The last stop of Bernard and Mercedes’ European adventure was the beautiful Island of Santorini and it was only right that we ask them to take notes. Here they are…
“We spent the last two days of our tour on the Cycladic island of Santorini, which we had visited twice before.
Julian, once again, found us a beautiful hotel, the Aressana Spa Hotel & Suites. Perfectly located with wonderful views over the Caldera, we also had a balcony with a sea view. The only drawback is that the hotel has no lifts, though we are in quite good walking form so this did not cause us a problem.
On our first afternoon we wandered around the streets of Firá, the modern capital of Santorini, and enjoyed the magnificent views, as well as the jewellers’ shop windows - be sure to pay a visit to the ‘gold’ street.
The following day the first thing we did was to visit the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, which has a small, but highly select collection of ceramics, frescoes and sculpture. Although the access could be improved, it is a very high quality museum.
The nearby city of Oia, of which we had happy memories from our previous visit seven years ago, was wonderful. We spent the afternoon strolling around the streets, enjoying the views, visiting the picturesque ceramics and jewellery shops and enjoying an excellent lunch of Greek salad and fresh fish.
We took the opportunity to visit Akrotiri, to see the archaeological site, which we first visited 23 years ago. To our surprise, we found it in a better state of upkeep than it was two decades ago - considerably better than most of the archaeological sites in Athens.
On our last evening we were able to enjoy the sunset with a delicious coffee, apple pie and Kataifi at the wonderful Iriana Cafe, situated just a few metres from our hotel.
Thus concluded our enjoyable stay in Santorini, as the following morning we had to be at the airport early to catch our flight.
What a wonderful end to a spectacular trip, organised with the help of Abbotts.”
