Santorini and Mykonos - Gems of the Greek Islands

Santorini and Mykonos

hiking up the donkey road in Santorini

Ahhh, beautiful Greece. There is a special color for the water in Greece. Azure doesn’t cut it. Turquoise, cobalt, sapphire, cerulean…. No, the best I can say is it is Greek water.

We are anchored in Santorini and getting ready to take a small boat ashore to this old volcanic island. Clara joins us today but Juliet begged us to stay onboard, so we are a family of five at the moment.

Santorini, the southernmost gem of the Cyclades island chain, awash in the Aegean Sea. Once a thriving Bronze Age port, a vital part of the Minoan civilization, the island literally blew apart in a cataclysmic volcanic eruption 3600 hundred years ago and is now merely a shell of an island with a huge sea caldera, big enough for our gigantic ship (and many others) to all anchor in. The eruption, one of the largest in earth’s history, ended not only the civilization on the island but also the entire Minoan civilization - gave rise to the legend of Atlantis.

Looking down from the top of Santorini into the Sea filled Caldera

Pretty exciting stuff, especially for this traveling family.

Again, as we don’t have much time we won’t be able to see the ruins of the town that survived or explore for the underwater ruins that are out there somewhere. (Atlantis, I’ve found it!) But we will climb to the top of the cliffs, see the main town, soak in a little island life and look down into the caldera proper.

gyros heaven

As the tourists line up for the funicular (like a quick cable car) and the rest queue to buy a donkey ride we decide to hoof it up the steep slope ourselves. We hike the mount all the time at home so no sweat, well, some sweat, we can make it. And so we hike up the something like 500+ steps  to the top of the caldera rim.
We are constantly being passed by donkeys, carrying scared looking tourists, clutching their Dior bags and point-and-shoot cameras. Apart from dodging the Donkey dung it felt good to get physical, especially for me after the few weeks of sickness I’ve had. And with every bend in the road the scene gets more and more magnificent.

The view from the top must be one of the best in the world. Fira town perches precariously to the top of the volcanic rim. It has been photographed something like a billion times, and everyone has seen the quintessential white houses looking down onto the blue water. But you know what? It deserves to be photographed like mad and celebrated. It’s a truly amazingly beautiful place!

A fishy pedicure!

So we take our photographs and spend time pointing out the caldera to the kids - how we are standing on the rim of the volcano that exploded so many years ago, and how there is a new island rising in the middle of the water, someday to blow up again – but hopefully not for another 10,000 years or so!

Who needs laughter yoga?

Not far into the town we ran across a foot spa store that is entirely unique to us. I must try this out! There are rows of plush seats with water tanks to put your feet in. The water tanks look like aquariums, because, well, they are aquariums. Each foot bath has a hundred little cleaner fish and when you stick your feet inside they come and eagerly start nibbling at your toes, eating away any dead skin and fungus. It is supposed to be relaxing, but being ticklish, I nearly made myself sick laughing then entire 20 minutes. Each time I would subdue the giggles another little wiggly body would push between my toes and start munching away, and I would break out into another fit of laughter. Who needs laughter yoga when you can laugh silly and get the dead skin taken off your feet?

finally on a donkey

The kids thought I was mad, but all had a go at getting their feet cleaned as well. What a fun experience, and my feet really were smoother when I was done!

The best part was listening to our budding entrepreneurs deciding on their business plan of importing the fish to Mount Maunganui and setting up their own fish foot cleaning business. Liana deemed Clara suitable for charming the customers in, while Liam was relegated to cleaning the fish tanks. Who knows, they may make their fortunes in the fish pedicure market someday!

Fearless daddy leads the way

Fira, is a small town and soon we had exhausted the stores. So we settled for a gyros (just as drippy, slurpy, greasy and yummy as yesterday) and a bottle of water before heading to find some last views. Our limited time only allowed me to have a quick espresso before navigating our way to the top of the trailhead that leads down to the marina 500 meters below.

The kids, who had wanted so badly to ride a donkey on the way up, got their wish on the way down. After some serious haggling the Greek man saddled up two donkeys, hoisted the kids up, handed the reigns over to Randall and walked away. We were on our own, so how to make a tired donkey move? It was a bumpy laughter filled ride down, but we made it just in time for the last tender back to the ship before it steamed off to the second island for the day. Ah, what an experience.

MYKONOS

Arriving in Mykonos just after seven there was never any doubt in our minds that the kids were going to be left on the ship in the kids club while mummy and daddy went out on the town.

Oh to be so free. Just the two of us on a quaint, if tourist ridden, Greek island. The only hands we held were each other’s. The town is made for casual strolling in and the sights are laid back and low key. Mykonos doesn’t have any significant historical sights (at least not that we could see in the few hours that we were docked here) so we had full permission to relax and just be the silly tourists that we sometimes make fun of.

Working up our appetites with a stroll to some of the traditional Grecian windmills we had severe decision trauma choosing a restaurant, but when a table presented itself right on the water the decision became very easy. The view was stunning, the food amazing. The wine went down effortlessly and the company was perfect. Who knew it was so easy to hold a conversation when you are not constantly peppered with questions from the small inquisitive people that follow up everywhere?

walking through the streets of mykonos

A perfect evening to recharge our energies before the excitement and history of our next stop – Athens!!!

Ancient Olympics!

And we’re on the move again….

Looking back on Sorrento to say goodbye

It was a tearful goodbye from the kids when we said goodbye to our new friends at the Palazzo Montefusco.  They took such good care of us we felt like family, but it’s time to be moving again. By mini bus from Sorrento across Italy to Bari, on the Adriatic Sea where we pick up our next ship to tour Greece and the Adriatic.

Driving across Italy is a treat. Leaving Sorrento we pass the backs of the rocky mountains that make up the Sorrentine peninsula and pop out at Salerno, the southern end of the Amalfi coast, before heading east to make for Bari, the second largest city in the south of Italy. At first it’s a land of hill top villages and mountains, Liam gets to be on lookout for fortresses, but gradually the land turns into wheat fields and wind farms. After about three hours we get our first glimpse of the blue ocean and next thing we are winding through the industrial town of Bari to the docks where an enormous ship awaits.

We’ve booked on MSC lines for a quick highlight cruise that will give us a glimpse of Greece, Croatia and Venice. Kids travel free so it was a fairly economical way for us to get the flavour of this part of the world. I was all for staying on a Greek Island for a month and getting a full dose, but the budget had to stop somewhere!

So as we settle in on our Italian ship the rain clouds come and wash away some of the dust of this land and get us ready for our first view of Greece tomorrow morning.

OLYMPIA – home of the Olympics….

About midday we dock at Katakolon in the western part of Greece. It is a seaside town that is the gateway to the ancient city of Olympia – home to the first Olympic games.

Leaving Clara and Juliet on the ship we head out with just the big kids. Liana is practically vibrating with excitement. It’s finally getting to the part of the trip that she picked. Liam had input into Petra and Vatican City, while Liana was desperate to see Greece and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. She’s studied the Greek classics, can tell you most of the stories, and knows a great deal about ancient mythology so today was her first exciting foray into the land of Homer, Herodotus and Hercules.

The remains of the temple of Zeus

Instead of taking the overly priced tour we buy a ticket from the local bus. It takes us about 30 minutes to get to the hugely touristy destination of Olympia. I was here with my parents (and Cathy!) twenty or so years ago and it seemed quite off the tourist map back then, but with the recent Olympics and all the money that poured into the country from the added tourist revenue, it has been commercialised and fancied up. Large car parks for the buses and cafes and tourist shops are all in place.

We get our tickets and head into the well kept archaeological site. Liana squeals when she sees her first Greek text. It’s hard not to feel super excited when you are surrounded by antiquity. 

The first remains found here date back to the 10^th century BC and the first Olympic games were officially held in 776 BC, and were played continuously at this sight until the last Olympiad in 393 AD, after which the Christian emperor, Theodosius I put a ban on the ancient games, deeming them too pagan. And when the 2004 modern Olympic games were held in Greece the men’s and women’s shot put competition was held right here in the restored Olympic stadium. How amazing would that have been for those competitors!?

In the well laid out ruins that are the modern archaeological sight of Olympia there are many different time layers within the buildings. It was a bit of a pilgrimage sight for many people in the ancient worlds. In fact it was said that wars were put on hold so that competitors could travel to the games. They were sacred of Zeus and the ruins of the massive temple in his honor are still some of the most impressive of the sight. There are Roman ruins as well as Macedonian ruins, all put together with the Greek ruins. It's similar to any working sight that is continually improved upon. 

But no matter how much time you spend wandering around the ruined temples, ancient training halls, places of worship and places of feasting, every tourist ends up at the Olympic stadium.

Inside the ancient stadium

Not too many people can say that they’ve run in the Olympic games but here you can pass through the archway that ancient competitors would have strode through and run in the old stadium. Even us women who would have been forbidden entrance to the ancient games. After overcoming his horror upon hearing that all competitors ran in the nude, Liam was keen to become an olympic athlete and we caught him on video racing in his first Olympics, which he did with his usual grace and comedy. That's my boy. 

There were also other tourists and a few Greek school groups who were doing the same thing. How amazing would that be to go to school, learn your history and then walk out on your own doorstep and be able to touch and feel the spirit of your ancestors and walk (or run) in their footsteps. It makes you think that you’d have a bit more appreciation for the timelessness of history. Or maybe not, and I’m merely looking at it through my own filter of experiences.

All in all, we only had a few hours to introduce the kids to Olympia, but it was enough. They got the spirit of the ancient Olympics and feel the difference of this place over the other cultures we’ve visited so far. We are only a few hundred miles from Italy but the feeling of the land and culture is as different as Oman was from Italy. A good lesson that geography does not necessarily dictate the spirit of the land.

After returning to Katakolon we had a bit of time before ship was due to leave so we spent the time doing a bit of wandering and shopping in the touristy shops. I bought some cute dresses for the girls and some aspirin to help with the lingering aches from my earlier illness. Randall and the kids added to his growing dagger and sword collection. And finally we pass a gyros shop. Stopping in our tracks it’s time for the kids to discover true gyros. Sauce dripping, steaming, onion filled gyros. Oh yum. Hot fresh pita bread filled with greasy meat, fries, onions, tomatoes and tziziki sauce it’s an instant hit and we gorge our way back to the ship. For me the perfect way to end our afternoon. 

A brief stop here on the western Peloponnese and it’s back on the road south to more Greece, blue seas, gyros and sunshine.

But not before we have a night out at the club on the ship so our girls can tear up the dance floor.... 

Amalfi Coast and the Positano Peach Gelato

Amalfi Coast and the Positano Peach Gelato

It’s “early” morning (about 10am) and we are on the Sorrento to Amalfi hydrofoil. The mountains look inhospitable and rough with the layers of fog that have yet to burn off. I’ve driven this coast with my parents long ago so this is a new view, to see it all from the sea. High up, the road is clearly visible with its twisty hairpin turns, crazy drivers and too narrow roads. I’m so happy to be watching from my comfy seat on the boat.

Learning about Maritime Warfare

Just out of Sorrento Liam picks out the old fortresses and watchtowers built at regular intervals along the cliffs. People here were certainly not worried about being invaded from the land, it is too steep and impassable – this was a maritime nation!

A sea view of Positano

Can you spy the fortress?

Amalfi was at the height of power around the turn of the last millennium. A proud trading nation, it competed with the Venetian, Pisan and Genoese empires for the goods of the east. It was also known for it’s schools of law and even came up with the “Tavole Amalfitane” – a maritime code of law that was widely used throughout the Mediterranean until the 16^th century. It is also said that Flavio Gioia, a son of Amalfi, introduced the mariners’ compass to Europe.

It beautiful coastline for sure, you can feel the history that these cliffs have seen. A ridiculous amount of battles and sieges have taken place here. It was such a desirable place. Lets see, there were the Byzantines, the Normans, the Holy Roman Emperor, the Sicilians and then the Pisans.  Then there was a tsunami in the 14^th century that destroyed much of the ports and the Amalfitane region never regained its former glory. Now it is the seasonal home to thousands of tourists who come to revel in the blue waters, faint at the high cliffs and send postcards home to make their coworkers insanely jealous.

The streets of Amalfi

On lookout for cliff side fortresses Liam is in perfect heaven. How did they defend them? Did they use CANONS! Wow. His imagination is on fire. The girls see all the villages, spread across the cliffs, and notice how each one has a garden so that the people can grow their own food. With all the fish of the sea they can understand how these little towns could be self-sustaining. This of course makes me think the food will taste amazing. Hmmm, who is the shallow one here?

Once we are off the ferry at the town of Amalfi it is just a short walk up to the Duomo di Amalfi and the piazza, the heart of the town. The buildings are all so darn cheerful, the stores colorful and even the mist is burning off to enhance the color of the tiles on the roofs. We go up the stairs to the church just as a whole gang of children dressed in their special celebratory robes emerge from the old 12 century cathedral (I think they may have had their communion), and their proud parents and families are all beaming around them. Massive amounts of group photos and hugs take place. Scolding mothers carry a few out-of-control toddlers away. It’s such a warm feeling. I can almost forget that we are in a tourist town.

Picnic in Amalfi

Liam is not too sure about this fountain.... hmmmm...

Inside the Church the Sunday Mass is in session so we don’t take much of a tour. Rather than make the children sit through a service that they will not understand we sit at the bottom of the church steps and have a picnic and watch the world of the little town of Amalfi go by. I wonder what it would be like to live in such a tiny community. Of course it’s not like days of old where they are isolated. It’s only a scary drive or 40-minute ferry to the big bad world, but still, it would feel quite insular to actually be a denizen of this town. We do a bit of shopping, I have an espresso (my new favorite addiction) and Randall finds himself a new watch.

Just so that they can experience it, we buy tickets on the bus that goes from Amalfi to Positano. It’s fairly cheap and runs regularly. Why not, give it a go, I say to them.

The road was completed at the turn of the last century. It is made realistically for two horses to pass comfortably. Now there is two-way traffic of giant busses. Each hairpin curve is a brush with death (in my opinion), and we nearly take out a couple motorbikes at the first one. I close my eyes (yes, I am a coward!) and think that if we were on the boat, and it sank, at least we have a fair chance of swimming to safety! But on this road, if our driver, a cantankerous old fossil, makes one false move, a fiery crash followed by twisted metal falling onto the rocks below will be our fate.  OK, not positive thoughts. But what can I say, I really don’t like heights. Sharks good, heights bad….

Rowing into the Grotto Della Esmeraldo

Good thing we have decided to hop off at the next stop - Grotta Della Esmeraldo (or the Emerald Grotto). This is the Amafi coast’s answer to the world famous Blue Grotto of Capri. These Grottos, or Sea Caves, have tiny air openings into them, but have huge openings facing out underwater to the ocean and the beautiful sun shines through the water and into the caves illuminating the water from underneath, filling the cave with glowing blue and green light. It’s pretty darn amazing.

The Spectacular water inside the cave

We did not go into the Blue Grotto of Capri when we were there, the line was unreal and it had the feeling of the major tourist trap. (Seriously, they wanted a ridiculous fee just to get rowed in and out of the grotto.) But I have to admit that I have been to the Blue Grotto before. My dad bribed the oarsman to let me, and my best friend Cathy, swim around in the glowing warm water when we visited Capri ages ago. An amazing memory that we will always have.

The kids were pretty disappointed not to see the Blue Grotto, and when we set out this morning with the cloudy sky we told them that we most likely wouldn’t do the Emerald Grotto either. No sunshine equals no amazingly lit up water. I truly believe that their collective pleadings to the universe helped us get the sun to shine through just as we were getting on the bus and changing our plans.

From the bus stop you have to descend by elevator to the base of the cliffs. I couldn’t tell you how far, maybe ten stories, probably more. And then we wait for our turn to go into the Grotto. It is pretty low key, just us, two tourists from the UK and our oarsman. He doesn’t speak much English, but he paddles us out into the cave and we have a good look at the stalactites. It’s a cool cave. But the magic isn’t unleashed until we turn around for the paddle back and you can see the light refracting back through the water. It’s all lit up like a jewel. The kids are so very impressed. How does light do that!? It is pretty amazing. Nature can do fantastic things.

Coming out of the cave puts you in a small inlet that you have to walk past before taking the elevator up to the road again. And oh that water is inviting. Too inviting to pass up. It becomes a matter of who can change fastest. Randall, Liana, Liam and Clara all jump into the Green water. (I have a low-grade fever again, so decide not to risk getting wet. No more hospitals for me please.) They frolic for quite a while until a luxury yacht pulls up to dislodge a few sheik looking tourists for their tour of the grotto.

Back up to get the bus. I break out in a sweat thinking about it. Somewhere between the Emerald Grotto and Positano I find religion. And the rest of my family nearly find the barf bags. Partly my heavenly inspiration comes from the nervous drawing that a previous passenger had scrolled across the seat in front of me of a crucifix. It worked. I didn’t throw up, get burned in a horrific crash or even have to clean up anyone else’s vomit. We got off in Positano with firm vows that we were taking the hydrofoil back to Sorrento.

Positano

Positano must be one of the most beautiful towns in the world.

Really. I mean that.

Walking down the cliff-perching street into the heart of the city you can’t help but look up. First you see the flowers hanging off the balconies, then you see the colorful tiled roofs and then you see way, way above the green cliffs and sea birds swirling. It’s dizzying. And looking down you see colorfully coordinated umbrellas of the sun worshipers on the dark beach and the azure water with boats aplenty. Paradise on earth? Well, it is for a while.

Walking down into Positano

 

Once we finally descend all the way to the beach we find the gelato shop to top all gelato shops. Yes, really. I have found paradise on earth. I have never read or heard of food being described in any way that could compare to the taste that it imparted, so I don’t think I will try here. Just know that the very freshest of fruit was used to create the gelato, which was given in most generous portions. See exhibit A, photo of the happiest family in the world, just starting to consume their own particular flavour of gelato. Mine was peach, and I maintain that it was the best. Although each member of the family feels similarly of their own flavour.

Exhibit A - World's best Gelato

And so we have it. Our little tour of the Amalfi coast. It couldn’t be said that we made a very in depth tour. But given my illness we didn’t have the time we originally thought we’d have in this area. It doesn’t matter. It’s special, no matter what you see of it. Beautiful and memorable.

So tonight Liam is off to say good bye to his Italian soccer mates and we are off to another Sorrentine dinner. And tomorrow it’s off to the other coast of Italy to board a ship to take us to Greece and beyond…..

Bella Capri

Bella Capri

Arriving in Marina Grande

The hydrofoil only takes 20 minutes to go from Sorrento to Marina Grande in Capri -  and what a ride it is!

Behind us is the Sorrentine Penninsula with Sorrento on one side and the dark cliffs of the Amalfi coast disappearing into the morning mist on the other. Ahead Capri gets bigger, and taller and steeper. It’s huge rocky cliffs are both foreboding and welcoming at the same time.

Capri island has been a holiday destination and fishing village since before Roman times. One Roman emperor, Tiberius, loved the island so much that he built a huge estate here and effectively ran the Roman empire from Capri from 27 AD til his death in 37 AD. Not a bad place to work from!

Clara and "Greenie" the shiny Capri beatle

Prayers in the 17th century Church of Santo Stefano

We arrive at Marina Grande, without much of a plan. We only have about 5 hours to spend so the amount of things we can do with the munchkins is limited. First thing we hike up the steep roads leading from Marina Grande to the Piazzetta in Capri town. I can feel the recent illness in the steep hills and end up as the caboose of our little people chain. Clara hangs out with me and tells me all kinds of stories about her new “pet” “Greenie” – the shiny beetle that she found on a wall. I’m glad for the company. I’ve had some sad news that my Uncle Terry – my father’s brother – has taken a turn for the worse in his battle with melanoma, and isn’t expected to recover.

We reach the top of the long winding pathway and pop out onto the main square. We’ve told the kids about Uncle Terry and they all want to go into the main church there to say a prayer. Even Liana kneels down to light a candle and sends a good thought and prayer to our dyeing loved one. It’s pretty emotional as Uncle Terry epitomised all the goodness and kindness in this world, and inspired all of us to be better, more humble people.

Views from Tragara to UP to Mount Solaro 

This water is irresistible

Leaving Capri town we walk along the Belvedere of Tragara and drink up every drop of oohing and awing of the amazing view as it unfolds past pine trees, swirling mist and expensive villas.  Capri town is in the saddle between two mountains. You do not realise the size of the cliffs until you are standing under them looking up in awe.  

We picnic at the furthest spot along the way, with a lunch packed for us by the staff at our b&b. Looking down on Marina Picolo, Capri’s small port, the water begs us to jump into it, even though it is a thousand feet below. The cliffs are dotted with courageous umbrella pines and way down below are the boats, big and small of the holiday makers’ bob and streak through the azure vista. The spectacular Faraglioni rocks jut out of the ocean just off the coast to make a beautiful scene dramatic. Again we have glorious weather.

view from our picnic spot

Happy Family

A stroll, some window browsing and another session of oohing over the view and we are back to Capri town and the Piazzetta where I take a quick photo of my four intrepid kids. It captures the happiness that we all feel standing on this mass of rock, looking out into the calm, blue Tyrrhenian Sea. A sea that we’ve all decided that we much jump into no matter what!

Heading down the narrow streets to the marina

So, we leave off our plans to visit Ana Capri, Roman ruins and the chairlift that goes to the tippy top of Mount Solaro, and head straight to the tourist boats that circle the island. With hands full of Lemoncello smoothie (heaven in a glass) we take the hour tour around the island, seeing all of it’s different sides and colours. We see the giant Natural Arch and soaring caves and uber luxury yachts and even travel through the arch of the Faraglioni Rocks that we had been admiring from our picnic. According to local legend (or tourist legend if you are not in a romantic mood) all lovers must kiss when they sail through the caves to ensure their love will be eternal. We hear a loud UHHHHMMMM and turn around to see Liana smirking at us. Randy gave me a good smooch on the lips directly under the arch, which made Liana beam and Liam gag. Gotta love kids. And romantic husbands.

With the touristy stuff out of the way we all rush down to the white stone beach and begin frolicking in the perfect water. It’s refreshing and invigorating and just perfect. A sunny day on Capri. I could feel regret for the things we didn’t see, and things we didn’t do. But sometimes the right thing to do is to enjoy the moment and the little pleasures – like squealing kids and aqua coloured water.

 

Another night, another evening of footy at the church in Sorrento for Liam and of course an amazing Italian dinner. As Hans Christian Anderson once said:


“Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

I’m not sure if he meant flowers as in fields of spring poppies, or the flour that is making my perfect pasta dish – but I heartily agree with both.

Much love for now, from me and mine.  

At our b&b in Sorrento, the kids waiting patiently to go out for dinner