Santorini, Greece

Wednesday - An early morning today. A small group met for coffee at 6:30 when we discovered that the coffee place didn’t open until 7. At 7:30, we wandered down to deck 2 to get loaded on tenders for the short ride into Santorini. No boat docks.

This place is very photogenic. All of the buildings are painted white as electricity didn’t arrive until 1967 and the white kept the buildings cooler. The blue trim was mandated by the government for uniform appearance. And is the color of the Greek flag.

We took a cable car to the top of the cliff. The other options were walking and donkeys. The €10 for the cable car seemed like a bargain. 

This picture was the start of the tour. The first stop was at a black sand beach (next picture), where we had a mid-morning snack. I had the grilled sardines just because I wanted to try something different. 

We had about 1½ hours of free time at the beach. 

The next stop was Megalochori or huge village in Greek. Cobblestone streets and lots of hills. We visited a historic cave dwelling. 

We then went to Oia, where the stereotypical photos of Santorini are taken. It was extremely crowded and the prices were steep. Lots of people taking selfies. 

Our stop here was only about an hour as the tour guides thought that the group would enjoy more free time in the reasonably priced location at the top of the tram. 

We were told that real estate prices were completely out of hand here. Some hotel rooms have been known to go for over €10k per night!

We had a very late lunch back in Fira, the village at the top of the tram. 

Sea Day

Tuesday - Just before we returned to the ship, we stopped at a cathedral. B this time, most of the group, including me were pretty tired. The ship time changed at 2am to the time zone of our next stop. We didn’t actually change time zones at that point but more for convenience. There was a meetup this morning with pastries and coffee followed by a group photo. About half of the group showed up initially and we guessed that the other half didn’t get the time zone memo. 

I had eggs Benedict and wedge salad for breakfast. The menu was both breakfast and lunch, which was nice. And the bacon was actually crispy, unlike the bacon in Italy. I guess the cruise company caters to Americans. Well, sort of. The couple at the next table complained about everything they brought out to them. Their toast wasn’t freshly toasted, the hash browns were a patty, and the eggs weren’t cooked perfectly. Almost everything was not satisfactory, to them. They were Americans.

Afterwards, I checked out the Solarium up on deck 14 at the front of the ship. Very nice and quiet. At least initially. The hot tubs were pretty empty and the view was nice. 

After about an hour, it started to feel more crowded and warm. I turned in my towel and headed back to the room. Our balcony is facing north as we are headed almost due east towards the southern Greek islands. It was nice to be out of the sun for a bit.

We had lunch at the Solarium Bistro. A much smaller selection than the regular buffet but a fraction of the people and no kids. I just had a hot dog, some fries, a small caprese salad, and a bit of penne with a white sauce.

We walked three laps around the running track on deck 15 but it was a zoo as people were watching the belly flop contest while drinking and smoking like there’s no tomorrow. So many more people seem to smoke in Europe. Or at least smoke where there are a lot of other people around.

Tomorrow, we will be in Santorini, one of the iconic locations in Greece. The first time I ever heard of this location was in the movie Tomb Raider. The white buildings all built along a cliff in the initial scene with the earthquake. 

Messina (Sicily)

Monday - This morning, we arrived in Messina located between Sicily and mainland Italy. We have an all-day bus tour scheduled with some free time in the middle for lunch.

Earlier, a subset of us met up for coffee and breakfast at Two70 located at the stern overlooking the water. A pretty nice location for breakfast. 

We stopped at a roadside rest stop for a bit for a bio break. It’s a two hour ride to our first stop, Mt Etna. 

It was a narrow, curvy road up to 6,100’ on the side of the volcano. 

At the stop, we were able to walk up to craters with recent activity. 

When we arrived, the clouds opened up a bit showing more of the surrounding landscape. 

This is one of the craters that you could walk into. The ground was all packed ash and lava but walking wasn’t difficult though you did need to watch your step. 

We then went to the Greek Theater in Taormina. We heard the history from when the Greeks built it and the changes when the Romans politicized it. 

From the back of the theater, there was a wonderful view of the town and the beach. 

Well?

Sunday - Another high stress day. We filled out our Royal Caribbean “Health status” questionnaire and reported that I had two of the symptoms listed. Basically, a cold. We’ll see if that gets us dumped to the do-not-allow list. I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until we are onboard.

The included hotel breakfast was decent and included cappuccino, so no complaints. All of the breakfasts in Italy really focus on sweet offerings. The savory options seem limited to eggs and floppy bacon. 

Checkout time is 11am and our overpriced shuttle to the ship is scheduled for 11:30. 

Later - It turns out that the “Health check” wasn’t very stringent. They asked us a couple of questions and a supervisor came by and said no problem. We were on the ship by noon. Way less stress for me at this point. We are on Odyssey of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, on a 7 day Greek Isles and Italy cruise. This trip was organized by two RV YouTube channels, Less Junk More Journey and Finding Our Someday. 

We ran into a couple of the cruise organizers and they mentioned that we could drop our stuff off at the conference room they were setting up for distribution of packets. We then had a light lunch at the buffet before going back, picking up our packets which includes tickets for all of the excursions.