Greek Cruise Day 5...

Day 5 – Sunday

Got up in the morning and had a short breakfast meeting with a few of the Cooper guys… Ann had breakfast in the room… One of the great things on this ship is that not only do you never pay for anything (other than the cigar that got, although the Remy Martin cognac that I got with it was no charge…) but you can get it with room service any time during the day… And another thing that surprised me… When we stayed at the Athens Hilton, I checked the cleaning rates for shirts and slacks, and shirts were 12 euro and slacks were 15 euro (which is around $18 and $23 or so) which didn’t surprise me since most hotels jack up the profit margins on things like that… On the Regent, not only were the prices lower than in Lancaster ($3.50 for a shirt and $4.50 for slacks…) but they also have a laundry on each floor so that you can do your own… which I should have paid attention to, and then wouldn’t have packed so much crap for the trip… I won’t wear half of what I brought along… Oh well, live and learn for the next time…

Then off to Santorini… First stop was a nice ride on a large tender ship to the island that came from a volcano… Now, it was pretty hot out, and if I remember right the brochure said something like 500 steps to the top, which didn’t look that bad… After getting off of the boat, and looking up, it was easy to see that something obviously got wrong in the translation… It was a big ass hill, and took about 45 minutes to get to the top (a few stops on the way…) Ann was surprised that I didn’t have a heart attack getting to the top, but it was a workout… Windy as hell on the top, and although that kept it somewhat cooler than the temperature should have felt, it did make it interesting trying to hear things… Also, it is pretty amazing the lack of concern about safety here in Greece… In Athens, there don’t seem to be many rules (and less that are followed…) regarding traffic safety, and motorcycles in particular seem to only follow lights and signs if they feel like it… pretty much optional… And here on the volcano, there is a path that is about 10 feet wide, loose stones, sharp stones, and gravel everywhere, and on one side it just drops off into a crater… sometimes a few yards, and sometimes a few hundred feet… not straight down, but on the larger slopes you would be in a really bad way by the time you got to the bottom, if you survived… but at least they usually tell you to be careful… One of the tour guides actually fell on the way down (slipped on the loose gravel…) and broke her wrist. We made it with no injuries, so that was a plus…

After getting down from the top of the volcano, we boarded the transport boat and went to another one of the islands, the one with the hot spring… When we got there, about three quarters of the people on the boat jumped overboard, and swam to the muddy hot spring water… Not for any real practical reason from what I could see, but whatever floats your boat… Second note on Greek tour safety… when all ages of people were jumping out of the boat into the water, some of them looked like they might sink like stones, and no one (other than the tourists…) seemed to care much… no one drowned, so maybe they just know about these things… and when everyone was swimming back to the boat (against the current…) and some were having a pretty hard time with the swim, the boat guides just toss a life preserver in the general direction of the floundering swimmer… most of the time a nearby swimmer would swim over and help them out… Maybe they figure there are too many tourists and if a few disappear, what the hell…

Then off the boats and onto the main island of Santorini and a quick stop at a winery to taste a few wines… Not that great (for my taste…) but it was a nice break… Then back on a bus for a brief trip to the main part of town and then we decided to walk and find a local Gyro place to get some long overdue food. After that, Ann and I walked around looking at the shops (ok, she was looking and I was pretty much bored with the shopping…) and she found a few things for gifts… Then we decided to take the cable car down, as opposed to the donkeys (the traditional way…) which turned out to be a fantastic decision… Everyone who we talked to that either took the donkeys down, or walked down the path through the donkey doo and other liquid matter, slipping and sliding (literally) all over the place, said they would have taken the cable car if they knew then what they know now… Imagine hundreds of people and donkeys/mules, in 100 degree heat, going up and down a steep hill on a stone path… The stench alone should have made most of them turn back, but some just have to have the experience… Mike from Cooper had the best story, which I couldn’t do justice to by retelling it, but suffice it to say that I had tears in my eyes all three times I heard the story retold… Anyway we took the cable car down, and although the line was about a half hour long, it was much better than the alternative…

Back on the transport to the boat, then a short nap. Then we got ready and went to dinner with Roy and Marcia, Ken and Joanne, and Bill and Amelia at Signatures restaurant, one of the two restaurants on the ship that you have to have reservations for… Had a great time talking and a great meal, then after dinner we went to the lounge and had a few drinks with a bunch of couples, and after a bit went down to the theater to listen to the end of a big band review… Then back to the room, where I just had to try room service at least once, so I ordered some shrimp, cheeses, and ice cream for Ann and I and watched yet another episode of Boardwalk Empire before going to bed for the night.