My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
This morning we checked out of the fabulous Hōm Hotel in Oia on the north end of Santorini. We explored the island and drove out to the south end of the island. Santorini is not much larger than Skiathos or Sifnos. It’s about 30 square miles and long and thin. We walked around the light house and enjoyed the views across the caldera.
Tonight we are staying at another fabulous place, the North Santorini Luxury Spa Hotel. After checking in we went for a swim in our own private pool!
Santorini is incredibly, strikingly beautiful. I had no idea! Santorini the island we are on and the other islands we can see are what is left of a giant volcano. All the hotels covering the hilltops are on what’s left of the rim. I’ve been reading about it today. The Santorini volcano last erupted in 1950. It’s on a list of volcanoes near populated areas that are active and could erupt again, volcanoes like Mount Ranier, Mount Vesuvius and Mauna Loa.
Today we walked out to the west end of the island and then came back to our hotel and swam, read and relaxed.
I’ve never seen sunsets like they have in the Greek islands. I was going to include another sunset picture. But instead here is one from about forty minutes after sunset.
We had an excellent dinner at Restaurant, Laokasti near our hotel. We had a half liter of the house wine, fish, squid and an appetizer of fava with onion and capers. The bill was only €55.
After dinner we walked along the same route we walked this morning but with even fewer people.
Today we took the high speed ferry from the island of Sifnos to the island of Santorini. We turned in our rental car and had coffee while we waited for the ferry.
Given how unpleasant our last ferry ride was and the fact that is was very windy today, we both took seasick pills and as a result it was a much more comfortable ride. The boat was bouncing over the waves like a high powered motor boat. It was also bumping and rolling a lot. I think several people got sick but thank goodness not us.
In Santorini we rented a car. Duke is very happy that it is a fiat Panda but he is not happy that he had to pay an “over age” surcharge. the rental car guy met us at the dock with our car.
We are staying at a wonderful hotel on Santorini. We have our own deck and hot tub. And the view is fantastic.
We had an excellent gourmet dinner at the hotel and then soaked in the hot tub.
The island of Sifnos where we are today has an area of 28.3 square miles. That makes it a bit bigger than Skiathos where we were last week. This morning we went exploring in the south part of the island. We went up to a the archaeological site and church of Aghios Andreas. The Mycenaean wall found at the archaeological site is from the 12 th century BC. The church is much newer. They have a wonderful view.
Next we went down o the tiny coastal village of Vathi, walked on the beach and had a coffee it was all very peaceful.
This evening we drove up to the north end of the island to enjoy the sunset.
For dinner we walked down to the village and had a wonderful dinner at Okyalos.
Athens is one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited. We saw no litter. This morning we took the metro to the ferry terminal. The ferry was running late. As we waited we saw a boat collecting litter in the harbor!
The ferry that we took to the island of Sifnos was a high speed ferry. We didn’t think it would be a rough ride but is was certainly rougher than expected. It was a three hour ride with one stop. The seats were 14 across and it was almost full. We were supposed to stay seated. They were passing out seasick bags but luckily both of us survived. It was not a fun ride.
The ferry stops at several islands. The stop to let us off was very quick. We and a few other people hurried off the back of the boat as a few others were getting on up front and then off they went. I bet they didn’t stop for even ten minutes.
We rented a car and drove up the mountains to our hotel.
I took a long nap and then we walked into the nearby village to buy snacks for dinner. The grocery stores were closed from 1:00 to 5:30 so we had coffee while we waited.
As the sun set we had a nice picnic on our balcony with three cats circling looking for handouts. We will be on Sifnos for two nights before moving on to the next island.
