After spending a couple of weeks driving through many villages, mountains and towns in Western Crete, we decided to finish off with a couple of nights in Santorini, one of the most photographed islands in the world - everyone has seen those amazing photos of the blue-domed, sparkling white churches against a deep blue sea, and it was definitely on my 'bucket list'. 
Well, getting there proved to be a bit of a problem - apart from the fact that we were there just ahead of the 'official' tourist season, trying to find a tourist office that could actually sell us tickets was virtually impossible! And trying to book the ferry tickets online actually was impossible. We finally were referred to one agent in Chania who could organise the trip for us. But we had to do all the hard work for him - we found him just before the Greek 'siesta' time (from 3.00pm for about 3 hours) and he really wasn't interested in putting himself out to book ferry tickets, because it was going to make him late for his siesta. He had a poster on his wall advertising ferry tickets from Heraklion to Santorini plus 2 nights accommodation and transfers and we actually had to point it out to him and sell it to ourselves for him - just ridiculous, but eventually we got it done and were ready to go to Santorini next day.
We got up early to drive to Heraklion, about 2 hours away. The ferry crossing took less than two hours, and we were picked up at Thira harbour by the manager of our hotel, Villa Popi. That was an interesting, small, budget hotel, just off the main street but through several quaint little alleyways. Our room was small, but had a balcony which overlooked the ocean and some blue-domed churches, and the location was excellent. We were a short walk away from the main shopping areas, restaurants, the cable-car, and the view over the volcano on the other side of the island. Villa Popi had a pool which I did use, despite the fact that the water was freezing.
Thira (the capital of Santorini) was wonderful, with all the startling white buildings hanging on the edge of the cliffs, lots of art galleries, jewellery shops, and really different items for sale. There was a lovely feel to the area, though I'm sure in the height of summer it's incredibly crowded and maybe not so pleasant. There were heaps of restaurants, and I must admit the food here was much better than in Crete, with a lot more variety and better prices.
We booked a tour for the next day of the Volcano and Hot Springs through Santorini Sailing for only 28Euros - it was excellent. We were picked up from the harbour in a wooden sailing boat and sailed over to the volcano, where we were escorted on a really good hike up to the caldera - it's a live volcano, but no fire and brimstone, just steam coming through a few vents. But what a fantastic view!
On our return to the little harbour, we were then taken to a little bay with hot springs, where we could swim if we wished. But our guide advised us that to get to the 'hot' springs we must first jump off the boat into freezing cold water and swim for about 100m till we reached the springs. And that the return journey would be worse, as we would be swimming from warm water back into freezing water. We umm'd and aaah'd about it for a while, but decided that we'd come this far, so we might as well just jump in and do it..... well, 'hot' springs was an exaggeration, and 'freezing' water was an underestimation! But I reckon that's the fastest I've ever swum - both ways! So we can both tick that off the list.
Next up was a hearty lunch at another little island, Therisia, then we hopped on a couple of donkeys (they were actually mules, and not very healthy-looking ones at that) to take us up the 200-or-so steps up to the village at the top of the island. Again, spectacular views, then a long walk back down to the harbour for our next sail to Oia, then back to Thira. What a fantastic trip - well worth the money.
We went back to our hotel, then decided we'd catch a bus back to Oia for the famous sunset over the domes - found that the next bus would get us there too late for sunset, so negotiated with a couple of other women and all four of us took a taxi there. If I thought Thira was beautiful, well Oia was on yet another level - it's obviously where you would stay in Santorini if you had plenty of money - the art galleries, shops, bars and restaurants were sooo beautiful, and the homes and hotels were just gorgeous. Lots of churches and windmills, and Oia is located right on the northern tip of Santorini. Sunset was lovely, but it was hard to get a decent photo with all the damn tourists in the way! Ah well, you can't have it all.
We had a wonderful two nights in Santorini, then boarded the ferry to take us back to Crete, to stay two more nights before we headed home.
So we've now visited Crete, more of a small country than an island, and although we enjoyed our time there, I think we would have enjoyed it a little more if we had arrived a couple of weeks later. It is a beautiful island, the scenery was spectacular, but I would have liked to meet and talk to more local people - because we arrived before the beginning of the season, a lot of the small tavernas were closed, and those that were open had very few customers - in fact, sometimes we were the only customers. I'm glad we spent a couple of nights in Santorini, because that really was beautiful, we met and talked with other people, and we finished off our holiday on a high note. You can see more photos of Santorini here.
Now, what's next????
