Santorini - Simply magical

Santorini.....WOW!

This is one of the few places in the world that is actually more breathtaking in real life than you imagined possible.

We were so grateful for our new fancy camera and it didn't stay in the case for more than 5min.




Around every corner is a stunning view, especially in the afternoon when the sun hits the east of the island and you get the feeling that you're walking around in a postcard!

We spent our 5days in Santorini walking around the 4 major cliff-top towns, eating fabulous Greek cuisine and exploring the far reaches of the island.

On our second night, we were treated to a free Greek opera preformance in the village square at sunset. This was part of the Santorini Sunset Festival that just happened to be in our little village during our stay.
It was such a surreal experience looking at this picture-perfect view and hearing this enchanting music...one of the higlights of our trip so far!

In order to fit in some much needed R&R, we hired an ATV so that we could take ourselves off to some of the local beaches.

 
The first beach we visited was Red Beach.

As you can see from the picture to the right, the cliffs and sand on this beach are a burnt red colour and it makes for some great photos but is a pretty crappy beach to swim at.

We had more luck at two of the "black beaches", which are so named because of the black pebbly sand. Here we were able to rent some lounge chairs and an umbrella and could spend the day reading, swimming and sleeping.

We stayed at a boutique hotel in Firostephanie, one of the smaller cliff-top villages.

Upon our arrival we were up-graded to a junior suite with it's own balcony and view out to the sea.

The best feature of the hotel was the pool area with the incredible view over the Caldera volcano.

Every morning we enjoyed breakfast served pool-side and every evening before heading off to dinner, we enjoyed a drink with our fellow guests in this very same spot.

THE CALDERA

BLUE STEEL OVER FIRA TOWN

SUNSET ON THE WAY TO DINNER

OIA













On our last night, to celebrate our 5year anniversary, we enjoyed a mouth watering dinner on the roof top terrace of a restored 200 year old mansion in Oia.

The view of the sunsetting over the sea was amazing and  we had an award-winning menu to choose from.

All in all, we felt as though we were living in a dream for 5 days and believe that this must be the adult equivilant of Disneyland.

We're off to Mykonos now!

Will blog again from Athens at the end of the week.

You stay classy Sydney.

Rich and Simone xxxx