Santorini

Our next port of call is Santorini, and we have booked the TUI trip of the Island. It was quite an early start as we had to get a tender from where the ship was moored to the new port, which took about 20 minutes and then on to our coach which was coach 8. We were on the same coach coach as Alf and Carol,  whilees and Julie were on coach 7. Our 1st stop of was the village of Pyrgos, which is only a tiny place but is the highest of the 14 settlements on the island. We were only there for about 20 minutes, just enough time  to walk up to it's highest point.

We then drove to the other end of the island, and to the iconic village of Oia,which is renowned for it's picture postcard views. We got to spend about an hour and a half here and it certainly lived up to it's reputation.

From there we headed off to Thira the capital of the island, and our quest for tat. Thira is perched above the old port, to which there is no road access, so we had to either walk down the 600 or so steps to the port or catch the cable car. We were quite fortunate that there was only 1 other cruise ship in port , and it was only a small one as well, so the recommended waiting time for the 1 minute cable car ride was only just over 30 minutes. But being the athletes we are we opted to stare the 600 steps with the islands famous donkeys. Apparently next year they are limiting the number of cruise ships they are allowing to visit the island each day as some days there can be as many as 9 cruise ships on the same day. The wait for the tender was about 30 minutes and then trip nearly ended in excitement when Perdita was just about to step off the tender onto the cruise ship, when the captain of the tender shouted to stop and quickly sped away from the ship. Apparently Roger the cabin boy let go of a rope too early and caused a right hoo hah. After putting the life insurance documents back in a safe place we reapprroached the boat and stepped on board like a king and queen, being the only ones left on the tender.

Pongo and Perdita signing off until tomorrow!!