Pyrgos

Last night we drove into maddening Fira for dinner. It's maddening because it's where all the cruise ship people come, so there are gigantic hordes of people streaming past little tourist stalls selling crap. And in Fira it's a system of one-way roads and crazy drivers, plus people just off the cruise ships seeming to struggle with land legs and wandering in and out of the tiny crowded cobbled roads. We wanted to eat dinner at a lovely little restaurant but it was entirely booked all night, so we wound our way to our second choice restaurant which overlooked the caldera. Our dinners were really good:

my vegetable souvlaki, SUPER good. And tzatziki above, not visible.

SAGANAKI. Yep, could live off this fried salty cheese. No prob.

Marc's fried pork in lemon olive oil sauce. And the potatoes, to die for.

This morning we took another beautiful walk around the caldera walkway. Yesterday was super windy, which wasn't my favorite, but today there's just a slight breeze. We found thyme, oregano, and dill growing wild.

that one plant looks like artichokes!

early morning faces

so beautiful here

lots of these everywhere

gorgeous smelling plant

lots of pale purples here

For our daily adventure, today we decided to drive to Pyrgos, which is located on the highest spot on Santorini. It was once the capital of the island until the early 1800s, and it has one of the five Venetian castles remaining on Santorini. The island is so small you can get anywhere in just a short drive, so we drove over, had some lunch, did a bit of walking around, and came back. All in a couple of hours, at most.

another town, another church. Actually Pyrgos had two enormous churches.

the ceiling of a little church we went in -- the one in the next picture

standard iconography -- very lush!

One of the two churches

Marc took pictures of 12 doors for me -- I love this color so much

and these two pastel doors next to each other

yellow, so cheery

i adore this green

we sat for a minute to enjoy the view

we had lunch in this lovely little taverna -- Greek salads, of course.  Tiny olives here, unlike in Fira and Imerovigli.

here is Pyrgos -- our taverna is in the front

Tonight we're going to eat where we hoped to eat last night, but this time we have a reservation. We'll battle the nutty traffic in Fira, have a lovely dinner, then come back to our little hotel in Imerovigli. Maybe tonight we'll do some stargazing. I'll bet it's wonderful here.....