Santorini
On my 40th birthday, following lots and lots of parties, I celebrated my actual birthday with my family. I couldn’t think of a better way to finish off all the celebrations than a beautiful meal with my favourite people in the world! Family are so precious to me and I am so lucky to have an amazing group of people that I am related too!
We went for a meal in Hale and celebrated into the early hours, all the ladies loved the bouquet of flowers I had done for each of them to say thank you for making such an effort to celebrate with me and making my day unforgettable. I am a very lucky girl. Despite, John getting me absolutely trollied #standard and taking some pretty funny pictures (that I won’t be sharing on here). Oh and United won the FA cup as we were sat at the table. Perfect, well maybe not for Uncle Mike.
To top off so many lovely celebrations, we were going to Santorini the following week.
Santorini has been on my hit list for as long as I can remember and it didn’t disappoint. I have travelled many of the Greek islands but Santorini is arguably Greece’s most beautiful island!
We stayed in a stunning little hotel called Xenones in Imerovigli, located 2,5 km from the town of Fira, 10 km from the port and 7km from the town of Oia. The views were absolutely breathtaking of the volcanic caldera of Santorini. We stayed in one of the little villas with a sea view room, breakfast every morning on the patio with those views was amazingly beautiful! Dave did an amazing job to find this hotel, we weren’t in the hustle and bustle of the busier towns but could enjoy amazing walks to both! Our hotel was quiet most of the time the pool to ourselves, perfect to relax!
Although we didn’t relax for long as I get itchy feet after laying in the sun more than a couple of hours. We headed out to walk to Fira via the coastal path! You can drive into Fira however, I’m unsure why anybody would as yoou’d miss out on the spectacular views of the caldera. The only way to see Santornini is by foot, take some comfy shoes as the footpath could be challenging for some.
Firá is the capital of the Greek Aegean island, Santorini also known as Thera. A town of white-washed houses built on the edge of the 400 metres high volcanic crater on the western edge! An absolutely beautiful walk with breathtaking (I am going to use that word a lot in this post) views! Dave was quite nervous as the drops down were pretty scary and I am notoriously clumsy, he walked in front of me most of the time!
To say Santorini is ‘breathtaking’ wouldn’t do it justice. I need a thesaurus to help me find words to describe this place, it simply is paradise. Santorini is the only inhabited Caldera (volcano cauldron) in the world. The architecture is incredible. Villages built high on the cliff tops remind me of snow capped mountains, white washed villas, tavernas, churches, just spectacular. Most of Santorini’s buildings cling to the caldera rim providing the spectaular views.
Santorini is a volcanic island, thousands of years ago it erupted blowing a hole through the middle of the island. Resulting in a crescent-shaped island as we know Santorini today. It has a few smaller islands in the middle of the crater, the smaller islands are volcanoes too, one is still active.
Fira is beautiful however, I’ glad we didn’t stay there as it was very busy. Our hotel was very quiet in comparison. Unspoilled too many humans haha! This is one of my favourite sunsets from our hotel bar.
