so the facility was totally swamped. The tasting room was packed shoulder to shoulder, making it a struggle to sample the dry white, red, and sweet dessert wines they had to sample. There were also some olives, cheeses and breadsticks but the crowds really turned the experience into a real travesty. The crowds eventually thinned and we were able to sample all three wines after a half hour or so. We basically chugged the wines and then ran onto the bus. There were potentially nice views to be had from the winery, but it was raining lightly, and there was a misty haze in the air from all the saturated humidity.
As soon as we boarded the bus, it started to really pour rain. Our guide said it almost never rains in Santorini. Well, it rained hard enough while we were there to fill up their water collection cisterns. Our next stop was the cliff top village of Oi (pronounced EE-ah). It is usually a charming spot to take pictures of the sea with the characteristic blue domed churches in the foreground. Unfortunately, the sky opened up with flashes of lightning and roars of thunder as we dashed from the bus to the village’s main square. The streets and walkways are paved mostly with rough cobble stones. The rain had turned these into creeks and streams with briskly flowing water. The cobble stones served as stepping stones with the water rushing between them. We could really see the utility of this design in Pompei, and had no idea we would see it put to use right under our feet.
To add insult to injury, as we approached the main town square, we found it to be paved with slick marble slabs, which would have looked impressive, but made for an extremely slippery and hazardous surface for a bunch of old cruise ship passengers to be wandering around on. Our guide gave us quick directions to find the best view points for photos and best shopping opportunities, but most people fled to the shelter of the nearest shops to get out of the pouring rain. Ben was unable to pull the Nikon DSLR out because it was raining so hard and continuously, and was barely able to dash off pictures with the waterproof iPhone XS, using a hand towel to wipe the rain and condensation off the lenses just before shooting. We certainly saw lots of pretty blue church domes and bells through the drumming rain, but there will be no prize winning photos from Santorini.
Most people beat a retreat back to the shelter of the bus well before the allotted free time was over. The bus then shuttled us to the town of Fira, just above where our Cruise ship was anchored. The lightning and thunder had us wondering just how many tourists could be electrocuted with a single unfortunately placed lightning strike. We had an hour of free time to tour Fira, but everyone made a mad dash through the town to the cable gondolas that were to take us from the top of the cliffs to the tenders waiting below at the docks. There are stairs that could be descended, but these were made of slick marble, and partially covered with now wet donkey manure. It was not a pretty sight.
We were all relieved to get back on the ship and get out of all our soaking wet clothes and shoes. In retrospect, we would have been better off wearing water sandals for this excursion, but there was doggie doo and donkey manure mixed with all that rain water, so our shoes got a rinse and Febreeze treatment back at the ship.
We made it back in time for afternoon trivia. In our usual fashion, we placed second by one point.
They had sushi at the Elite Lounge, so we had that instead of a proper lunch. Then we had dinner in the Santa Fe Dining room, which was nicely decorated with Southwestern art and modern decor. It was somewhere between the Savoy and the Pacific Moon in appeal. Service did take some time, and we wanted to participate in several evening events, so we skipped out on dessert. It’s not like we really need any additional calories over the salads, appetizers and entrees. Ben had Oysters Rockefeller and New York steak. Janet had a salad and pasta with lobster sauce, but closer inspection of the sauce revealed what looked more like bay shrimp than lobster bits.
We did managed to get out in time for the Beatles Music Trivia. We teamed up with Paul and Linda from our prior Japan cruise, and only missed one song and one point. But there were six teams with perfect scores competing for the one bottle of champagne. We left before the tie breaker, which was to guess how long the original Hey Jude single was. Surprisingly, it is 7 minutes and 11 seconds. We don’t know what the guesses were, but I’m sure none of them were 7 minutes. We ducked out to see the Princess Theatre show, which featured two of the singers from the recent shows- the “Guest Soprano” from the Bravo show, Shelly Rivers, and Jenny Williams, who had put on a great show on Monday. They both did some a few numbers from pop and opera in a sort of encore performance for each. Both put on great performances. It is unfortunate that this particular cruise is not staffed with string musicians, so the orchestral parts were partly canned, and partly synthesized- just not the same as real violins and cellos.
We did a new “Tricky Twisted Trivia” multimedia trivia/game show that involved brain teasers, optical illusions, and guessing the endings or products of TV commercials or advertisements with parts obscured. It was interesting and fun, particularly the TV commercials. We did OK, placing in the top 3, but the team that won really cleaned up with an 8 point lead.
Janet snuck out early to get a spot for Greek/Roman Mythology trivia because the Tricky Twisted Trivia was running late, and it was a good thing, because she managed to win that by 1/2 point. We got a bottle of Champagne, and also won Princess “WINNER” medals for winning the mythology olympics.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Rhodes. The destination materials brag that Rhodes is one of the sunniest places on the earth, with over 300 days of sunshine. Well, so far, it looks like we will be arriving on one of the 65 days when it is raining. We’re hoping our rain gear will be dried out by then.
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