Santorini

I choose this cruise over several others because of its stop in Santorini!  When George looked out the window in the morning he said, "Look snow"!  With the crazy weather we've had on this trip nothing would have surprised me, so I raced to the window to look and see.  What a tease!  Not snow but the white houses of Santorini looking, oh so white, against the black volcanic rock.  

Did you know that the whole complex of the Santorini islands is still an active volcano and probably the only volcano in the world whose crater is in the sea?

The unique location is made even more charming by the local architecture.  Small cubical houses are made of local stone that is whitewashed or lime washed with volcanic ash.  

The blue domes add a pop of color.

The interesting church steeples are a nice contrast to the round domes. 

 Sometimes the dome and the steeple are neighbors! 

As we walked through the narrow streets watching the construction workers getting the houses, restaurants and hotels ready for the upcoming tourist season I was sure that they must have a real love/hate relationship with those hordes of people descending on their island each year.

Tourists like me who are looking for the perfect photograph don't see (or choose to ignore) the 'private street' signs.  

Your 'private balcony' is not so private when people are swarming through the town but those same tourists are the chief source of wealth for the islands.

One group who seemingly love the tourists are the cats.  Santorini is home to a huge number of stray cats.  Normally I take a lot of dog photos but not here. 

You could even 'rent a cat'.  

I thoroughly enjoyed checking another one off the bucket list after this day on what is called the 'Gem of the Aegean'. 

Back to the cruise ship for just one more night at sea.