People from all over the world visit Santorini. Especially honeymooners. And especially Chinese honeymooners.

Paradoxically, most of the island is a trashy and gritty third- worldish place.

But when the island blew up 3,600 years ago, destroying the Minoan Civilization, the blast left one of the most remarkable and exhilarating venues on the planet.

The rim of the Caldera is lined with small luxury hotels and visitors flock here to pay egregious amounts to live in a cave hanging on a cliff wall over the sea and be pampered. And it is worth it, because the feeling that this enormously beautiful and extraordinary place elicits is indescribable.

If you consider coming, do so in the shoulder season. Summer is wall to wall with tourists and in the winter almost everything is closed. If you want more information here are my notes from a previous visit:

Santorini and the Archeological site of Akrotiri | Lew’s Walkabout (lewswalkabout.com)

And in this Blog, just some postcard photos from this winter visit with CAMarchand. Of course we visited the Archeological site where they are excavating the Minoan city of Akrotiri destroyed with the destruction of the island. It was a rich trading city with three story houses with running water, flush toilets and extensive interior decorations. Only three percent of the town has been uncovered so far, but enough artifacts found to house in a fine museum in Fira.

The site:

And a few from the Museum:

Even though it is winter here and a lot of things are closed we have had a fine visit. Being pampered in your hotel is a good thing. And even in off season there are good times to be had.

And so that’s it for the winter of 2023.

Actually, I will hang around Cyprus and Greece a few more weeks just for the weather and the food, but probably will not encounter much more to report about.

But I do look forward to future travels and picking these posts back up. Until then, thanks for coming along.