Got up at seven o’clock and went out onto our spacious balcony, from where we were happy to report the weather was sunny and warm. If there was only one island visit where the weather absolutely had to be perfect, Santorini was it. 🙂
We went for our breakfast in the Avon restaurant once again before going out on deck to have a look around. The Balmoral was at anchor in a large, blue bay just off Santorini Harbour; looking up at the steep cliffs of the island, we could see whitewashed buildings clustered along the top. How amazing it was to have built a town perched on the edge of a towering bluff. The views (as we were to discover) were amazing, but what about the danger of erosion?
Anyway… we returned to 9088 and collected our tour tickets, shipboard cards, currency, credit cards and other staples such as tissues and hand-sanitiser. Then we made our way to the Neptune Lounge to await the call for our tour, E4. When at anchor, priority for the liberty boats is given to those who have a booked excursion.
We had to wait about 20 minutes before those on coach E4 were invited to make their way to Deck 3 to embark the tender. We had to climb down a precarious, rattling set of steps lashed to the outside of Balmoral which afforded us access to a small pontoon and then into the tender, which was a double-decker. As the weather was so nice we decided to sit up on the top deck, which would allow the best views. 🙂
The official name of Santorini is Thira, and our tender was making its way to the the similarly-named village Fira, which is the modern-day capital of the island. Fira derives its name from an alternative pronunciation of “ThÃra”. From there, the joined our coach to take us along the picturesque coastal route to the village of Oia.
Once the coach parked up and we all alighted, we followed our guide to a large square dominated by a distinctive white church. The whiteness of the buildings and the sunlight glinting off the polished stone underfoot was actually quite bright on our eyes, and we wished we’d brought sunglasses.
Our guide told us it was the Church of Panagia Platsani, a prominent Greek Orthodix church. Like many of the churches in Santorini, it is known for its whitewashed walls and blue dome.
Our guide told us we had about an hour and a half of free time here. She said we could either go with her and she would take us to the less-crowded parts of the village, or we could do what every other tourist to Santorini does, and fight our way through the crowds to see the famous blue domes. Trevor and I decided we couldn’t come here without seeing the domes, so we just chose to do our own thing. In any case, it wasn’t as if it was the high season, maybe it would be less busy than we thought.
We set off through the gorgeous, polished stone-flagged streets, both sides of which contained lavish clothing and souvenir shops, bars, restaurants and those little curious trinket stores that are just so inviting if you want something that bit different. Whilst there were a lot of people around, it wasn’t over-crowded, just pleasant enough.
We heard some bells and a clip-clopping sound, and soon a line of donkeys came into view, carrying their riders (if any) through the undulating streets and up the slight inclines. I was pleased to see that the donkeys seemed to be well-fed, and their coats were in good conditions, but they were all tethered together, and it still didn’t stop me from feeling sorry for those gentle, grey creatures with their long ears and limpid eyes. Trevor and I laughed when a couple of the donkeys left a large ‘deposit’ on the pristine streets, and soon the shopkeepers were out with their buckets and stiff brushes to clean the mess up.
Presently we saw a little alleyway to our left, the seaward side, and decided to have a look and see if there was a decent view. Indeed there was; our first view of a blue-domed church with amazing views over the sparkling blue Aegean. How wonderful! 🙂
What a beautiful place. Many of the little shops and dwellings had pink flowers climbing up the walls and hanging baskets cascading from windows. We imagined that it would be expensive for visitors to this island, and indeed we were to find out – the hard way. 🙂
As we strolling around, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the views and the weather, we came across the largest and most photographed of the blue-domed churches on Santorini. As expected, the Instagram brigade were out in full force; young lasses dressed to the nines, faces full of makeup and long-flowing hair, as they stood in front of the blue domes with their selfie-sticks and their best trout pouts. As there was quite a queue for a selfie, I decided we’d move up one level and I would use the excellent zoom facility on my phone camera to take the photos. In fact, I was too short to see over the top of the wall, so I just lifted my phone up and took photos blindly – they didn’t come out too badly at all. 🙂
After we’d photographed the domes from all angles, we decided it was time to find a nice little pavement café and go and have a coffee or a cold beer. We discovered a pleasant little place that had perfects views over the domes, so we went in and sat down at a table nearest the sea.
Trevor ordered a white Americano while I just ordered a cold beer. The proprietor said that they only had cold bottles of Corona, and I said it was OK. He was serving on his own, so it took quite a long time to be served. My bottle of beer was 10 euros, yes! TEN EUROS !!! Obviously we were paying for the view rather than the beer. We did actually find this to be a thing (afterwards!) – the sea-facing bars/restaurants were much more expensive than those without a view.
By now, it was time to start thinking about making our way back to the starting point to reconvene with our guide, so after using the loo, we took a slow stroll back to the main square, where we could see the guide and the rest of the people from our bus. I showed my photos to some people and they thought they were fantastic, asking if I’d mind sending them copies on WhatsApp. 🙂
Back on the coach, we enjoyed the scenic clifftop ride back to Fira where, once again, our time was our own. We would be making our own way back down the cliff to the tender port by means of the steep, iconic cable car, and our guide pointed out where we had to go; she said depending on the time of day there might be lengthy queues for the cable car. Then our guide took her leave amid a round of applause from us.
As we looked over toward the blue, blue sea, we spotted the Balmoral far below us, turning almost imperceptibly on her anchor chain. She looked fantastic, especially her gorgeous cascading stern decking, a feature that has been sadly lost in modern ship architecture.
We walked along, feeling exhilarated at the views and the sea air. We came across some stray cats and gave them some of the Whiskas cat biscuits we’d bought the other day. We decided we’d find a supermarket and buy some more vodka and a bottle of Coke, so we could enjoy it in our cabin later on. 😉
In the meantime, it was around 12.45pm now, and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. We therefore decided to find a little pavement café (without a view this time!) and enjoy something light.
After walking around, we came across a little place that had tables and chairs outside and didn’t look too busy. A menu was chalked on a board outside, and we each ordered a pint of the local “Mythos” beer which was far more reasonably priced at five euros each. We also decided to have a light lunch; I ordered a Greek panini which contained cheese, sundried tomatoes, olives, and feta while Trevor ordered a pizza panini, which contained peperoni, cheese, tomatoes and onion. The sandwiches were really tasty and went down well with the beer.
Afterwards, we thought we’d take a walk to the cable car station, just in case there were any sizeable queues. As it happened, we got there and there were no queues at all. We handed our tickets in and were able to board “Gondola 3” as soon as it arrived. Each gondola takes six (three each side) and there were two couples, plus cruise director Jack Harrison and another bloke in ours. One of the ladies was petrified of heights and kept her hands over her eyes for pretty much all of the descent. I had my back to the sea view, so couldn’t take any photos.
Once we arrived at the bottom and alighted, it wasn’t far to walk to the tender terminals. One was marked “BALMORAL” in large lettering, while the other was marked “CELESTYAL”. We were interested to see the Celestyal one because we’re booked to go on the Celestyal Discovery next year. Apparently the ship is around the same size at the Balmoral, and from what we could see of the sister ship Celestyal Journey at anchor, it looked very nice.
Soon we were back on board the Balmoral and we went up to 9088 and dumped our bags. Then we propped open our balcony door before settling down for a power nap.
Awaking refreshed an hour later, we had a look at the Daily Times and saw that they were showing a special Greek folkloric show in the Neptune Lounge at five o’clock. We decided to get ready for dinner beforehand, so we could just go straight to the Ballindalloch at six, after the show.
We really enjoyed the show. They were called “The Pantelis Band” and consisted of a couple of musicians (violinist and a guy playing the mandolin) as well as four dancers, three female and one male. The music and the dancing was lively and energetic, and near the end of the show the dancers inevitably came out among the audience and invited people to come onto the stage and join in.
It took us nicely up to dinner time, and we met up with Tracey and Steve in the restaurant once again, sharing stories of what we’d been up to today, and showing each other our photos. We had had a lovely day today, and the evening was only just beginning.
As the Balmoral was not due to depart until 9.00pm, the evening programme was a little different from usual. From 7.15pm until nine, a “Santorini White Night” was being held up on the pool deck outside the Marquee Bar. It meant that we would miss the show tonight, but it featured The Base Notes again, whom we’d already seen the other night anyway.
So instead of making our way to the Neptune Lounge after dinner, Trevor and I headed up to the Marquee Bar. Everyone had been encouraged to wear all-white, or Santorini colours of white and blue, and most people had made the effort. I wore a pair of white jeans and a white top printed with blue flowers. The White Nights tend to be a feature of Azamara cruises – were Fred Olsen trying to copy? 🙂
We each ordered a drink at the bar and took them outside, looking for a chair on the deck. It was crowded, however, and there was absolutely nowhere to sit other than on the edge of the pool. We enjoyed the view of the clifftop buildings all lit up; it looked completely different at night and you could clearly see the zig-zagging path to the top.
Once we’d finished our drinks, we decided not to stay as there was nowhere to sit anyway. We therefore just went into the Morning Light until it was time to make our way up to the Lido Lounge for the quiz.
Up in the Lido, we took our seats at the table and waiting for Steve and Tracey. We were quite rubbish at the quiz tonight, only scoring 10/15, but we had one more chance of glory tonight – a game of Majority Rules.
Steve and Tracey had never played this game before, so we explained it consisted of 10 questions to which there were no right or wrong answers. Instead, you had to predict the answer you believed that the majority of people would give. For example, if the question was “What is the best flavour of crisps?” and most people said “cheese and onion”, then everyone with the answer “cheese and onion” would receive a point. Trevor and I have won this game in the past, so we were hoping we would do it again. 🙂
As it happened, we scored 9/10, the joint top score with another team, so it had to go to a tie-breaker. Two members of the entertainments team said that we had to try and guess the total that both their ages added up to. I thought that one of them was 22 and the other 23, so I put “45” for the answer. The other team put an insulting 52, but we were actually spot on in every way with our answer! So another bottle of wonderful Fred Olsen cava was ours!
We asked Steve and Tracey whether they wanted to open and share the bottle with us now, or meet at some point tomorrow and crack it open. They explained they didn’t like fizzy drinks so we could take the bottle (as we’d got most of the answers anyway!) That was very generous of them, so we offered to buy them a drink. In any case, bragging rights are far more important! 🙂
By now, it was getting on for 12.00 midnight, so we all said our goodnights and returned to our respective cabins, putting the bottle of cava in the fridge to chill. As it was warm and clear out on the balcony, I went out there with a vodka and diet Coke and sat in the dark, enjoying the sights, sounds and scents of the sea as it washed gently alongside the Balmoral. We didn’t have any excursions booked tomorrow, so we could get up whenever we wanted.
It was around 12.30am when we settled down in our comfortable beds, after propping open the balcony door and leaving the curtains wide open. We were asleep more or less instantly.