Yesterday and today we sailed around the southern tip of Greece to visit Santorini and Athens. We went on cruise excursions in both cities and felt like we got to see quite a bit in our two days.

Santorini is the island in "Mama Mia" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and it is more beautiful than words can describe. While I've been generally pretty surprised by how dry and brown Greece is, Santorini has the postcard village of Oia on the north side of the island that is all white buildings and churches with blue roofs. Santorini was an island formed by a volcano in 1613 BC, so it is in the shape of a ring with a couple of islands in the middle. There are black and red volcanic parts of the island and beaches with the same colors. It was very warm, but there was a constant heavy wind to make us feel less hot.

Our excursion took us on a bus ride to Oia where we wandered the streets for about an hour. This is definitely a place we need to come back to visit again. We found our bus and rode to a vineyard/winery that is a coop for all of the grape growers on the island. We tasted the wines they produce and sat to enjoy the view for a while. Finally, the bus left us in Fira, the capital of the island where we stopped in a cafe overlooking the cliffs down into the sea to have a drink and some saganaki.

The tour excursion gave us a ticket to ride down the cliff by cable car before returning to our ship via a tender boat. However, we had been told that the more adventurous option was to ride donkeys down the hill, so we didn't have a choice - donkeys it was! I was pretty nervous about what the donkey adventure would look like, but it wasn't too bad at all. We were chained in a line of four donkeys, all of which had saddles, stirrups, and most importantly a place to hang on! The ride down was bumpy, but way more exciting than "just" walking or riding the cable cars.

We spent our evening going to dinner (hardly anyone was there because we didn't have to be on board until 7:30). Our table mates tonight were an American couple from Lexington, Kentucky. The husband of the couple had escargot for an appetizer, so in the spirit of our "adventuresome day," we both tried some for the first time. The snails were drenched in garlic butter sauce, which we decided can hide the flavor of just about anything - including snails!!!

Wednesday's port of call was Piraeus (Athens). This was one of the places we were most excited to visit! We took an excursion to see the Acropolis and its museum today, which was incredible! The museum, which we visited first, nicely laid out the meaning and original structure of the Parthenon. Our tour guide, Poppi, did a nice job of explaining the history of the Parthenon and the story of how it came to look the way it does. The museum opened in 2009, so this was Jon's first time visiting it too.

On our way from the museum to the Parthenon, we experienced the chaos of Athenian traffic! It was unbelievably busy at the Parthenon as well. We were herded up the hill through the entry gate as minders with whistles tweeted when people tried to climb the rocks. Once we passed through the crowds, we could see the magnificent Parthenon. Sadly, huge pieces of the Parthenon were blown up when the Venetians attacked the Turkish arsenal inside the building. We could see the Agora - the old marketplace, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and the Areopagus, where Jon did his presentation on Paul's speech there during his study abroad in Greece.

Our excursion involved a stop at a restaurant for gyros and drinks before shopping in the Plaka, a street market area where we found some souvenirs. We fought traffic and made it back to the ship just 8 minutes before we had to be on board for the day! Athenian traffic was the very reason we did the excursion! Even though traveling with a group had had its frustrations, we feel like we've seen plenty and haven't had to deal with any of the stresses of finding things or negotiating transportation.

We spent some time at the pool and then had dinner - this time with three American couples, two from Atlanta and one from Florida. We enjoyed hearing about their other cruises and they have us some recommendations for places to go while in Naples on Sunday.

We went to the evening show - "Dancing through the Movies" - which was really entertaining! Then, we went to one if the lounge for a gameshow called The Quest. We paired up with Eva and Jose, a couple from LA, to play the game, which was hilarious!! We laughed for about 45 minutes straight as we did a "scavenger hunt" as a group. Tomorrow, we head to Olympia, our final port city, to see the original Olympics sites.