The greek island of santorini - Our cruise review

Santorini Greece - Our cruise ship review of the Crown Odyssey.

Santorini Greece is almost dry. There are very few springs and they don't supply much water. For their daily needs, the inhabitants use rainwater carefully collected in cisterns. Almost every house has its own cistern. Many houses are built on cisterns preventing the steeling of their water.

Santorini has a fertile volcanic soil. Cultivated carefully over the years, this soil has made Santorini well known for its products. Most of all, it's wines. Santorini has some of the best wines worldwide. After all, the biggest part of the cultivation is vines. "Fava" is also famous, a legume smaller than a pea, exported all over the world.

The eruption of Santorini in Greece in 1,650 B.C. was one of the largest in the last 10,000 years. About 7 cubic miles of magma was erupted. The plinian column during the initial phase of the eruption was about 23 miles (36 km) high. The removal of such a large volume of magma caused the volcano to collapse, producing a c aldera. Ash fell over a large area in the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey. The eruption probably caused the end of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.

Most cruises of the Greek Islands include a stop in Santorini. They dock in the port below Thira and you can go up the side of the volcano by cable-car, donkey or on foot if you are in good physical shape.

On the western side where the volcano is located, the sheer cliffs, 300 metres high, are multi-coloured strata of black, red, grey, and brown. Perched high atop are the scenes most often adorning a poster for Greece, startling white sugar cube houses and churches with brilliant blue domes set against the deeper blues of the sky and the Aegean Sea.

.The island is 96 sq. km. with a coastline 69 kilometres long and a population of almost 12,000. The island is 130 nautical miles from Piraeus and 70 nautical miles from Crete. Santorini is 18 km long and varies from 2 to 6 km wide.

While there, be sure to try the local specialties which include wine, and 'fava' – a dish made from chick-peas.

Click on the image to enlarge!

View of Santorini from aboard the Crown Odyssey.	Taken from the tender coming from the cruise ship.	Another shot from the tender.
Arriving at the top in the cable car.	Donkeys headed down.	View of the ship from the cable car.
A shot of another restaurant below the one where we had lunch.	Our waiter told us this was "Santorini Beer". Some kind of liqueur in the shot glasses he dropped in our beers.	Another amazing view.
There appears to be a swimming pool in the upper left corner.	Aren't the views spectacular!	View of our ship from our table in the restaurant where we had mousaka for lunch.
Talk about narrow streets.		The end.

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