Oia, Thira (Santorini), Greece, 10 October 2018.

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(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

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This is the map of Thira, where we were to spend the next few days.  It is more commonly known as Santorini, which is the Byzantine name.  Thira is the Greek name and after all, it is in Greece.  The blue lines show our planned travel route, which should be pretty close to our actual route, because I had this route saved in our car GPS.  (You may like to click for a larger image and more detail).

You can see there is a kind of a great blue hole in the centre of the map.  This is the caldera of Thira.  It was dry land until the volcano exploded somewhere around 1650BC, causing no small inconvenience for the locals and also devastating the northern coast of Crete with tsunami.

We stayed in Oia, in the far north of the island, well known for its scenic vistas.  This post is for our first night on the island, in Oia.

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This is looking back along the coast of the island.  The light would have been low and I have resisted any temptation to over-saturate or overly increase contrast in these images.  (Still, most people will be viewing these images on unprofiled screens which may not be entirely accurate).

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We are now looking in the other direction, north towards the small township of Oia.  The island of Thirassia is in the distance (one island though it may appear as two).

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A wider view looking south that gives a good idea of the size of the caldera.

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There are many houses perched on the steep slopes of the cliffs, and inviting paths.

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This would be a tempting place to loll in the sun in a hot day.

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This is just across the road from where we were staying.

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People we encounter while walking towards the north point of the island….

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At the top is the Church of Panagia Platsani.

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Young woman contemplating the sunset.

This is much closer and 25 minutes later, but with a much wider angle lens.

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The lights of the town come on as the sun goes down.

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The island of Thirassia in the distance again.

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A vignette of the multi-layered settlement on the steep slope.

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Trivia Note:  30,000 images.

Following an update of my index of live music posts for the  first time in two years, there are now over 30,000 images either in this Blog or linked to from this Blog.  There are 17,000 images in the Blog (in 1,100 posts and with 430,000 words) and links to another 13,000 live music images (from 1,150 performances).