Cruise: Santorini

We were supposed to go on a guided Santorini tour to the (still active!) volcano that blew the center out of this island about 3,600 years ago (here's more on Wikipedia). But the tour didn't "make" and we were left on our own for adventures.  We decided to rent a car and spend the day driving around the small island.

The cruise ship parked in the middle of the "caldera" and we took small boat taxis to the shore.

Once ashore, we took a tram up the side of the cliffs.

On the way back down in the evening, someone might have tooted in the tiny, little, airproof, glass box.

We rented a small convertible for the day.  Hank sat in front, John drove, and we others sat in the back.   

After renting the car in the main town of Oia and then drove around/up the island to Fira.  This took ~15 minutes.  That's how small the island it...

First stop: Breakfast!

Did I mention that there's fresh-made boughatsa on Santorini, too?

Views from Fira.

If you look WAY out across the caldera behind these hams, the beach we show below is off in the distance.  It's too far to see it, but it's there, promise.  
It's under my butt.

John bought a baby olive tree in Fira.  More on this later...

After touring Fira on foot (amazing place...unbelievably gorgeous), we drove to the other "side" of the island to this black beach.

Then we went back to Oia for a late lunch.  You can see the volcano in the middle of the cauldron and the cruise ships down below.

This is the view from our restaurant.  The "way down" consists of two paths:

(1) you can take the same trams that we took coming up.

(2) you can walk down these 500 steps, dodging the donkeys who are running down same steps.

(3) you can ride a donkey down the steps.

Needless to say, we took the tooty tram.