Stellar Views, Dry White Wines Highlight Santorini, Crete Stops

Days 124-125, 2025 European Odyssey

Thursday and Friday, Oct. 30-31, 2025; Santorini and Chania, Greece.

It’s been all about the wine the last couple of days. I don’t think I ever knew much about wines from Greece, but of course you would expect them to have some good ones, what with all that Mediterranean climate. And they didn’t disappoint.

When I was in Santorini 18 years ago on a large (for the time) Princess ship, I explored Santorini with my sisters and mother. My best memory is an oil painting I bought from the artist of a collage of scenes from Santorini. It hung over my mantle for years. (And I hope it’s among the half-dozen pieces of art I still have in storage.)

This time I wanted to go to Oia (pronounced “ee’-ah”), a scenic hilltop village north from the main town of Fira. Deep blue-domed churches pop out from ubiquitous white lime-washed structures. Who wouldn’t want to paint it? I knew getting there wouldn’t be easy or inexpensive for a solo traveler, so I booked a ship excursion to the village and then to a winery.

I can’t imagine being on Santorini in July and August – the height of the tourist season. Even near the end of October the narrow lanes of Oia were packed. Shops are shoehorned into each nook and cranny of the cliff’s edge, including what once were caves housing fishermen a century ago.

Even worse were the best spots to view the blue-domed churches, where every photographer waited for a tourist-free moment. Many people in this Instagram age want not only a great photo of the scene, but themselves alone in the middle. Imagine the wait when a group of six each take turns posing and gets angry if anyone else encroaches.

Of course, I had no time to do more than a quick pencil sketch.

After an hour we left Oai for Domaine Sigalas, one of the leading wineries on the island. Winemaking has a 3,000-year tradition on Santorini, where the climate and volcanic-ash soil combine to produce the Assyrtiko grape. Because of the scant rainfall, the vines are twisted into basket shapes so the grapes will grow in the middle and close to the ground, sheltered from wind. They place porous lava stones around the baskets to hold moisture from the dew.

Our small group of about 20 enjoyed a delicious five-course meal with five different wines. Their crisp, dry white wines were right up my alley, but the €62 price stopped me from bringing a bottle back to the ship.

And about getting back to the ship: Rather than drop us at the commercial pier where we had boarded the bus earlier, the tour ended in Fira where our guide handed us tickets and pointed us to the cable car. I remember waiting briefly in line for the trip down from the hilltop in 2007, but while the tourist crowds have grown in the past two decades, the cable car capacity hasn’t. My thoughts of doing a little window shopping in Fira disappeared when I saw that the line stretched for what seemed like the length of the town. I spent my free hour in line instead of shopping.

Back on the ship, I learned that the Santorini authorities require most tours to end in Fira rather than at the commercial pier, I guess to encourage business. Judging by the disgruntled passengers from the two ships in port waiting in the long line for the cable car, I think this plan backfires.

I have never before been to Crete, the largest of the Greek islands. The Nieuw Statendam docked in Soúda, a 15-minute shuttle ride from the town of Chania, so I opted again for a wine tour. This time we traveled through the countryside on the way to two wineries.

Each one featured a tasting of five wines, usually either a rosé or sparkling, two whites and two reds, accompanied by a bit of cheese, bread and olive oil.

We passed more olive groves than vineyards and made a quick stop at what they claim here is the oldest olive tree in the world – perhaps more than 4,000 years old. It still produces olives, and branches from it were used to weave victors’ wreaths for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Back on the ship, I found my cabin stewards had split my bed in preparation for my nephew’s arrival tomorrow. As the temperatures are falling a bit, I packed away some summer clothes to make room for him. I’m not used to sharing a cabin, but it will be good practice for the upcoming world cruise when my sister will join me.

Meanwhile, passengers voted on the best carved pumpkins before the Halloween party after dinner.