Off the Boat

The next morning we departed from our friends early and caught a cab to the main port to catch a ferry to Santorini. The high speed ferry took about four hours and we had a car waiting to take us to our hotel in Imerovigli. We had a beautiful spot on the cliff overlooking the caldera. We spent the afternoon soaking up the sun by the pool and watched the sunset from our private terrace. It was beautiful view with the sun setting over the far Island of the caldera, although it was a little hazy on the horizon it was still breathtaking. After watching the sunset with a glass of wine and some appetizers we found a close restaurant and had dinner and then went back to the hotel to go to bed.

The next day we toured the Island and went to a winery that was founded by two brothers that decided to stay on Santorini after being forced to go ashore due to a storm. We went back to Ia to explore and shop a little more and catch the sunset from a different perspective. While it was a little more crowed than our private terrace it was still a beautiful view. We had dinner at a great restaurant that we found off the main path at a quarter of the price of the restaurants on the cliff. From there it was time to go to the little airport and fly back to Athens. Once we landed we decided to go through with the car rental even though I didn’t have an international drivers license, risking going to jail and court if pulled over, and after some misdirection and confusion were at our cheap city limits hotel at one in the morning.

The next morning we were off early to drive two more hours to Delphi. Considered by some the most spectacular of ancient Greek sites it sits on the slope of Mount Parnassos and was the world famous home of the lady known as the oracle. From its height in the 4th century the oracle prophesied through the 4th century AD to Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans about everything from wars to marriage. The Christians finally took over and closed Delphi down at the end of the 4th century. The main attraction of the area is the sanctuary of Apollo which include the Sacred Way path winding up the mountain side to the temple of Apollo and the amphitheatre at the top. The Sacred Way was lined with statues and gifts to the oracle for thanksgiving for her prophesies and advise. Not much of the Temple of Apollo remains but this site is where the oracle stayed, deep inside the temple, only seeing visitors after a cleansing and sacrifice took place.

We wandered the entire length of the Sacred Way, all the way to the top to see the almost perfectly preserved athletic stadium which hosted games second only to the Olympic games. From there we made our way back down the mountain and to the town of Delphi for lunch and then back out to the ruins to see the artifacts in the museum. After the museum we visited the sanctuary of Athena a little further down the mountain. While less popular it is actually the most photographed site on the mountain because of it’s beautiful and intriguing circular temple structure. We then got back in the car and drove back to the airport in Athens. Good thing we gave ourselves an extra half hour because we hit some stop and go traffic in Athens! We made it back to the airport without getting pulled over, thankfully, and were on our way back to London after a full ten days of one of the most beautiful, restful, and perfect holidays we’ve had so far.