The John P Metal Art Blog

We finished our Greek trip with a bang on Santorini. To me, Santorini is the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. I’d consider San Francisco second, but there is a wide margin between the two.

Santorini is a Volcanic island, similar to the ones in Hawaii, but with a much more dramatic history. This island was once a single large round island until the volcano errupted around 1450 BC blowing the entire center of the island away.

The erruption not only killed every living thing on the island, but sent a 750 foot tidal wave traveling 175 miles per hour which destroyed Crete, wiping out the entire Minoan civilation 30 minutes later. Subsequent erruptions have caused a small island to form in the middle of the “Caldera” left from the initial erruption, and tours will take visitors to see the volcano.

If you feel like a very vigorous climb in a relatively short period of time you can see some of the most fantastic views on earth from the top of the Volcano. But don’t go to see the volcano it’s self… it’s just a few holes in the ground.

Here is a view of the volcano from the cliffs on the main part of the island. To reach it you take about a 20 minute boat ride that offers simply stunning sites all around. From the deep blue of the water to the 1,000 foot cliffs overhead.

Next come some photos from the volcano. I could put a ton of other great shots from here, but this post would be getting very long.

Branching out from the small volcano in the center of the island are the main chunks of the island that people live on. The cliffs are 1,000 feet high and the natives have built truly unique architecture of outstanding beauty on these very cliffs overlooking the caldera. This is the most photographed place in all of Greece, and one of the most photographed in the world. Here are a few shots taken from the boatride between the different parts of Santorini.

Back on land, one can find the most breathtaking scenery, architecture and sunsets imaginable.

Perhaps the best way to explore the island fully is to rent a 4-wheeler from one of the many rental agencies all over the island. We paid 20 Euros a day and rented a couple of these for just one day. This was the best 40 Euros we spent on our trip because the 4-wheelers allowed us to go places that not even a car, bus or scooter could take us.

Santorini is famous for wine, and the many wineries around the island seem to use huge tracts of land to farm grapes. It is amazing how and where they plant the grape vines as they can be found even in very remote places on the island.

We spent out last evening in the city of Oia (pronounced: E-uh) at the northernmost tip of the main island. This is the most beautiful part of the island, and also where the most expensive architecture, shopping and dining are. The contrast of the architecture against the sky, cliffs and water are a sight to behold.

All of the cliffside views are equally stunning.

The sunset from the city of Oia is just flat unbelievable. The sky changed colors repeatedly until absolute darkness set in. The only two other sunsets I’ve ever seen that were memorable were on the big island of Hawaii and from the Cape Sounion in Greece, but they PALE in comparison.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 10:39 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.