This is a most incredible island with an amazing history.
We did not anchor at Santorini until 4PM so we went to a couple of presentations during the day. The first had to do with a new NCL ship, Epic, which is due to be launched from Southhamption on June 24 and travelling to New York to take part in the Independence Day celebrations. After that, it will take up the Caribbean circuits. The size of this new ship is truly stunning.
After which, we went to a presentation by Gary Glading, this ship’s Cruise Director, who is a very charismatic man who has lived a most incredible life. He gave a 50 minute talk; some of which was his personal history but most was about the animal shelter he runs in Italy. We could have listened to him much longer as his stories about his varied menagerie were really funny and heart warming. To support the feed and caring of all his adopted animals; many of whom had been abandoned as they were aged or sick, he wrote a book about his adventures in the cruise business from which all the profits go to support the animal sanctuary. Of course we bought a copy of the book and had it dedicated to Spook as she kindly allows us sanctuary in her house.
By tender (which means not docked but run back and forth by smaller boats), we headed out to our tour of this great island. Our local guide, who looked somewhat like a younger and diminutive Donald Sutherland, had a theatrical delivery not unlike William Shatner. He loved his home and conveyed it well.
The island is about 50 square miles with 12,500 inhabitants and about 2.5 million visitors per year. The primary industry is obviously tourism but there is a small agricultural base with grapes (for wine making), pistachios and specialized Santorini small tomatoes. The volcanic soil is very fertile but there is a lack of water for agricultural purposes which requires ingenuity to grow some plants. The grapes are not staked up but are grown in ‘nests’ to conserve the water. Until recent drilling to the island’s aquifers, rainwater had to be caught in cisterns or bought in on ships.
The name Santorini derives from the patron saint of the island: Santa Irini. In the cities of Oia (pronounced as ee a)and Fira, there were two cathedrals and numerous smaller churches in the Greek Orthodox style.
The island had a catastrophic incident about 3500 years ago when a volcano erupted blowing out the centre of the island creating a caldera. This volcano is still active and is situated in the centre of this caldera with an additional volcano on the other side of the island about 10 miles out to sea between Santorini and Eos. According to the experts, the greater threat is from the volcano at sea. The most recent eruption was in 1950 which did not result in a great deal of damage. However, in July 1956, the island had two earthquakes, the first was a 7.8 and the second was 7.2 which destroyed half of Oia and resulted in about 4,000 people permanently moving from the island. As at Vesuvius, the danger is always presented and accepted by the locals.
We got to walk the cities and really enjoyed the architecture and the landscape.
Some of you may not know that Spook, the cat who owns the house we live in, was a Miss Lovely Kitten in her hay day. Well, on Santorini, we met her heir apparent. This lovely little black kitten would not keep still for her portrait taken but I did the best I could. Greeks appear to have an affinity to cats as they even have calendars.
After a tour around Fira, we headed down the cable car which is one of three ways to get down from the town to the docks. The other ways are by bus on a very narrow road or by donkey. Apparently, it is better to take the donkey down as they can be a bit smelly but, by the time we were ready to go, they had finished their shift. So the cable car it was. Each car has capacity for 6 and we were with 3 girls; one of whom was not happy with the bumpy trip down. While passing by the cave walls, you can see the abandoned cave homes which former residents used to protect themselves from piracy.
Great day!
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