Santorini

Ahhhh .... Santorini. Absolutely stunning. Simply gorgeous! The island is the result of one of the largest volcanic eruptions ever recorded. You approach it in a lagoon, surrounded on 3 sides by tall cliffs. These cliffs are just beautiful with the cities build into the sides of it. In the picture above, you can see the white buildings of Fira, the capital.

Another view of the cliffs.
The 4 of us with the town of Fira behind us.

There is a major problem with all the cliffs when you come to the island. It makes it very difficult to get to the top. So ... they have one cable car running up and down.

Ok, this poses a problem. We arrived on a cruise ship .... that means a couple thousand people ... plus we weren't the only ship. And ... we were on an Italian cruise line. Now I love Italians, their food, their language and many other things about their culture ... BUT there is one thing that drove us all crazy on our trip. They don't know how to stand in line. People were cutting in line like crazy! Crowds of people! That made it take even longer to get on a car.

Needless to say, coming down the mountain, we decided to take a little burro path that zigzags steeply down the side. It was packed with people and covered in slick donkey "waste". I slipped and fell on more than one occasion. Yes, my ego was a little bruised. Yes, going up and down made our short visit there quite stressful - especially with 2 little ones.

But ... look at this picture! It truelly is gorgeous. I really am so glad I saw it and hope to make it back to this island some day. They have beautiful red and black sand beaches and some other amazing cities. Next time I want to arrive without thousands of other people ... waiting for a cable car.