Greek Tragedy

Another day, another country. Today we're in Santorini, which is in Greece. Today's veranda view shows whitewashed buildings at the top if a vertical cliff. Which just about sums up most of the island.

Very beautiful, but also frustratingly inaccessible.

First of all the local “Boatmen Union Of Santorini” insist that you have to use their local tenders to get ashore. These are of a much lower quality than the ship's own tenders, and access is not very good for anyone using crutches and a wheelchair.

They take you to the “Old Port” and then getting up to cliff is a bit of a problem too.

There are three ways. A funicular railway with no wheelchair access, a donkey ride (donkeys are not noted for having wheelchair ramps and step-free access) or climbing an enormous set of steps. And to make matters worse, we weren't the only cruise ship in town.

Ours is small, but this one is enormous, so there were huge crowds everywhere. We heard that yesterday was even worse with five ships anchored and 9,000 people going ashore. To put this is perspective, the population of Santorini is only 7,000.

So we stayed on board. The pool deck was quiet all morning, and only began to fill up as people returned from their shore excursions, telling horror stories about the experience. So a lazy day, drinking Pimms by the pool, followed by lunch, then back to our suite for a couple of hours before cocktails in the bar and then dinner. It's a hard life ...