Santorini, Greece: Oia and Fira

I think I enjoyed Santorini more than Jim and Alex. Santorini became independent from Ottoman rule in 1821 during the Greek War of Independence and was united with Greece in 1830. In 1956, there was a major earthquake there. Our bus tour guide told us that Oia was the capital of the island until end of WWII. There are 600 churches in Santorini.  The island is famous for their wines  (Vinsanto-30% exported) which we tasted in Athens (YUM!). They used to export pumice stone, but now it is banned due to ecological reasons. Our bus tour guide told us of Brad and Angelina's house on Santorini, but we never saw it! Jacque Cousteau explored the area to find that the deepest part of the caldera was 400 meters. There is no rest on this trip as we are back to the ship for showers and next meals!

Tender that we took to bus which drove us to Oia

Our ship from the tender boat

View from Oia which is about 9 miles from Fira. Oia was full of galleries and much quieter than Fira!

Church in Oia

Gallery in Oia

House in Oia

I tried to find fortress after a visit to the toilet, but Jim and Alex found it first.

On my way to the fortress, I found a very cool gallery with some fun jewelry!

Side tracked view when I took the wrong turn to the fortress!

Another view from Oia

Found the fortress

Fishing village in Oia

Only way to get down was cable car or donkey. Considering we could smell donkeys, we chose this route. Cable car was in Fira. Fira was so crowded and more tourist filled shops than Oia. Would have rather stayed in Oia, but time was ticking. This trip was all about non stop running, seeing the most in a short amount of time.

Oia

Oia

View from fortress

On way back with tender, zoom to Oia!

View from fortress on Oia

On our way down cable car, yes it was a big drop!

In Fira, walk to cable car is domed church in distance

On tender, looking up at Fira, Santorini

Cave dwellings

Celebrity ship also there making only 7,000 visitors. We were told by our waiter that one time last month there were 9 ships making visitors total 40,000 people. I cannot imagine!