Santorini, Greece

When we woke up the morning of May 17, we looked out our cabin balcony and what to our wondering eyes did we behold but SNOW on the mountains!! How could that be? We were in a warm climate and the mountains weren't that high?!?!??

A look a little closer revealed the "snow" we were looking at turned out to be lots of white houses built close together on top of the mountain.

 Upon further investigation, we saw other islands with houses built atop them also.

The scene before our eyes brought to mind the scripture from Matthew 5:14 when Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."

At this particular port we had to take tender boats from the ship to the shore.

We snuggled in together on the boat all ready to be ferried over to Santorini Island.

We began our day with a tour of the archaeological site of Akrotiri. The Minoan Bronze Age village was buried by a catastrophic volcanic eruption in approximately 1627 BC.

A building is built over the site and we sat listening to a tour guide telling us all about what was found when the archaeologists started digging.

Akrotiri is remarkably well-preserved. Buried beneath thick volcanic dust and ash, frescoes, pottery, furniture, advanced drainage systems and three-story buildings have been discovered.

Paved streets, an extensive drainage system, the production of high quality pottery, and further craft specialization all point to a high level of sophistication achieved by the settlement.

And here we are outside with our tour guide holding up the red flag showing us where to gather.

We took a bus ride the length of Santorini Island to the village of Oia (pronounced Eee-ah). Along the way, our tour guide pointed out the home where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolee live when they are on the island.

It was a breathtaking view to be on top of the island looking down on the white houses overlooking the water below.

The blue-domed churches were unique and beautiful.

The Santorini Windmill Villas are located between the village of Oia and Fira where the bus dropped us off so we could take a cable car down the mountain.

It was such a scary ride on the way up with the bus winding its way from the shoreline to the upper crest of the island on skinny roads with hairpin curves. I was relieved to know we were taking a different mode of transportation down.

Of course we could have chosen to pay to ride a mule down the mountain. Or we could have walked down like Steven and Patricia chose to do. My theory was we had already paid for the cable car, so I was going to get my money's worth. (I'm an advocate for getting my money's worth of what we pre-paid for as you will see in a comment further down in the blog...)

Waiting in line for the cable car.

Four people climbed in the car first and that left Glen and me sitting across from each other. I got the good view looking out over the water.

Glen got the not-so-good view of the mountain as we descended from the top.

The guy next to Glen was gripping the bar above him so tightly with both hands most of the way down. He also had his eyes closed a lot of the way and had a grimace on his face. He put down one arm for just a minute to allow me to take a picture. I made sure to include him in the photo because he was acting so strangely that I wanted to show Glen what the guy had looked like.

Once at the bottom, he sighed heavily and started acting more normal. It was at that point I realized he was afraid of heights and was having a really extreme nervous reaction. Poor guy!

Our parting view of Santorini as we were in the boat headed back to the ship.

Each day on our shore excursions we were anxious to get back onboard so we could eat a late lunch so we could make sure we got our money's worth of the food we paid for on the ship!!

This particular day we decided to get a hamburger at the grill. Michael Wilcox ended up standing in line behind us. He saw where we were sitting and asked if he could join us. I just had to get a picture of him and Glen when Michael decided to follow Glen to the ice cream bar to get an ice cream cone.

Michael's wife died of brain cancer several years ago and he told us traveling around the world and lecturing like he does has helped him so much to alleviate the loneliness of her being gone. He takes family members with him when he travels. On this trip, Michael had brought along his son Cade and his daughter-in-law Carolyn.

It was formal night in the dining room that evening. Aren't we just a couple of cuties???

Step count for the day was 12,409 which is 6.26 miles.