Monday October 1 to Wednesday October 3

It's 9:15pm Athens time (4:15am Tuesday at home) and I'm sitting in the lounge at the Athens airport after a  longish day.  

I think it was around 9am, the last time I posted.

10 of the group departed the hotel at 11:15 this morning. I know that Lois & Elizabeth were going to spend a week in Kalamata and if all went to plan, they should be arriving there about now.  I know that they had to catch a local bus in Athens at 4:30 this afternoon.

4 of the Sydney siders were spending another 4 night in Santorini and they checked out  when Wendy & Graham & I did, as checkout time was 11:30am.
Jenny & Stephen, also from Sydney are staying an extra night at the hotel and flying home tomorrow and Wendy & Graham are flying out of Santorini for Athens, at 9pm tonight, so I hope they are on a plane as I type this.

I was picked up by a minivan at 3pm and taken to the airport. I noticed that there was a lineup of people outside but walked straight in and joined a queue. There were 4 of them, all for the Athens flight. I asked the couple in front of me, if I was in the correct one and they said yes and that the queue outside was also waiting.  Oops, seemed I jumped the queue, so I went outside and joined the end of that one.
Shortly after, we were all allowed into the terminal.  The time was probably 3.20 by then. So we all stood and waited, even the people who were at the counter.  Seems that they were having a problem with their system. To cut a long story short, we eventually all got checked in and the flight took off pretty much on time BUT because my Santorini to Athens flight was not on the same booking as all the others, I had to collect my luggage on arrival in Athens, and then wait another 2 hours until the desk opened for the Dubai flight, before I could check it in.  Never had to go through customs or immigration when I arrived in Athens but did have to go through security and immigration to get to the Dubai departure gate.
Boarding isn't for another hour, so I'm enjoying the peace of a shared lounge.  Very basic and fairly small but it is away from the crowd.

I've got a 5 hour layover in Dubai.  Arrive there at 5am local time (11am at home) and depart for Melbourne at 10:15, (4.15pm) so I'll do a short update from there, if there is anything worth talking about.  

No photos taken today.

6:45am Dubai local time
The plane departed on time and I pretty much then went to sleep. I had checked the menu and was going to have a salad but decided that I was too tired, so turned the screen off, layed down and went to sleep.  I'm still tired and will probably sleep again on the flight to Melbourne. The next flight starts boarding at 9:45 and it's a good 10 to 15 minute walk from the lounge to the gate.  I might go and have a look at the shops, just to keep myself awake until the flight.
One thing I did do when I got to the lounge here, was find the showers and had a refreshing shower and changed my clothes, so I'm feeling refreshed from that.

4:40pm Canberra time
I arrived safely back home just before 10am this morning.  Since then I've emptied the suitcase and done 2 loads of washing. It seems that the only thing I have lost on the trip, was my pedometer and I think that might have happened on the plane from Dubai to Melbourne, as I put it in my pocket after having a shower & putting on clean clothes, while at Dubai airport.  Maybe it came out of my pocket while I was sleeping. 
Back to cold weather and some rain here today.  Just need to stay awake until a reasonable hour before going to bed.

The trip to Greece was wonderful. The people are so friendly, the weather was wonderful and warm and the group on the trip got on well together. The archaeological sites we saw were amazing. I'd re-visit Crete again but not Santorini but am glad that I have been there.
Goodbye or as they say in Greece, Αντίο.  At least I think they do.

Monday 1 October

Sunrise:  Santorini              7:13am  

Sunset:   Athens                 7:08pm

Steps:                                 5,991 as at 9.11pm

Aegean Airlines       A37367          Depart Thira           5:05pm          Arrive Athens 5:50pm

Emirates                  QF8104         Depart Athens        11:10pm

8:54am and continuing on from yesterday.

The pool rules: 

We departed the hotel just on 2:30 and while driving to the prehistoric town of Akrotiri, I saw where the ferry, from a few hours ago, got to.

Sheltering from the wind and waves between 2 of the islands.
Like the Roman ruins of Pompeii, the remains of the Minoan town of Akrotiri are remarkably well-preserved. The settlement was all but obliterated in the middle of the second millennium BC, when the volcano it sat upon, Thera, erupted, and its inhabitants fled. The volcanic matter enveloped the entire island of Santorini and the town itself, preserving the buildings and their contents, and visitors can still identify houses and pots.

 Beds

Anvil

From there, we then went to one of the 'black beaches'. The sand is black. Different.

and from there, we then went to Oia, which is supposed to be Santorini's most famous & picturesque village.  We didn't stay for the sunset, as a cruise ship was in the harbour

and we wanted to leave before the buses arrived. Almost made it.  In the mean time it had started to rain and a few of us didn't have raincoats or umbrellas with us.  Thankfully it was just a light rain and Costa had open the bus up, so I took refuge in there.  I did manage to get some photos of the view and the bikie rally with a police presence.

The one Main Street is very narrow and when the people from the cruise ships arrive, it's jam packed chaos.
From there we went to the village of Monolithos for our farewell dinner.  Once again delicious food and far too much of it 

That was just the starter.

 The tour group including Christina our tour leader.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel and good nights sleep.

There was a huge thunderstorm overnight and rain.  The majority of the group are being picked up at 10:30 for their flight out of Santorini.  2 of the couples are moving to another hotel for a few more days.  I'm being picked up at 3pm for my 5pm flight to Athens and Wendy & Graham aren't being picked up until 8 or 9pm tonight.

That's it.  It's now the start of the long haul home.  So much more I could have written but not enough hours in the day. xx

Sunday 30 September

Sunrise: Santorini               7:12am

Sunset:                               7:03pm

Steps:                                 14,869

Just a reminder that you can see the photo's in a larger format if you double click on them.

9:45am

I woke up to an overcast morning this morning

 (7am)

and then shortly after (around 7:30ish) it was raining.

It only lasted 5 minutes. I think it's going to be one of this days, weatherise.

This morning I went to the 2nd breakfast area, which apparently, not a lot of people are aware of, so instead of the chaos of hundreds of people trying to get breakfast all at the same time, it was very calm, with only about 20 people there, when I arrived shortly after 8am.  Elizabeth arrive about 10 minutes later, with Lois and also Julie & David shortly after that. I headed back to my room after that and checked out the weather forecast. 22c, showers and wind.  I was going to go for another walk, this time up above the village but as I don't have good walking shoes, I'm adverse to doing that, especially if it rains and the path becomes slippery.  I might go walking. anyway and just see what eventuates but for the moment, I'm catching up on some reading, sitting outside on my patio area, enjoying the sunshine.

11:30pm

I eventually went walking around 11am and ran into Christina on the way out. Had a quick chat to her and took a couple of photos of her.

After leaving the hotel, I took some photos of some small boats, sheltering in the various bays around the volcano island of the Caldera. 

I noticed a ferry going out moving very slowly

but when I looked 15 or so minutes later, I couldn't see it anywhere.

Because I took a slightly different route into the main shopping street today, I saw some different buildings and doors along the way.  A couple of pics follow.

I eventually walked back to the hotel, to shower and change and also to have some lunch before heading out on our afternoon excursion to the archaeological site of Akrotiri, visit a 'black beach' and then head to Oia, before visiting the village of Monoliths, where we had our farewell dinner.

I will finish this off in the morning before I have to check out at noon.