Today was the roughest day we’ve had weatherwise so far, so we thought what a great day for travelling…. but then as the ferry sloshed around in the Med, we thought, maybe not! Kiki was fine, but I felt a little queasy for most of the 2.5 hour journey and was very happy when the announcement was made that we were pulling into the Santorini port.

This was our Super Runner fast ferry, where the back lowers down and cars and people jostle for position to get off first.  The hoards of people lined up to get on do so in one big rush and the ferry takes off again all within about 5 minutes.  You don’t want to be snoozing when it arrives!

Our bags were getting a little bit heavy by this stage, so this chap was our favourite human being.

The journey up the side of the cliff is a fairly precarious one with cars and huge buses all making their way up from the port around about 20 hairpin turns – buses have to take wide turns, so the traffic coming down the hill go on the wrong side of the road to pass them – how we have not seen an accident yet is beyond me (touch wood and all fingers and toes crossed!)

Our driver got us safely to the top of the cliff where we were met by another chap from the hotel whose name we didn’t catch, but he took our two huge suitcases and started to run downhill with them…. he was tipped.

This is Kostas who helped us to our room; Christopher, the bar tender and maker of cocktails; us ready to take on the town and the view back down to the ferry around the hairpin road.

Our room is amazing and the view is even more amazinger!  At first we weren’t sure where Kiki was going to sleep.  We tried out different possibilities…

But then we noticed that they’d set up the lounge as a second bed. Very comfy, and lucky for Kiki.

And, if you don’t mind… they gave us a complimentary bottle of wine.

This is our balcony, complete with private jacuzzi.

And our view out across the caldera and to the cruise ships which seem to be in every day.  As the Royal Princess departed, she tooted the theme from the Love Boat – slightly out of tune, but definitely recognisable.

As we were in the heat of the day we popped into the spa and sorted through all of the beach treasures we’d found so far.

Before heading back up the gazillion stairs for a wonder in the cool of the evening.

Spot the guard dog.

Every door you look through is like Alice in Wonderland taking you to somewhere more beautiful.

There are lots of churches built up high in Fira.

We had what we like to call a “Duplex dinner” at around 6.30pm rather at 9ish when other people like to eat.  It is called a “Duplex dinner” because when we growing up our very good friend Marie Duplex used to have to be home by 4pm for dinner.  We could never understand why she had to be home so early…. but now that we’re a bit older – we love a Duplex dinner, so thanks Mrs Duplex.

And this is where we had it.  She was a bit overcast, so the sunset was a fizzer, but still a fabulous view.

And this is the view back to our hotel.  When booking we searched and searched for a hotel a the top of the cliff so we weren’t going up and down stairs all day…. but Santorini gets a bit packed up at the this time of the year and our options were limited.  Hence we’re at the bottom of the accommodation wall.

There is one little section of stairs where people have started adding their love locks.

How did this jeweller know that Kiki was from Gero?

On our journey through the islands there have been a plethora of selfie takers… now I’m not one to shy away from a selfie, but I certainly don’t take myself too seriously by primping and preening and getting my hair just right… except for this one.

Then a group selfie… we’re loving Santorini!

We got to the end of one street and were met with a continuous line of people – across the whole width of the street.  So many people that we couldn’t even slot into the conga.  We waved our hands up and around like we were about to enter a skipping rope and jumped in and were headed down the street with the cruise ship tour…. we were very lucky we didn’t end up on the ship at the buffet!

We headed back to the hotel and loved the pretty lights of Santorini…

and stopped at the bar so Christopher could conjure up a cocktail creation..

Cheers Santorini (and Christopher) – you’ve really come through.

Cheers!