The two largest towns are Thira and Oia. Thira is the area where you get from the port area to the top of the volcano by way of a donkey or cable car. Oia is at the northern end of the island about 30 minutes drive.
Our excursion was to catch a tender to an area serviced by buses etc that wind up the side of the volcano to the top. Our bus took the scary trip to the top and then onto Mt Profitis Ilias where we saw the fabulous views across the island. We then continued onto Oia again by winding road to the edge of the village and then a 10 min. Walk into the centre. Oia is built on the side of a cliff, all of the houses, hotels and restaurants are nestled in niches into the volcanic rock. The beautiful narrow streets are mostly of marble and cobblestone, spotlessly clean, just a sight to see. We thought Thira was so beautiful when we came here several years ago, but Oia is arguably the nicest place we have ever seen in the World. We spent 2 hours there wandering around this photographers dream and then went back to Thira before catching the cable car to the bottom and back to the ship. Unfortunately We can't seem to get captions onto our photos, but I'm sure you can see the beauty in them.
Several shots (make sure you expand them) depict the delights of Oia, the bottom one shows the donkeys taking people to the top at Thira. Last time we walked to the top and back down, that was an experience, we chose not to take that option this time.
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