Wed Oct 9, 2024
Hi All! Yep, same ol’, same ol’ today… different day, different country! Today we are anchored off the coast of Santorini, Greece. This is said to be the most gorgeous (and crowded!) Greek island.
Santorini is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. It was devastated by a volcanic eruption in the 16th century BC, forever shaping its rugged landscape. The whitewashed, cubiform houses of its 2 principal towns, Fira and Oia, cling to cliffs above an underwater caldera (crater). They overlook the sea, small islands to the west and beaches made up of black, red and white lava pebbles.
The expansion of tourism in recent years has resulted in the growth of the economy and population. Santorini was ranked the world’s top island by many magazines and travel sites. An estimated 2 million tourists visit annually. (And I think they were all here today!).
There were 5 ships in port today with almost 8,000 passengers. Given that we were just here in August (I know… I know, we travel way too much!) and the number of cruise passengers in port, they said the lines to get off the island from the cable car would be really long. So I decided to sleep in and relax by the pool today and Kathy decided to get on the island and shop till she dropped!
So for me it was a very relaxing day and for Kathy she found lots of fun things to buy so it was a win-win for both of us. I got to play both shuffle board and putt putt golf with the entertainment team and won both! Kathy came back with some great pictures and said the cable car line wasn’t too bad. All in all another great day!
In the late afternoon we went to the speaker series on “The History of Cruise Ships – From Romantic Ocean Liners to Today’s Megaships”. Unreal the transformation.
In the Mid 1800’s, was the first time you could purchase a ticket for a voyage across the Atlantic. One of the first passengers was 29 year old Charles Dickens who went from Liverpool to Boston. On that ship they had live chickens for fresh eggs and live cows for fresh milk. It took 6 weeks to travel across.
In 1867, the first ship from the US to Europe had a famous passenger named Mark Twain who was 32 at the time. The ticket cost $1,250 back then which nowadays would be $25,000.
Once Pan Am started flying transatlantic, many cruise lines went out of business. By then the voyage went from 6 weeks to 12-14 days. Now of course the cruise ships are much bigger. The largest, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, is 5 times larger than the Titanic. Crazy!!
The number of passengers also grew significantly getting up to its peak of 30 million in 2019. With Covid, the number dropped to 6 million in 2020. Overall it was a very fun and enlightening talk!
We then got ready for dinner. I’ll do another post tonight. Happy Hump Day!
The Wandering Italian 