Monday 14 Santorini
Woke up to find ourselves in the
centre of a volcano, ringed by high cliffs of layered rock with startlingly
white houses on top. At first glance it looked like snow. A zigzag path and a cable car provided access to the top,
800’ above the water. We missed all the gym sessions, did some laundry and won
trivia with the other young Americans – he is a F15 pilot (still waiting for
his call sign) and she is an aeronautical engineering graduate who works as a
gym instructor. We went ashore in the tender with them and followed them up the
zigzag donkey path. This was broadly scattered with nutritional messages from
the donkeys, fairly steep with a step every 4 or 5 metres, and interesting when
a herd of donkeys coming down passed a group going up. They were all walking free
of direction- just followed the track all by themselves. Some got tired of
waiting for a rider and simply wandered up by themselves. We felt a bit nervous
about being jostled by them or kicked when they passed each other or started
getting restless.
Above & below - todays view
Just a few of the many...
We walked ALL the way up that!
To get a view like this.
Last few steps were numbered - just to rub it in
Wow
We strolled around the village at
the top, where J got the beginnings of a migraine so we sat for a couple of
hours and had a very successful internet session. We booked a train trip direct
from Kiel to Paris with one change, found a hotel in Mainz which is reasonably
priced and right next to the Rhine – we sent them an email and hope they can
take us. We have a contact in the Somme region to follow up for ideas of how to
get to and around the monuments. We took the cable car down and hurried back to
the ship – unfortunately about a minute too late for the lunch buffet, which
left us eating pizza and pasta with salads – not bad at all.
Cat Burglar. Sound asleep or just a ploy to cover his pickpocketing activities?
We rejoined some old partners for
the 4pm trivia and did very well to get 37 capital cities out of 40, which was
more than enough to win. The American osteo-surgeon has invited us to stay with
them in New Jersey and put us on the train to New York each day. Very
kind. I managed to get some sun on the
balcony before the ship upped anchor and put me in the shade. Dinner was good as
always, particularly the chocolate lava cake. The waiter advised me not to try
the Argentine beef and then told us how important it is to assess him as
nothing less than Excellent – Indian waiters always do this. Nyoman got growled
at by the Scottish grump next door and looked unhappy all day. J cheered him up
by leaving him a towel folded like a crab. His towel lobster last night was
quite ingenious.
We took in the deal or no deal
show, watched the a capella singers and then went to the main theatre for a
show by Philip Browne (black actually) who was a very skilled and personable
bass singer who had been plucked from obscurity (bus driving) to lead in The Lion King at the West End and then on to other musicals. A real life fairy story.
A very enjoyable and special day –
only 3 more then we have to get off again L
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