And we're off on the move again - one bus, two flights, one taxi, one ferry ride and two lots of walking -easie-peasie!
We had about 24-hours of travel in front of us to get across to the Greek Islands. We checked out of our hotel in Santiago de Compostela at 11 a.m. on Wednesday the 8th of June.
Our first mode of transport was the airport bus for the princely sum of €1, a fun way to get to the airport - super cheap and interesting bus customers, a mix of travellers and locals.
The Santiago de Compostela little airport was super busy! Lots of flights heading across Europe, back to the UK and it was great for people watching - spot the pilgrim, business people and general travellers. We had about 4 hours of time to fill so we dabbled in playing 'guess the nationality' - it was very easy to pick out the British and Irish - such a different complexion and physiognomy from the Italian, Spanish, German and Scandinavians.
We arrived at Madrid airport at 6:40 p.m. after a great little hopper flight. Madrid airport was all go!
Busy, busy, busy - lots of people on the move and not much mask wearing.
Again great people watching and we had the time to do it - our next flight was not until 23:45 p.m. It was interesting to see the sun set an hour earlier in Madrid than on the Gallican coast.
We landed at Santorini Thira airport at 4 a.m. Thursday 9 June. No passport control - we just walked in. The first ship from Santorini that we could take was 6:45am so we had to find a way down to the port - too early for the local bus!
It was dark when we arrived at Santorini and about 10k walk from Thira airport down to the port. I recalled it being a perilous, zig-zagy steep road down to the port from the village of Fira on the top and in the dark probably not a good idea.
We found a taxi stand and banded together with a Spanish couple who were going to a rather nice hotel in Fira and then the taxi driver took us on down to the port - best €30 spent that day. We got safely down to the port with no broken ankles.
So we saw the sun go down on the northern tip of Spain and we were still awake when the sun came up in Greece.
The port of Santorini is super busy with huge lorries bringing all the supplies to the island for the tourists and locals. The Blue Star shipping office opens an hour before each sailing so we queued up to get tickets to Paros on the 6.45am ship.
There were two big cruise ships waiting off the port to come in. The taxi driver said they were happy that tourists were coming back after 2 years of suffering through Covid and minimal income.
It's wonderful to be back in the Greek islands! Ios, Naxos pics to follow.
The seawater is so deep blue and it's hot, hot, hot and it's just like every travel brochure - you have to pinch yourself!
Our last mode of transport was the big Blue Star walk on / walk off ship stopping at Ios, Naxos and then Paros - where we got off and the ship then went on to Piraeus for Athens.
They are great ships, €28 50 [NZ$47.42] was the ticket price per person, 3.5hrs trip and the ship is extremely well equipped with cabins, lounges, cinema style seating, cafeterias, sundecks - they are incredibly busy over the summer holiday period and they've been doing it for ions so they're well sorted.
It's organised chaos at each port for about 30 mins. You get down to the car deck about 15 minutes before arriving at the port of your destination.
It's all go, they drop the gangplank and the foot passengers walk off promptly at the same time large lorries are making their way up the port to get onto the ferry. The little port area in each island is mannick for about 30 minutes of cars and lorries, people holding out signs for motorbike rental, car rental, ATV bike rental, rooms, hotels - frenetic energy in the pelting sun, it's quite a little drama, great fun!
We didn't really sleep on the flight over, so were pretty pooped. We made our way to Pension Sophia we have stayed on previous holidays and dropped our bags off, grabbed a coffee at the local seafront and watched the world go by and then checked in at 1 p.m. Hand washing, showers, siesta time - in that order.
Feels wonderful to be back in the Greek Islands - it really is a special place. It seriously feels like Paros has been discovered since we were here last and whilst it was very busy when the ferry's arrived, it soon quietened down.
No doubt Paros's popularity has increased. A local taverna operator said they were happy to see the tourists after two years of disaster.
Whew! 2877kms in flights, buses,taxi, ferry boat our journey of approx 3030Ks!
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