Saturday we still had several hours with our rental car. After an early breakfast we headed out to drive to the other end of the island, stopping at Amoudi, a tiny fishing village below Oia. In the background you can see the 214 steps up to Oia. 

From there we drove to the other side of the island where the land meets the sea in a more traditional way. It has a very different feel from the area overlooking the Caldera. I loved this hillside of traditional round homes.

We have good friends who travel to Santorini almost every year. Rick told us that the one  must-do on our trip was to walk the cliff trail from Immerovigli to Oia. (Actually the trail goes all the way from Fira to Oia.) And Rick was correct, it was a highlight of our stay there. It was the clearest day we’d had and the views along the trail were gorgeous. In the first photo you can see Oia in the distance. You can easily walk the trail in a couple of hours, but we stopped so often to enjoy the views and take photos that it took us nearly three hours.

There are several churches along the trail.

Oia is a bit less touristy than Fira, and like Pygros has lots of photographic opportunities. We found several gifts in Oia’s shops, had a lovely lunch, and enjoyed walking through the town.

Here you have a view of the 214 steps down to Amoudi from above. And an alternative to walking back up all those stairs.

We rode the bus back to our hotel, and had a lovely dinner at our hotel. Although there wasn’t a formal dining room, the hotel kitchen and menu were excellent. We had several lunches there and two excellent dinners.

On Monday, our last day on the island,  we took a cab to Fira to visit the Santozeum which I shared in an earlier post about Akrotiri. 

Fira caters to the tourists who visit from the many cruise ships who dock at Santorini for a day. It’s the most commercial of all the towns, and our least favorite. It wasn’t, however, as crowded and busy as we’d been led to expect. After visiting the Santozeum, we had a lovely lunch overlooking the Caldera, and enjoyed walking through the shops where we found the last couple of gifts we hoped to purchase for friends and family.

Our last lunch in Santorini overlooking the Caldera. 

I’ll end our visit with one of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed from our hotel.

We’ve come to the end of the travel posts from our trip to Europe. This weekend we’re off on a domestic road trip to visit Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Wilmette, IL. Adam’s Installation Service for his new position at the Winnetka Presbyterian Church is this Sunday. We’ll be celebrating with all of his family, who we haven’t seen in quite awhile, as well as many of his extended family who live in the midwest. 

It’s another photo-heavy blog post, but I hope you won’t mind.

When we left Akrotiri, we drove out to the end of the island, stopping at a lovely taverna for lunch. Then we headed to Pyrgos. Pyrgos is situated in the middle of the island on a hill. In the foreground, you can see fields of cherry tomatoes for which Santorini is famous.

The town itself has just a couple of streets for automobiles, but many walkways and stairs that lead you about the town.

I wasn’t prepared for the beauty of Pygros. It turned out to be my favorite place for photographs. There were three lovely churches, and although I took photos of the names of them, even with internet help, I haven’t been able to determine which is which for sure.

This is St. Nicholas. If I enlarge the photo enough I can read the name beside the door. Here’s a look inside the church, the only one that seemed to be open.

There were a whole series of these beautiful paintings along the walls of the church as you entered.

I love the simplicity of this shot, one of my favorites from the trip.

A year or so ago, I took an online photography course with Kat Sloma called “A Sense of Place.” Here are some of my favorite photographs from Pygros that capture that perfectly.

This donkey was patiently waiting for his owner outside a little shop, quite a ways up the walkway.

Someone along the way had told us about a winery museum not too far from Pygros. Although we had dinner reservations at Selene’s in Pyros later that evening, we had time to visit the wine museum which was quite interesting. A series of dioramas told the story of the family’s history on Santorini since their immigration there in the 1800’s. 

We returned to Pyros for dinner at Selene’s with a couple we met on the ferry from Athens to Santorini. Selene’s is reputedly one of the best restaurants in all of Greece, and we would agree it was exceptional. We opted to eat in the less expensive Wine and Meze Bistro, but the ambiance, service, and presentation were equal to any fine restaurant we’ve eaten in. It was the best meal of MANY good meals we had in Greece. Here’s a glimpse of some of the terrific food we ate while in Santorini.

Photo template by Rebecca Cooper

Two of our favorite mezes were the fava bean dip on the top left, and the tomato fritters on the top right. I’ve found a great recipe for the tomato fritters, and am hoping our friends will come home from Santorini later this month with a recipe for fava bean dip from their favorite restaurant. We ate there as well, and the fava bean dip there was the best we had. They’ve become friends with the owners and were quite sure Vicki would be willing to share the recipe. Oddly enough, they’ve never tried fava bean dip although they’ve traveled to Santorini many times.

On Sunday we hiked from Imerovigli to Oia, and I’ll be back soon with the last of the vacation posts.