Not a Typical Weekend.......

On Saturday morning we found ourselves just a bit further down the coast of mainland Greece and still in the Ionian Sea on the island of Cephalonia. The island is just south of Corfu and still in view from the western shore of mainland Greece. Cephalonia is the 6th largest in all of the Greek islands. We anchored in a cove near the town of Argostoli where the tender boats took us in. Peg and I had no specific plans today other than to relax a little. We thought about taking a tour up to Lake Melissiani (the mythical nymph Melissa drowned herself here) but opted instead to visit a local beach where we ended up having the entire beach to ourselves. It is said this is where the legendary figure Odysseus went for rest and relaxation. I thought if it was good enough for him, we could certainly give it a go.

We took a few photos and relaxed in the sunshine but did not stay at the beach long as our ship was leaving a bit early today and heading much further east. In the middle of the night we sailed into the Sea of Crete.... and are now sailing up into the Aegean Sea where we are slowly making our way to the island of Santorini. Santorini is only 60 square miles in size and has a coastline of about 43 miles. The island is 70 miles from Crete and 130 miles from Athens. We are told that Santorini is one of the most picturesque islands in the world (so I will be taking some pictures I guess). We met a couple last night at dinner who were on the cruise just before this one doing a
back to back 24 night trip. Santorini was the only stop this cruise... that they had stopped at already.... on the last cruise. The people told us to take the tender boat ashore, ride the donkeys up the cliff (the town of Fira is on a cliff and there is little or nothing actually on shore where the tenders pull up) and then jump on a bus to Oia where there are cafe's and such built over the side of cliffs. The people also told us they saw people attempting to walk back down the donkey path on their way back to the tender boats (not a good idea as the donkey path becomes a bit slippery and messy...and it is not because of rain). Our plan will be to take the donkey's up and ride a cable car (gondola style) back down to our tenders. So instead of cars, trains, planes, and taxis....today will be tender boats, donkeys, busses, and cable cars. I hear the anchor going down...so that means it is time to get dressed, make sure the camera batteries are charged, and head ashore to Santorini....the farthest EASTERN point on the globe (from Chicago) we have ever been.