World Travel with Bob: Santorini, Greece

Our stop at the port of Fira on Santorini Island required tender boats this morning. The disembarcation was very efficient and, with hardly any waiting, we were sitting in the tender along side the Reflection. As incoming tenders were in a queue, our tender boat departed the larger ship with just a few passengers.

When we arrived at the port of Fira, we had the choice of either a donkey ride or cable car ride up to the city of Fira. We chose the latter and, again with hardly a line for ticket purchases, we quickly boarded a cable car and were brought up the 900 foot cliff.

We stopped at a bakery while waiting for the scooter rental shop to open. Given three riders, the rental shop recommended that we consider a rental car instead of scooters. The rate was 35 Euro for a small manual transmission Toyota Yaris (two scooters would have run 40 to 50 Euro). Lauren was disappointed that the car was not an automatic that she could drive. However, using a car with a stick transmission avoided the additional 10 Euro charge plus any additional insurance fee required for coverage of a more expensive rental. While the scooters could have been fun, a scooter rental employee warned inquiring renters that without previous driving experience, the scooters and ATVs could be dangerous on the twisty and sometimes congested roads of Santorini. The issue may have been the ATV lower 20-30 MPH capability and the need to drive with traffic for up to an hour, depending on your the island destination.

The manual transmission Toyota was an interesting drive. It seemed the clutch needed to be rebuilt as Betty had issues with first gear. A couple of times, a burning clutch smell invaded the Toyota interior.

It took about 20 minutes of driving along a winding road to reach Oia. Parking was fairly easy and the crowds still light at 9am. We walked along the stone paths in Oia, seeking photo vantages that were easily found. At 11am, we departed Oia after some searching for the parking lot that held our rental car.

Looping back to Fira, we searched for Santos Winery but couldn't find it after seeing a sign along the major street. We ended up on a dirt road at one point and, with a minimal map, got so turned around, we were no longer backtracking on the road and I had to stop to confirm our driving directions. Given that most of the island roads were winding (with potential for car sickness) and observing growing traffic congestion, we decided to turn in the rental car early and have lunch in Fira before taking the cable car and tender back to the Reflection. In retrospect, I'm thinking that the winery sign may have indicated the vineyards rather than the winery visitor facility.

We had lunch at Zafora Restaurant, in Fira, dining on Spanikopita, calamari, a pork gyro and proscuitto wrapped melon.