Naxos to Santorini: The Usual!

 'Waiting for Godot'...Or perhaps a Blue Star Ferry!

This morning we were up a bit late, and after the usual, we said goodbye to our hosts and headed into town to drop,off the car. 

We went through an interesting process with the guy running the rental place. We were given a car yesterday with less than a quarter tank of fuel, but we didn't realize this until we got on the road and I took the time to look. Expecting as usual to find a full tank I was a bit surprised to see it close to empty with the day ahead of us. We tried to figure out if a different system was in place, but the operator never explained the process so I stopped and put €36 of petrol in the tank, about $54. Through the day we used very little of what I'd purchased so I decided to just deal with the fellow today when we dropped it back. Arriving on time at the rental place, I explained what had happened and he assured me that he had explained this to me and that I must not have listened. We knew he hadn't. He then said that he'd looked himself and knew that the tank was half full before we left (deal is return it as you find it). I said to him that he must have been mixing me up with someone else. Then I showed him the rental agreement where it clearly recorded the fuel level at 25%. He knew he was beat and became very 'Greek' and basically threw some Euros at me. I've seen this before in Greece, so it wasn't unexpected. I said thanks and then as I walked away I realized that he'd kept my copy of the contract. I went back concerned that he might charge my credit card for something like a full tank of gas, took photos of the car just as I did when I picked it up (lots of fraud stories with some car rental places) and then we left. He saw me take the photos, so I expect that's the end of it. One learns lessons along the way. Ok, now I've written about it, and I can let it go. A lesson from the Camino:)

We got the ferry departure time wrong and instead of leaving at 10:40 it was actually 12:50. So we found a nice bar with a view of the harbour, contacted our host on Santorini to advise and ordered drinks to kill the time. Kathy worked on learning her camera and wandered off through traffic here and there taking photos. We've really noticed how much her confidence has improved since we arrived. No longer tentative in her approach, she is growing in confidence. Nice to see and something to think about.

Eventually our ferry came along and we joined the throngs clambering aboard..

The ferries are lots nicer these days!

Then the magic began!

Getting off the cattle barge!


New port.

Our cave accommodation.

I'll write more about Santorini tomorrow. Part may be here, part on Caminotime. Looks like it will be another classic travel day!

Reflections:

Annemarie and I cruising the Aegean in 1981 in a large sail boat. Pretty nice time as I recall.