We had arranged to meet our Columbian friends (Joaquin, Rocio and Carolina) for breakfast at 8am in the hotel restaurant. Soon afterwards, Martina and Manfred also arrived and as we were leaving the restaurant another German couple arrived for breakfast. We said goodbye to our Columbian friends and we all undertook to keep in touch.
At 9:15 we checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi to the airport. We were glad we weren't travelling on an international flight because the queues in that area were horrendous.
The airport security people were very thorough - they searched through every item in Suzy's backpack and eventually threw out our last tube of sunscreen cream because it was a 110ml tube rather than the allowable maximum of 100ml (even though the tube was far from full).
The flight to Athens left soon after 11am and took less than an hour. We had more than four hours to wait at Athens airport for our 4:15pm flight to Santorini. So we checked out the shops, had lunch, read our books and used the airport's free WiFi internet access. We hadn't realised that the free internet access at the terminal had a 45 minute limit and so we hadn't finished when it cut us off.
The flight to Santorini was only 40 minutes and so we landed at about 5pm. We caught a taxi to our hotel which is at Firostefani - just north of the island's capital, Fira.
The taxi went up the main street to reach our hotel. The main street did not impress me - the traffic was chaotic, the street is rough and narrow and lined with a mish-mash of buildings. It was also very noisy with constant car horns. However when we stopped I realised that the car horns had been from a wedding procession behind us. Perhaps it is the local custom.
Our room in the villa has a very nice view south over Fira. The villa is on the second floor across a pedestrian laneway from the main building. It has a little balcony from which we can see both coastlines with a side-on view of the calderra (the central part of the island that was destroyed by a volcano about 3500 years ago forming a spectacular semi-circular ocean coastline).
After settling in, we walked down the cobblestone pedestrian path to Fira. The main road did not impress me on our arrival but the pedestrian walkway certainly did. It has fabulous views of the caldera and the town. The town is very quaint with white and cream coloured houses, villas, shops and hotels along the edges of the cliff.
The walk would probably only take 15 to 30 minutes (depending on which part of Fira you go to) if you walked there without stopping. However, on the way we looked at the shops and cafes and took photos - like everyone else. We are probably about 1km from the central square at Fira.
We were also admiring the sunset over the island in the middle of the caldera but we didn't get to see the final stages of the sunset because of cloud on the horizon. The sunset is clearly a popular spectacle because there were dozens of photographers lining the path getting shots of the sun.
It was very windy and felt cool. Suzy had convinced me to wear my fleece on our walk to Fira - the first time I've had to wear a jumper since we left Sydney (except in the plane).
We found an excellent restaurant for dinner before heading back up to our hotel.
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