travel the world: crete and santorini

I caught a flight from Mallorca to Crete (with an overnight in Athens) for another week of hiking and biking with Backroads. We started in Crete, with a beautiful couple of days in Plaka to bike the quiet, hilly roads down to the ocean and hike in one of the many gorges.

On my birthday, I got up and hiked in the dark down a quiet trail to the ocean, where I watched the sun rise. The day was full of hiking, a birthday celebration lunch for me at the Kritsa women’s cooperative, and a beautiful dinner out that evening on a hillside overlooking one of the local villages.

One of my all-time favorite biking days:

Then we caught a ferry to Santorini, which was remarkable in the way that the towns hang off the lip of the sunken crater, but too crowded and commercial for my liking. We hiked six miles from our lunch stop to the town of Oia, which was a beautiful way to really experience the crater.

The next day, we took a boat to the nearby island of Theresia, which was like stepping back in time 60 years, before tourism arrived. It was remote, gorgeous, and provided the best views across the crater to Santorini. We ate lunch at a local taverna with the best homemade Greek food and local wines (including rekki). The perfect last full day in Greece.

Early morning on the last day, we hiked through Oia to the perfect spot to watch the sun rise, and I got some of my best photos, without the crowds and only the cats for company: