CRUISING THE GREEK ISLANDS
When most people tell you they have visited Greece, they usually mean Athens, the capitol. While Athens is a travelers' treasure trove of antiquity, it is, lilke most other large cities, congested, crowded, and polluted.
When you get outside the cities on a cruise, however, beautiful villages appear which, upon close inspection, reveal achingly lovely towns.
Santorini sits on the top of a volcano-mountain. To reach it from the harbor, you either walk up a gazillion switchback stairs, or take the cable cars, six of which can be seen in the lower left corner of the picture.
There was some question as to whether Nancy could get off the ship as the water was quite choppy this day. There was also a question whether she could get her Dune Buggy wheelchair into the cable cars. Everyone agreed I should go first
and test to see what was possible on our end.
I left the ship in a small tender, got off at the dock, and took the chair to the cable car entrance, walking in front of perhaps 1000 people waiting in line. I found somone familiar with the operation who showed me an elevator they
had recently installed to get a disabled person up to the cable car landing. We took the chair up and tried it out. No problem. I locked the chair at that level in a small store room, then went back to the ship for Nancy. We had brought along a small
travel wheelchair I intended to use to get her to the cable cars.
Alas, the water got choppier, and the captain refused to let her leave. I, however, had to go back and retrieve the Dune Buggy. I figured as long as I was there, I would take a few minutes to see the town.
There is a paved path all along the top rim of the mountain. I walked through the town to the top, then came back down along the path. A young newlywed couple asked me to take their picture, quite pleased that I framed it nicely for
them before snapping it. They returned the favor, taking this photo of me. |
