For a mere 1.6 euros each, we got a great bus ride, again
straight up the mountain until we reached the very top. The bus driver
announced, “ride finished,” which was a polite way of saying, “get off the
bus!” We had an absolutely delightful day walking from the town of Fira to
Imerovigli, which is about a four hour walk round trip. The entire walk goes along
the crest of the mountain, looking into the caldera (the inside) of the volcano, and in spots looks down on both sides of the island
with amazing views out to the sea. The entire path is paving stones, with
lovely little tourist shops, restaurants and small hotels built into the side
of the caldera overlooking the water. This is one of the places that people come to
enjoy the famous Santorini sunsets.
houses built on the caldera |
We walked along the entire route and were completely
surprised to not find the ancient city of Thira. At the end of the path, it was clear that there was nothing else, so we asked a woman
who was resting under a tree if she knew where it was. We had a lovely
conversation, she was visiting from Austria. People are always surprised when
we tell them where we are from, as most of the tourists here are from Europe,
they can get here with a 3 or 4 hour flight. When we tell them that it took us
30 hours, they just look at us and say, “so far, so far.” Yes, we are NOT
looking forward to the return trip!
The only problem with this walk was Jordan harassing me
about breathing heavy when we walked at a steady pace up long flights of
stairs. Sheesh, she expects me, a 60 year old (61 in a few weeks!) to keep up with her, a 19 year
old! Hmph, I’m going to get her to run a half marathon with me and then we’ll
see how she does! Too bad I won’t be around when she’s 60 to give her a bad
time!
This is truly an amazing place. It is thought that this is
the place that Plato was referring to when he wrote about the lost city of
Atlantis. Given that half the island disappeared into the sea with the last
volcano, it makes a lot of sense that this is probably the area that he was
referring to. In any case, Santorini claims the Atlantis story as its own, and
there are many stores, restaurants and hotels carrying its name.
When we came back to our hotel, we asked the owner of the
hotel where the ancient city of Thiros is, and he pointed up the mountain right
beside the hotel. There it is, he said, straight up that zigzag rode. We could
take the tourist bus up there, but it will be a good workout to do the hour
long walk straight up the mountain. We will see how we do tomorrow, maybe it
will be Jordan huffing and puffing!
Zigzag road to Thira |
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