Santorini: Part 3

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.