Tuesday March 15th was our longest travel day of the whole trip. Not only did we travel 230 miles over 4 hours by car, we also had a 50 minute, 135 mile flight over the Aegean Sea to the island of Santorini.
Around 10 a.m. we set out from Meteora with me in the driver’s seat. The route back to Athens was more direct than our route to Meteora, since we didn’t have to go through Delphi this time. I drove along wide and well maintained roads nearly the whole time. We started by driving through flat plains of farm fields, then up and down rolling hills of pastures and olive groves, which slowly turned into mountains, and eventually we came down a small mountain with a view of the ocean off in the distance.
Our route had taken us near the ocean where the freeway wound around the famous Thermopylae pass. It was there in 480 BC that a vastly outnumbered Greek force held off the entire Persian army for two days. On the third day of the battle the Greeks realized the Persians had found a way to sneak behind their lines, so they planned a tactical retreat. Famously the entire Spartan detachment (along with other Greeks that didn’t become as famous) fought to the death at the pass to cover the retreat. Today the area is calm and beautiful, and as you walk along the shore you never guess you were near the site of an ancient and legendary conflict.
Just a little past Thermopylae we decided to stop in the ocean side town of Kamena Vourla for lunch. I pulled up in front of a restaurant and even before we were all out of the van, the restaurant owner had come out to convince us to eat at his establishment. It’s a common experience in Greece to be constantly enticed by restaurateurs or other aspiring business owners trying to unload their souvenirs on you. We brushed him off initially, but after stretching our legs out with a walk along the beach we returned to his restaurant for lunch.
With the ocean lapping at the shore just across the street, it was natural for this restaurant to specialize in sea food. Melissa, Ann, and I all ordered the sea food pasta special. While the pasta was good, albeit typical, the serving dish was quite impressive. Somehow the restaurant had come up with giant clam shells, about 10 inches in diameter, to hold our mountain of food. Michael also let his inner American shine through when he didn’t find the table bread quite to his liking (which was crazy, it was the best bread we had in Greece so far!), he pulled out a couple small packets of jam he had saved from the hotel breakfast a few days earlier to improve the flavor.
After lunch we loaded back into the van and my mom took over driving. Before we made it to the airport, we had to pull over at a rest stop so Mike could get his second lunch, and it was a good thing too. Little did we know we wouldn’t be settled and eating in our villa on Santorini until 9 p.m. that night.
The 50 minute flight to Santorini was rather uneventful, but the Olsons got the European Budget Airline Experience. We flew RyanAir, and like several other budget airlines here, they manage to keep their ticket prices low by trying to sell you a catalogs worth of goods during the flight. This isn’t all bad, because by the time that the distraction of constant announcements and flight attendants going up and down the aisle was over, the flight was getting ready to land.
When we landed in the tiny 3-gate Santorini airport, we were met with a mini-bus that Ann had arranged. The driver adeptly navigated narrow roads, while warning us not to the rent ATVs during our stay. ATVS are apparently the preferred mode of transportation by tourists on the island, but they share the road with wide lumbering buses and are apparently quite prone to accidents. As we neared our villa, the driver some how managed to back down a 50 meter, very steep, one lane side street. After our not-always-so-easy adventures of driving up and down mountains with a manual transmission, all we could do is watch our driver in awe.
After meeting with the lady who ran the villa-rental company we were using, we lugged our suitcases along narrow and winding cobbled sidewalks to our front gate. The villa we stayed in was beautiful with its own private porch, balconies, and even a hot tub (that was unfortunately unfilled due to rain and cold weather). We all claimed our beds, and then made a quick dash, by foot, to the grocery store in town. We grabbed packages for dinner and breakfast as fast as we could as the grocery store was about to close. Once back at the villa, over a make shift plate of charcuterie, we planned out all the sites we wanted to see on the island over the next two days.
