Day 40,

the start to the day looked bright,

 we are going on an island tour today,

 first breakfast,

 would you call it a selfie if you took a picture of both of us using the rooms mirror?

we were soon on the coach, and this is where we are going for our first stop, Megalochori,

in the field next to us, and many more besides,

we spotted these strange curls of dried wood, we found out later what they were,

I had never seen one of these before,

although I like eating them, they are pistachio trees,

we made our way down into the town, passing one or two abandoned buildings,

looking up the sky was nice a blue, hopefully no more rain,

we continued along the cobbled streets,

I think I will call this colour Santorini blue,

as blue as the sky, almost,

we passed under the bell tower,

that everyone takes a few pictures of,

then some of the locals, 

started following us,

most buildings are painted in bright colours,

but this one is not, it is left looking like natural rock, this harkens back to the days of pirates and brigands where you wanted them not to see you home or village from the sea,

one of the locals caught up with one of the tour group,

an ancient abandoned building topped by modern technology,

blue skies and domes,

one of the cats caught up with Diana,

and was desperate for Diana to make a fuss of it,

as was this one,

and these two,

we continued our walk,

taking pictures as we went,

some of the buildings seemed quite haphazard, it was difficult to tell where one building started and one finished,

I thought this neat, rather than move this huge rock that must weigh many tons, leave it where it is and build over it,

blue is defiantly the colour,

and this is where we were walking to,

the ruined city of Akrotiri, 

a model has been made of the ruins,

a panorama of the site,

the city was eventually abandoned, after a series of earthquakes, and a volcanic eruption in last quarter of the 17th century B.C.

and then like Pompei in the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius,

the entire area was covered with ash and pumice,

making the whole area like a time capsule waiting to be discovered,

late in the 1860s the site was discovered,

by workers digging for pumice, 

to be used in the Suez canal,

but nothing more was done for the next 100 years or so,

but in 1967 a determined effort was made to start excavating the site,

what we are looking at here is about a third,

of the buildings buried here,

the work is of course ongoing,

and can be viewed by this splendid series of catwalks that do not interfere with the work in progress,

huge numbers of artifacts have been found, 

and thankfully no human remains, it appears the city dwellers had sufficient warning to get out with out loss of life,

using a technique pioneered in Pompeii, when an excavation revelled a hollow, plaster of Paris was poured in to the void, the surrounding material removed to reveal what the object was, in this case a bed,

many think that the disappearance of Akrotiri gave credence to the lost city of Atlantis,

in truth nobody knows, but a great story,

we continued our walk marvelling at the knowledge of our guide, it is know that at the time we in Great Britain in the Bronze age living in huts,

here every home had hot and cold running water and a sewerage system that took all waste from every home, with ingenious traps to stop smells from entering homes,

also many of the buildings were three stories high,

video screens dotted along the cat walks gave an insight into how the town would have looked, 

what an amazing place to visit

we made our way outside where we were mobbed,

by cats,

they all looked and were so friendly,

back into the coach we made our way down to the sea,

for our lunch here at the Aquarius, 

the tables were glass topped and had displays of shells, driftwood and other items washed up on the shore,

lamb, chips and rice,

'Cheers!',

we  made our way on to the black sand beach,

it is low season now, but in a few months tables and chairs will be here on the sand,

the weather was kind to us today,

with blue skies,

but although it was sunny,

it was definitely chilly, not the day to go in for a dip,

back onto the coach,

and this is where we are going next, Boutari, a winery,

but before we went inside I noticed these two beauties, a Mercedes Benz,

and a Citron,

guarded by one of the winery's cats,

tables were laid out,

glasses waiting,

and a chart showing you how it, wine tasting, should be done,

but first, 

down,

into the climate controlled cellar,

barrel upon barrel, stacked with it's contents aging,

I could have stayed here a little longer,

but it was time to go upstairs,

where for no apparent reason, 

there were two huge pieces of cinematographic kit,

you may remember the coiled up bits of wood at the beginning of the post, well this is what they are,

circular vines, we were told that most vines here are between 60 to 80 years old, but some are as old as 130 years!

a few purchases made,

and this time we were on our way up,

to the highest point on the island,

where from 1711 a monastery has stood,

not only is it the highest point,

I am guessing it has the most wind, it was so cold it was a pleasure to get back inside the coach,

our tour for the day over,

we made a move back to our room,

taking a few pictures,

on the way,

as the sun started going down,

Diana had to have pose,

just do not fall off of the wall!

blue domes in the sunset,

another one for the album,

a few more paces and another picture,

we passed by one of the churches,

and then the main one,

we stopped off for a bite to eat and chatted the evening away, arriving home by now it was dark,

the pool looked inviting, but it was so cold,

a quick picture of the moon,

then out with the bubbly,

for a midnight toast and then for us we were off to bed.