The god with the powerful trident got us back for worshipping Athena at the Acropolis. A very bouncy, wavy 5 hour ferry ride to Santorini gave Sid and Emmett serious mal de mer. Yuck--and on Philip's birthday, too. The birthday boy was stuck being nurse to the sickies for much of the day. As he says, though, how bad can it be when eventually you're on Santorini? Pretty bad, actually. We owe him a better birthday. Today he's sentenced to sleeping on a lounge chair in the sun with an umbrella drink.
So here we are in Paradise, studying geology now, having moved on from history. Santorini is an island formed by a volcano that erupted 3,600 years ago whose crater sank into the ocean. As Clare tells us, Plato thought that Santorini was Atlantis and that there's a city down in 400 meters of water in the Caldera of the island. The Caldera derives from the English word "cauldron," and you can see in our photos why it is aptly named.
We are on the edge of the Caldera, sleeping in a "cave" hotel that's built right into the side of the volcano--windows facing the water--but the deeper into the apartment you go, the darker and cave-ier it gets. The hotel Andromeda is clearly meant for honeymooners; we get the occasional curled lip when our children run around (hey, think of it as natural birth control you honeymooners), and the hotel's soundtrack is full of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Bryan Adams love songs. It can get a little tiresome. Luckily we downloaded the premiere of Glee onto the laptop for a healthy dose of satire.
Clare informs us (who is home-schooling who?) that Santorini was the second biggest volcanic eruption in history. The first was Toba in Indonesia 75,000 years ago, an eruption that killed all but between 2,000 and 20,000 humans on earth. Sobering stuff. Someone said that they expect Santorini to rear up again, maybe in 150 years. Hope it's not while we're here.
Looks like I will never be one of those retirees who takes cruises through all the beautiful spots in the world. Thanks, Poseidon.
There are very little airplanes that can take you to and from the islands and back to Athens. We have taken those and they are about 20 minutes. Have you see the Flying Dolphins (fast moving hydrofoil boats)? That might be a better option. What about dramamine?
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