It's all Greek to us!

Pat and I began our honeymoon in the Greek Islands, visiting Santorini and Mykenos!

We had the most amazing time in Santorini and it truly was one of the beautiful places I have ever seen.

We stayed right on the cliffs in between the capital of Santorini, Fira and its other largest city, Oia.

Our time in Santorini was very relaxing. We had lazy mornings while we enjoyed breakfast on our terrace everyday and then slowly headed out to explore the island. We spent time hiking the cliffs near our hotel and taking our 4-wheeler around to see the entire island.

Santorini is famous for its white and blue cliff side architecture and serene beaches. It is not hard to believe that in the surrounding waters of the island many scientists believe buried deep beneath the ocean is the lost island of Atlantis.



Visiting the Red, Black and White beaches were also awesome! Although the water felt like Colorado lake water, they were sure pretty to look at.



On the opposite end of Santorini from Fira is Oia. Oia is famous for supposedly having the most beautiful sunsets in the whole world. Every night hundreds of people come to the city and oooohhh and ahhhhh as the sun fades away. It was very crowded, but worth it. Although I am not sure how many places claim to have the best sunset in the world, I can say it is the most beautiful one I have ever seen.



Because we were not able to see Athens at all, we were really interested in seeing Ancient Thira. This hilltop on Thira was first inhabited by the Dorians, whose leader was Theras, in the 9th century BC. Thira was later occupied in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras. Most of the buildings that survive today date from the Hellenistic era (around the 4th century BC).

The ancient houses and larger part of the cemeteries of Ancient Thira were excavated by German archaeologists between 1895 and 1902, while the cemeteries on the northeast and northwest slopes of Sellada were excavated in 1961-1982.



We were very excited to also explore the volcano while we were in Santorini. We decided to book a sailboat tour to the volcano on our last full day there. The sailboat took us over the volcano, gave us a guided tour of it, sailed to some natural hot springs to swim in and then sailed around the island to the Oia side for another view of the sunset from the water.



After several wonderful days in Santorini we packed up and headed for the port to catch our speed ferry to Mykenos.

Mykenos architecture was slightly different then Santorini as all building were square instead of round. This island is famous for two things, beaches and partying! While Pat and I tried to experience both while we were there, we just got to tired from being at the beaches all day to head out at 1am when the party begins. I guess we got one out of two I guess. We had wonderfully relaxing days at the beaches, enjoyed tasty gyros and other Greek food while sipping on Mythos beer and pina coladas.



We had a wonderful week in Greece and could not wait to start our next adventure. Off to Italy we go.....