We are leaving Athens to head for our next destination, the island of Santorini.
We have another early start with a 5 am alarm. Panos, the driver who picked us up from the airport, takes us to the port for our 5-hour boat trip. The ferry is huge, seating 1000 passengers and 200 cars.
We are seated near the front, the seats are more comfortable than the seats on our flight. Not long after boarding 2 young boys and a girl with European accents sit in front of us, the 2 boys talking and laughing at full volume, it’s too early for this shit! Fortunately, someone in front of them feels the same and swiftly shuts them up! We stop off at a few islands, dropping people off and picking more passengers up and the journey goes surprisingly quickly.
We arrive in Santorini and are driven to Imergliovi, which is one of the highest points on the island. We are greeted by Gazi, who picks up our heavy suitcases like they are empty boxes, hoists them over his shoulders and leads us through a short series of alleyways, stopping at a Santorini blue door, the entrance to our hotel, which like most of the hotels here, is built into the cliffside.
As we enter, he takes us up and down a series of steps before we come to a terrace, with a table and chairs and a deck chair, he opens another set of blue double doors and we enter our room for the next four nights. It’s so cute, the bed is facing the door so you can see your private terrace and beyond that, the beautiful blue sea. I’m in heaven, the view is stunning.
We follow Gazi down more steps to reception and are given another warm welcome by Angela, who tells us all about the hotel, gives us a list of recommended restaurants and asks us what we would like as a welcome drink. She tells us to head back to our terrace to relax and they will be delivered to us. Everything here is delivered to the room for you to enjoy on the terrace, I love it!! I enjoy my Aperol spritz, whilst taking in the glorious view before having a much-needed doze on the deckchair.
Just before 7 pm, Gazi arrives to take our drinks order. They have a happy hour every evening between 7 & 8 where they deliver 3 free drinks of your choice. I love this place!! For dinner, we go to a local restaurant on Angela’s list called Le Moustache which has amazing views over the cliffside. I have a delicious mushroom pappardelle, so amazing! The husband has a rib eye steak which he says is one of the best steaks he’s ever had.
Full and tired we head back to our room for some drinks on the terrace. I’m looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow.
I woke up the next day from what felt like an endless sleep, my health app tells me I’ve had over 10 hours! For someone who usually averages 6 hours a night that’s pretty good going! We call down to reception to let them know that we are ready for our breakfast, which is shortly delivered to us to enjoy on our terrace.
Our table is adorned with a huge tray of delights, scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon, Greek yoghurt with fruit and granola and freshly baked bread and pastries served with tea, coffee & fresh orange juice. What a way to start the day! A delicious breakfast with glorious views.
We go up to the rooftop pool for some chill time, the pool was ice cold which was welcome, the husband and I had the whole place to ourselves. The hotel only has 7 rooms so there will be no racing for sun loungers here!
That night we walk into Fira, which takes around 20 minutes but we of course stopped off for refreshments on the way so it took us a bit longer. We ate dinner, had drinks and of course, watched the champions league final, it wouldn’t be a holiday with the husband if I didn’t have to sit and watch a bloody football match.
Tired and ready for bed, we get in a taxi just after midnight, the taxi driver had misunderstood where we wanted to go and took us somewhere on the other side of the island, fortunately, we managed to explain and he took us to our hotel, only charging the original price and was really apologetic, so the husband gave him a good tip!
The plan for the next day was to get up and out early to explore Imerovigli, but we got out around 1 pm. We hadn’t ordered breakfast today so we popped into a local restaurant for lunch, the husband tried a pork gyros and I had penne pasta with sautéed chicken and basil which was divine!
We plodded around after lunch feeling completely stuffed and came back to the room to sit on the terrace before getting ready for the evening. I had booked a beautiful restaurant in Fira for our Anniversary and as a thank you to the husband for taking me on this holiday.
The restaurant is called La Colline, which is in a hotel called Villa Bordeaux. With its stunning views of the Santorini sunset, we were lucky enough to be given one of the two tables above the swimming pool, which sits a little higher. We had a cocktail to start and the both had the Beef Tenderloin and shared a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, I then had the Santorini volcano dessert and like many restaurants here, we were given a digestif and some mini desserts. It was a magical evening, with impeccable service, outstanding views and exquisite food and drinks.
It was our last full day in Santorini and we are off the explore the other side of our resort, a place called Oia.
We get a taxi, which turns out to be the same driver who took us to the wrong hotel the other night. He tells us the best way to explore, everyone in Greece so far is happy and helpful, I’ve not seen a single miserable face!
Oia is beautiful, with little lanes of shops, bars and restaurants and of course more stunning views. It’s lots of going up and down steps which makes me realise I need to incorporate some hills on my daily walks! We stop for some drinks and then find somewhere for lunch where the husband has swordfish and I have chicken souvlaki. Then it’s off to get a taxi back to our hotel.
We spend our last night in Santorini at a local restaurant called Mama Lenas, where they serve traditional Greek dishes. The husband has Lamb Kleftiko and I have beef in tomato sauce. The beef melts in my mouth and I enjoy it so much I decided that I must try a dessert. I opt for Greek doughnuts. Oh. My. God. It was hot doughnut balls covered in a chocolate sauce, it looked a bit like profiteroles. I loved them! But sadly could not finish them.
Full and thankful to not have too far to go we staggered home with full bellies.
2023-07-04 11:45:00
