Santorini

The View from Our Hotel in Santorini

We headed to Santorini from our hotel in Piraeus via ferry. The ferries that they have in Europe are huge, and that was a new experience for me. We were still pretty tired, and had to get up at five to catch the four hour ferry ride. There was a deli counter where you could get snacks and drinks, and there were TV's through out for some entertainment(if you know Greek.) We settled in and had half of the sandwiches that the hotel had packed for us, or as it was referred to in Greece, toast. They were made like you mother made your sandwiches for school. White bread, a thin layer of turkey, a single piece of cheese, a lone lettuce leaf, mayo, and of course no crust. We reminisced over those for a while and then did our best at passing time.

When we arrived we had a rental car waiting for us, and I'll just say that driving on that island is not the easiest thing I have ever done. We finally made it to our hotel (pictured above) and the view was amazing due to the caldera left behind from one of the largest volcanic eruptions recorded, which occured there some 3,600 years previous.

Our room was not ready quite yet so we set off to see what we could find. We ended up at a winery down the other side of the island toward the beach. This is where we got our first taste of wine and food on the island. There we were able to get into some shade, but there was no escaping the raw humid heat that fell over the island. We ordered two dishes to go with the wine we were tasting. There was a plate of assorted hams and cheeses, and a dish with bread and olives.

The olive dish that you can see above was interesting. The olives were pretty good, though I much preferred the green olives. There was a olive oil soaked barley bread as well as sun dried tomatoes that were also soaked in olive oil. The bread was not to my taste as I found it to be bland and cumbersome. The sun dried tomatoes were softer and sweeter than you get here in the U.S. though they were not bad considering that I do not have much of a taste for sweet things.

You can see what is left of the meat and cheese spread above. The meats were interesting as well. There were several types of ham there, all cured and seasoned in a unique way. Some did not even look like ham, but sure enough it always was. The same goes for the cheeses. There were a lot of them, and it did not say why types they were or what type of milk they were made from. We had some that were rich with flavor, sharp to the tongue and firm in consistency. Those were the best. There were others that were in between, while some were just plain bland in comparison. The capers were a different story too. They lacked the strong salty punch that I was expecting to get. I had to add more as  I could not taste the first ones I had tried with the meat and cheese. In my opinion this was the better dish, but both were different from anything that I had tried while at wineries here so it was a fun experience. I wish I knew the different hams and cheeses....

After that winery we got moved into our hotel, and then explored the other beaches and wineries of the island. That is when we learned that we did not like the wine on the island at all. The only one that we really enjoyed was a bottle that we purchased from the first winery, and we ended up buying and drinking a second one later that night.

For dinner we both had gyros from different places, and they were on par with the ones that I have had here. I did have mine with pork and the taste of ham was different. They also included french fries which was delicious, but I am not sure if this is unique to there or if I have just never had an authentic gyro before.

Breakfast was something special the next morning. It is included with the room and you have a list of breakfasts to choose from. We went with the one that included smoked salmon and capers on toast with champagne and strawberries. It was a good choice, though nothing unique to where we were other than the breathtaking view that we had while eating it on our terrace where it was delivered.

In all Santorini was fun and beautiful. We did not get exposed to too much new cuisine, but had a good time with the meats and cheeses at the winery. Our breakfast was tasty and I will never forget that view, and the cool moist breeze coming over the caldera lip. At this point I am excited to see what Athens and Rome has in store for us.