The summer begins!

Another summer and another Greek adventure begins!  We set off on a cold and cloudy English spring day and arrived in Santorini to blue skies and scorching temperatures!  We have decided to spend a few weeks in the Cyclades prior to moving onto Alonissos in the Sporades so spent a couple of days on the beautiful island of Santorini before catching the ferry to Naxos.
We were slightly concerned having read the reviews of our accommodation on Santorini but needn't have worried as the owners were very friendly and our room was lovely with gorgeous views over the Aegean.

It was in a very unusual setting practically within  church. Although it was lovely, the downside was that we were woken by a cacophony of sound from the church bells at 7am, 7.30, 8 and 8.30!!!

The blue dome is the roof to our room!!

Having ensured we were thoroughly awake we took advantage of the fantastic weather and headed downhill to the beach.  We passed several interesting little smallholdings, including one housing 4 ostriches!! I have absolutely no idea what they would have these birds for but hey ho!
On reaching the beach with it's signed promise of food and drink at the end there was of course nothing of the sort as the taverna hadn't opened yet....we should know by now that Greece doesn't open for business until mid May (or June in some cases....Alonissos!).
Now we are used to seeing ducks in the sea in Greece but in this particular harbour we also found a pair of swans! Whether they are resident or just passing through we will never know but they seemed quite happy in their salty home.

We had an equally stunning day the following day so spent a merry few hours exploring the main town of Thira with all it's jewellery shops, expensive bars and equally expensive restaurants.  We did manage to find a couple of gems with good prices and good food both within a few meters of each other, Stanis with fabulous views over the caldera and Dionysus within it's own courtyard setting...perfect. There were a few cruise ships in port too from Celebrity, MSC, and Oceania so all the shops were doing their best to entice the day trippers! Only one thing was missing in Santorini, the famous blue domes of the churches!  They all appeared to have been stripped back to plaster in Thira, hopefully to be re-painted, otherwise there will be a lot of disappointed tourists this summer!