Written by London Swaminathan
Date: 2 August 2017
Time uploaded in London- 6-13 am
Post No. 4120
Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks.

pictures by london swaminathan.

We went to Athens and Santorini Islands in Greece for six days in July 2017. The islands are volcanic islands and Hot water springs are in the middle of the sea. The ferry took us to the place where the sea water was heating up due to the volcanic rocks underneath. Tourists jumped from the boat into ocean and swam for 15 minutes and then all of them returned to the boat. I was just watching from the deck of the boat. Even children were swimming with the help of floating life jackets.

One young couple boarded the wrong boat and tried very hard to jump from one boat to other.  Husband succeeded but his wife with bikinis was struggling with fear and embarrassment. At last she managed to jump into our ferry.

If you look at all the pictures you can see the water colour changes from blue to green to yellow. The spot where the color of the water is yellow is the hottest place. swimmers go up to the point to get good hot water bath with sulphur content which will cure skin diseases. Volcanoes underneath is heating the water.

There are two important beaches in Santorini, one is with black sand beach and another is red beach. This is due to the volcanic activity in the islands. I have taken these pictures from the black sand beach. Santorini buildings are in white and blue colours. The churches have six or ten bells at the top. The domes of the churches are in Muslim’s mosque style. People come here for relaxing and to enjoy the breath taking views of the Agean sea , part of the Mediterranean sea. Palm leaf umbrellas are in thousands all along the coast which the tourists hire. They relax themselves there and get tanned in the sun bath.

Greece has 2000 islands and out of them 225 are inhabited. If you count all the protruding rocks you may say Greece has 6000 islands.

Biggest Volcanic Eruption

These volcanic islands have a long history. The biggest eruption happened around 1660 BC. and the Minoan civilization was destroyed because of the tsunami following the explosion or eruption. People believed that the Mysterious Atlantis continent disappeared because of this huge eruption. It must have affected Indus Valley Civilization and the legendary Tamil Kumari Kandam (Lemuria continent). The climatic changes after the biggest eruption in human history affected everyone on earth in one way or other.

Greece survive by tourism. Boarding and Lodging are more expensive in Santorini than in Athens. But the breath-taking views make the trip worthwhile. The blue sea and dry climate give plenty of time to do outdoor activities.

One of the emblems of Santorini is donkeys. This helped the people before the modern transport was introduced

There is a monastery in the islands. The islands are famous for the wine. It has a particular type of wine. There is a winery museum.

Sunset along the west coast is watched b thousands of people. Sunset point at Oia village attracts thousands of tourists. There is a bazar with lot of shops selling specialised, localised artefacts

Fira is the capital of the islands. All the islands were created by the volcanic eruption.

While we were doing shopping in the narrow streets of Oia in Santorini, The White Door Theatre group marched with a band distributing their leaflets of daily show.

–Subham–