An Idyllic Day in Santorini

I have to admit that we dreaded the crowds of Santorini, the amazing volcanic caldera island which is one of the most popular tourist sites in Greece. But Friday we were pleasantly surprised on our excursion to the Perivalos Beach, which is on the other side of the island. We took a tender from the Celebrity Silhouette to a port, and traveled from there by bus to the beach. There were very few people at the beach compared to Mykonos. After paying for our beach chairs/umbrella we walked to a wonderful Greek seaside taverna called Charlina. This restaurant was the best we’ve been to in Greece on this trip. We started with a green salad, octopus and tender vine leaves stuffed with rice, accompanied by a tzatziki, the cooling mixture of yogurt and cucumber. Jim had a pizza and Dan loved his delicate grilled sea bass which featured a lemony dipping sauce. We washed all of this down with a strong retsina, which is our favorite Greek wine, but not to everyone’s taste because it is aged in pine casks. For dessert Dan shared his marvelous fondant au chocolat (admittedly a French delight) with Jim. After this lavish repast we trotted back to the beach and swam for the rest of the time at the black sand beach before our bus left for Fira, the capital of Santorini. There we walked to the cable car and took it down to the old port where another tender took us back to the ship. It was a marvelous day and we did not have to wait so long in the cable car line, because there were only two large cruise ships anchored before the island. Sadly, we now say goodbye to Greece; we certainly hope to return in the future. –Dan