January 19: Red Beach & Sunset in Oia

It was a busy one today.  After the obligatory cup of coffee, we drove to Red Beach where we met a family from Florida who were touring Greece and Turkey.  We did a short 10 minute walk to arrive at the spectacular red cliffs and then walked carefully down into the beach.  The volcanic red rock provided an excellent contrast to the deep blue Aegean Sea.  

From here, we made our first pit stop at Venetsanos Winery for a tasting.  We sampled 6 outstanding wines but decided not to purchase our favorite bottle, which cost 30 euro — I honestly couldn’t tell the difference from the 2.96 euro one that we picked up at Lidl Supermarket.  But, the views from the winery were out of this world and would strongly suggest a visit for a bottle, glass, or tasting of their white wines.

Our next pit stop was to the Santorini Brewing Company for a beer tasting — we sampled the Yellow Donkey, Lazy Ass and Crazy Donkey.  We ended up buying a big bottle of Crazy Donkey – their tasty IPA – less potent than a Treehouse but pretty smooth.  I also bought a cool looking Red Donkey hat to cover my dome.  We talked to one of the owners of the brewery who is originally from California – she told us that she used to summer here and one day decided to stay for good – excellent choice.

After a delicious late lunch/early dinner of ribeye steak and salad, we headed out to the Goulas Castle in Oia to catch the sunset.  We were hardly the only ones thinking that this was a good idea – it was a pretty good crowd for the winter season.  We met a really nice woman from the US who has been teaching English in Oman with her husband. We shared many stories of our time in this muslim country.   It was a perfect night for a sunset but the villas, castles and blue dome churches once again stole the show.  I really want to come back to Santorini in a few years and rent an Oia villa in October.