Greek cruise...part 4

Ok so after leaving Corfu and a full day of exploring, shopping and enjoying Greece we headed back out to sea to get to our next destination which was Santorini, Greece.   This island was different from all the others in the fact that our cruise ship was too big to dock at it.  We had to drop anchor off the side of the island and take a tender boat to the small dock.  Now before we had actually reached the island we were told that there were two ways to get up the island from the tender boat dock and that was cable car or ride a donkey.  The girls were so excited and wanted to ride the donkey...crazy kids!!!   So once we actually talked to a few people and realized not only how big the island was and how far apart the cities were we decided to take the excursion and save ourselves the hassle so we actually were tendered to our own seperate dock where we were able to take a bus..haha you donkey riding people!!!

The main town up from the dock was Fira and it was gorgeous but we were headed to the other side of the island to a town named Oia(prounounced EEa) and let me tell you how breathtaking this city was.  All the buildings were white and most had blue shutters and the sand was white for the most part but there were a few black beaches due to the lava of course.  I can't say enough about this island so let me just show you some pictures....

 Here is the small tender boat pulling up to our cruise ship. It looks so small right but this little boat held about 50 people on it.

 Gorgeous view of Oia from the ship!!

 Another view from the ship..

 View of our ship from the top of Santorini. Can you see the white that looks likes snow on the island?  It's actually pumis stone from the lava. The entire island is different colors depending on the stone it was and it was really pretty.

 Our first stop was to a winery just on top of the island. It was a gorgeous building and had beautiful views from their balconies.

 After enjoying a glass of wine we relaxed for a while on the balcony of the winery and just enjoyed the views.

 One of my many favorite buildings. The blue domed buildings were all some kind of religious building. Not all were the same though.

 The one was called "the home of Mary". I tried to listen to all the guide had to say but honestly trying to get pictures while driving in a bus was dificult enough!  I did catch that though. :)

 This is the beautiful town of Oia!!  On the edge of the island, hot and breath taking!!

 Sooo happy we didnt' take this option up the mountain.  Cute but nahhhh!!!

 Looking out across Oia..

Not a very good picture...ahemm Mr. M....but the island at night was just as gorgeous!!













So once again we had another full day of exploring, shopping and fun. Once back on the ship we were so excited for the next day to see what all we would see.  It was becoming somewhat of a game to us..what would the next island look like, would they have the same color buildings, would we find the same things there, do they have the colored rocks like here?!   I love it when we can combine some sort of education to any vacation with our girls.

Come back tomorrow for another day and more adventures!!