Delphi 18 November 2019

I booked a tour with many of my travelling group, friends and family. I was in Delphi a few short months ago with GAdventures land tour.

There are 3000 islands of Greece, 200 are inhabited. Population of Greece is 11 million, 5 Million in Athens which is located on plains of Attica. It is 210 Kms from Piraeus to Delphi, today we took the bus :).

Tourism is largest industry, second is agriculture – olives, olive oil, grapes, fruits, veggies. Today we drove through agricultural lands growing cotton, wheat, potatoes, veggies and fruit. Miles of olive trees as far as can be seen, even in mountains. We drove through ski hill resort town also.

For Delphi, the guide (Penny) from my last time here was fabulous. I will read back on that blogpost for the description that will stay with me.

Onward for sea day as we sail to Malta.

Pamela

Santorini,

Stunning Santorini on Sunday 17 Nov 2019

Kalimara… good day from Greece. Santorini to be specific today.

Santorini is the island, an active volcano… dormant at this time. Last eruption activity in 1950’s. Soft eruptions happen and increase the size of islands in the caldera. This is the biggest caldera in the world filled with sea water. Uniquely the villages of Santorini are constructed on the rim. The last major eruption was in 1613 BC… it lasted 4 days.

As our bus climbs ever higher, we stop at Santorini’s first ever stoplight. Created 2 months ago to assist with traffic where the road is under construction. Apparently Santorinians often don’t stop…. just ignoring it.

The cliff is about 400 meters high. 15 villages on the island, with total off season population of 22,000. In summer season, population doubles with workers greeting tourism as the main economy. Last year 2.5 million tourists came to visit.

Santorini is actually an Italian word … not Greek. Thira is a Greek name, the capital city of Santorini. Over 500 churches and chapels on the island, only 5 are not Greek Orthodox. Some of the chapels are private and owned by unique separate families.

Fishers, farmers and sailors were the professions prior to tourism since 1960. There is agriculture land between the towns. 90% of the jobs are in tourism. Vineyards growing grapes close to the ground to protect fruit from harsh wind and sun. The main farm crop is grapes for white wine. Wine grapes have been growing here for more than 2000 years. 80% is for white wine. Assytriko is the dry white wine. VinSanto is the sweet ice wine also from this region.

Also fig trees, bee hives, prickly pear, capers,herbs. No rain at all in summer, very high humidity.

Beaches are mostly black volcanic rock,some red and some grey volcanic pumice stone,which covers the island. Rich with minerals and great absorbency for the moisture from the air.

This is a major wedding destination and many people come here for the photography.