Today we rented a car and decided to leave Oia to see the rest of the Island. We started out at Ancient Thira, an ancient city inhabited from 9th century BC until 726 AD. It was incredible to walk through the ancient city and see buildings still standing.
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I wanted to take all of the dogs home with us!
They were so cute, friendly and well behaved.
Maia and Apollo could stand to learn a thing or two from them! |
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| View from Ancient Thira looking down on Kamari |
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| The most windy road ever! |
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Touching the ancient ruins!
(And yes, you can touch them! No one seems to care!) |
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| View inside one of the ancient churches |
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It was so incredible to see these buildings
still partially standing, thousands of years later,
having survived earthquakes and volcanic eruptions! |
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30 seconds after I took this picture, the dog peed
on the anciet ruins. CRAZY! |
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| Standing watch at the Garrison |
From Ancient Thira we headed to Kamari for a little lunch and beach time on a black sand beach.
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| View from Kamari of the road leading to Ancient Thira |
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| Black Sand Beach |
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Sean considered the beach to be more rocky,
but clearly based on this picture it is sandy :) |
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| Another new friend |
After a delicious gyro plate we climbed back in the car and headed to Ancient Akrotiri, where there have been excavations since 1967. It is the site of an ancient Minoan civilization. At the site they have discovered pipes with running water (hot and cold!) as well as several wall painting. I was very excited to walk around the ruins and learn more! After several wrong turns, we made it to the city only to find it was closed for “technical difficulties” aka a strike! Unfortunately our ferry left the next day, so we were unable to come back when the ruins were open. Drat!
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| Boo! |
From Akrotiri, it was a short little drive and then hike to see the red beach which was incredibly beautiful!
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| Hiking out to the red sand beach |
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| Red Sand Beach |
Once we had taken our fill of pictures, we climbed back in our trusty fiat and headed out to the light house on the end of the island. Everyone we spoke with had recommended we visit it because the views were spectacular. OK, well the entire island is pretty much built on cliffs, so everywhere you go, has spectacular views. BUT since it had been highly recommended we made our way out there. The light house was probably the oldest I had ever seen and the views were pretty much the same as when we stepped out of our hotel room, but it was still a fun drive out there!
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| Everything was so blue! |
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| It was super windy by the lighthouse |
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| The lighthouse |
By the time we finished our driving tour of the island, we still had a few hours of sunlight left so we made our way to Perissa for some beach time and a few adult beverages.
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| The water was so clear! |
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| More black sand |
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| Sean was very proud of his picture :) |
We laid out for the rest of the afternoon and then headed back to Oia to return the car and have another incredible dinner. The place we picked however was not incredible. In fact it was my least favorite meal of the trip. Oh well, you live and learn!
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