Greece and the Islands (and the terror)

We went to Greece in June, when it was nice and warm but just before the July/Aug tourist rush.  We spent a day and half in Athens, which was too long.  Athens has some great history and great food, but a day is enough.  Most of the city is concrete and a bit dirty, but it is worth a stop.


 
Here is the Acropolis (Natalie was looking for Hercules, but he wasn't home).  On the right is one of the ancient statues (in bright orange).

Next we headed for the islands, there are so many it is hard to choose (picking the islands took more time than planning the whole trip).  First we stopped on Sifnos, a small quite island with few tourists.

Here is the village we stayed for the first few days.  About all there is to do there is eat, swim, and relax. Perfect.
 
The favorite modes of transportation on the Greek islands, donkey and moped.  We choose the mopeds.  Yes, that is Natalie peeking out in front of Dan, Jeanette had her own.  Don't know the local on the donkey, but he was amused at how long it took us to get this picture perfect.

Next we headed for a larger island (with more tourists and activity) named Santorini.  Santorini is famous for the active volcano in the harbor.  It also has several wineries, huge black beaches, and a zillion cats.  Actually, there are zillions of cats anywhere you go in Greece.
 
Jeanette and Natalie on the  overlooking the main town, which is on the cliffs.  On the right Natalie adopted one of the local strays, I don't think the twice daily seafood and milk influenced the cat.
 

The skipper took us on a sail boat tour to the volcano.  In the background is the same town shown above, this is where the terror took place.  Coming down for this sailing trip we took the cable car.  On the way back up we decided to take the local method of transportation (we always like to try the local way), so we took the donkeys up the cliff.  This climb zigzagged up that shear cliff (behind Natalie's head above) on rock stairs right along the edge with a short wall (which the donkeys could easily dump us over).  Well, we got lucky and got the spunky donkeys.  They raced each other up the cliff.  They not only raced; they tried to cut each other off and frequently pin the other against the cliff.  Oh what fun.  This was the most terrorizing experience in our lives.

At the very tip of the island (shown above to the right of the cat) was this little tiny port (consisted of these 4 restaurants.  The one-man fishing boats you see would bring in the catch and the cook would clean it on the dock there and then throw it right on the grill.  Good stuff.