Thursday, October 30, 2008

Crete and Santorini

We arrived at 7:00 AM in Northeast Crete, the town of St. Nicholas and took the "Taste of Crete" tour. It started at an Olive plant where we view the old methods of pressing olives. We sampled olives and a liquor made from the remains of the olive after all the pressings. Then we visited a small village restaurant where we sampled olives, cheese pie, vegetable pie, tea, cheese, and yogurt with honey. There we were entertained by 2 men in traditional Greek dress.

Dancers in Crete
In the afternoon, we sailed into the Caldera of Santorini - what a sight! From a distance it looked life the cliff was covered with snow, but as we approached, I realized it was the white-washed buildings. We tendered in to the port and then took a cable car to the top of the cliff. We arrived in time for the sunset. Our entire group found a bar and watched the sunset from there. We did a little window shopping, but the tiny streets were soon packed with people. I hate to think how crowded and hot this must be in summer. But the weather was pleasant (in the 70's) 10-20 degrees above seasonal.

Sunset from the cliffs of Santorini

No comments: