We enjoyed our Greek style breakfast overlooking at the great Caldera sea.

Today we hired a car, acending from our cave like dwelling (SC: 294) we headed to the car rental place where I laid down exactly what I wanted and the dude behind the counter said “I wish all my customers were as good as you” he didn’t have to do any work as we knew exactly what we wanted (Thanks wikitravel). Off we went to visit the Archeology museum in Thira to see the things that were taken out of the ground in Akrotiri. After a significant debacle trying to find parking and several attempts to park in people’s front lawns, shopping only parking spots and even a spot reserved for this very popular X person (that actually means no parking), we found a almost full parking lot that we parked in. Not having a detailed map of Thira we decided to wing it to try and find this museum as all we knew was that it was in Thira. We walked, and walked and walked and finally gave up and stopped into a hotel to try and get an idea of where to go or a map. Spotting a map we grabbed it only to be accosted by an overly ambious hotel owner who wanted us to try his souvlaki and then take a tour of the island including Oia (where we were staying) which we rapidly declined.

Upon review of the map it appeared that if we had walked less than 10 steps around a corner we would have been on the museum of archaeology. So we went there. Again admission was free for some reason, I think this time it was because it was Sunday???!?! or something. It was a VERY small museum consisting of a giant L shaped room with display cases holding, you guessed it, more pots. There was some other pieces hidden away behind the pots that were more interesting such as statues and carvings. All in all it took about 30 minutes of viewing before we were done then off to Akrotiri where they were taken out of the ground.

We arrived as Akrotiri and were charged for parking our small car (bargain rate of 3 Euro for a day).

Rose did recommend that we partake the services of an english tour guide if we visited Akrotiri so we did when the excavation site offered one. The nice lady in the sun coloured dress explained for about 1.5 hours about the disaster that made the Greek pompeii and how the island used to be and how it is now. She explained all the different sites and buildings. She pointed out the first recorded toilet, she also pointed out the first sewer system as well as the ancient version of airconditioning. It was WELL worth the money to have this all explained to us as it would have just been a bunch of half uncovered houses.

During the talk she kept referring to items that were in the Museam in Thira, we did not see these items that she was referring to when we were just there. No matter, most of the important items were in the museum at Athens which we made a note to visit when we were in Athens.

It was bloody hot so we decided that combating the heat needed wine and where better to find wine then in a wine museum!!! Off to the wine museum. We went on a bit of a coastal drive as we were recommended a place called Lava for lunch so we headed down the west coast. We arrived at Lava which was a pretty run down resturant with no one in it and the owner/chef/waiter sitting in the back possibly sleeping.

After attacting his attention we were seated in the shade and asked to follow him to the back of the resturant. The owner then showed us his prepared meals and explained each of them instead of having a menu which was a neat and unqiue approach to restaurantmanship. Jill went for the fish (sardines in oil) and I went for the YUMista (my near favourite out of a handful of favourites from Greece).

We enjoyed a lovely lunch and upon time to leave I decided that I best visit the bathroom before our trek to wine country. I asked the owner if I could use the bathroom he said yes and made a motion with his hands which I thought was “Follow me” so I followed. We passed one room, then another and finally he approached a wall of plates and grabbed a butter plate, he then turned to his surprise and saw me behind him. He said “I will bring it to you”, thinking this was kinda weird I reiterated “I would like to use the bathroom” he said “Yes I will bring it to you”. I thought that something is getting lost here however my very brief run down on Greek had flew out of my mind, so I decided to go with “Mens room”, then “Rest room” all the while stupidly pointing at my chest (apparently the universal gesture for butter). I said “Mens … Room” after then he dawned and pointed me to the toilet.

The word in Greek for Toilet is actually really close to Toilet so if I had said that in the first place I would not have had this mix up. I am sure he was thinking something like “Bloody tourists”.

Off to wine country.

Jill had been doing an excellent job of navigating via google maps and we decided to be a little more adventurous and try the road to ancient Thira.  We took a few side streets and then turned onto what Googlemaps listed as a light gray road. There were some large signs in Greek and it was an unsealed road.

If I had more faith in the car I would have continued however we turned back to find an alternative route. The alternative route was not much better, we were heading through the backs of people’s houses and up streets that were only wide enough for one car. The road then narrowed and we had to fold the side mirrors in.

At this point we had to start going VERY slowly (video to follow when the 1s don’t out number the 0s) the side mirror got scratched a few times and we ran into part of a wall trying to squeeze through. We finally made it out into the open and it was onto a hopscotch court in the back of a school. After looking at the exit we decided that there was no way that our car would fit up the path so we made a 21 point turn and headed back down the way we came at a snails pace to avoid damaging the car.

So we arrived at the wine museum ready for some wine tasting to be asked what language we would like the audio tour in and that the 7 Eurobucks covered the audio tour as well as four tastings. At this point we should have been wary but instead of said “English please!” and took our audio recorded and headed off into the deapths of the 300m below wine caves for an 800m long walk. The first “exibit” and I use that term VERY loosely was a strange life size diorama featuring an animatronic donkey and rabbit on a swinging stick. At this point the alarms went off (insert danger will robinson video), this was a tourist trap!!!. Jill and I both groaned then continued to the next scene picturing the wind swept Santorinins trying to harvest wine in the harsh conditions of the island which wouldn’t allow regular grapes to grow.

Both having open minds we continued through the audio tour and quickly realized that our original fears of tourist trappiness weren’t actually correct and we enjoyed the 25ish stations providing an excellent account for one of the largest vineyards in Santorini as well as one of the oldest (if not the oldest) vineyard in Santorini. At the end we had learnt a great deal not just about the vineyard but about how grapes grew, what the island was like many hundreds of years ago and donkeys with CRAZY looking eyes.

Jill and I then enjoyed our four wine tastes including one red, one white and two dessert wines. We were lucky enough to taste a wine that they only offer to visitors to their establishment which we then ended up purchasing one of the 3000 bottles produced each year.

We returned back to our cave dwelling for a bit of an afternoon hot tub visit (SC: 336) and then off (SC: 378) to enjoy the world famous sunset at Oia while having dinner at the fish resturant (Sunset Taverna). We arrived a little early as we had a reservation so that we would sit in the best spot possible. The waiter was a little rude because we moved seats due to a poorly positioned pole. The way dinner was served was by the kilo for fish, so we selected a nicely sized red snapper that we would both enjoy together.

The sunset was spectacular and we stayed until well after the sun had gone down. Jill enjoyed a dessert of “Walnut pie” which was actually according to Jill Carrot cake (It wasn’t).

A short but harrowing ride up the hill (video to come later once the internet satellites are back over the united states) we were back in our parking lot.

At this point we realized that the bakery that we were told about was actually the wrong one and we spotted the right one across the street. There was still a light on so we decided to see if they had the long sought after galacticapollus. They DID!!!!!!. A very elderly baker provided us with galactiapollus and cream with Apple pastry slices which looked VERY authentic. She didn’t even speak english and still used paper to decide how much you paid for the cakes.

After returning to the batcave (SC: 420) we enjoyed the pastries in the comfort of the hottub.