Hike 1 - Voreina to Santo Winery

If you know me at all, I like my beer, my scotch and my wine, conveniently there is a winery nice and close to Voreina Gallery Suites. This place has, IMHO the best view of the sunset on the Island. Going to Oia is nice, especially if you want to see the sun disappear onto the horizon but nothing beats the view from the deck at Santo Winery as you sample their wines(just skip everything and go to the Vinsanto). Afterwards it's a quick walk back, right past another great place, Pyrgos Taverna, but nothing beats Santo Winery. The walk is shown below, and while i titled it Hike 1, it's more of a nice walk or stroll.

 

Voreina Gallery Suites

This officially starts the set of blog posts about Santorini Greece, known on google maps as Thira, Greece! I wanted to start with a shout out to the place we stayed at for being both awesome and in a great location. Nothing helps anymore than a picture of the view. While the location is in Pyrgos and not on the coast, being in the center of the Island was perfect for hiking.

The place we stayed at was Voreina Gallery Suites which is a small hotel with a collection of suites, I believe 8 if varying size. On arrival we were upgraded to the Master Suite, which has the heated infinity pool(perfect for drinks watching the sun set), or for relaxing during the gorgeous weather. As i mentioned above the hotel is in Pyrgos which is in the center of the island, reference A on google maps. The location is near the monastery in the medieval capital of the island which means its less touristy, and off the beaten path.

Now before cringing that its off the beaten path, that's a good thing here. The area is safe, about a half mile walk to the bus(no car needed) and plenty of space if you want to rent an ATV for the week, which is big on the island. You are also very close to 3 cafes at the end of the road to the hotel, room service is delicious and cheap(10-15 euro for Selene) and within walking distance of Santo Winery(which I'll blog about next).

Take a look at this place, and I highly recommend staying there, also because the owner and the staff speak excellent english and have recommendations for every travelers taste.

Coming Soon

I travel...hence the title of this blog. Recently I took a great trip to Greece, specifically Athens and Santorini and while i didn't run much, I did have some epic hikes in Santorini so I'm going to post them, along with some reviews for the hotel and other locations on the Greek Island of Santorini! So look forward to some hikes(you can run them if you want but one's rough terrain) and great views.

Quote I came across

From General Eisenhower,

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

 I work in defense, but wholly agree with the General, and President, and one day hopefully I will work myself out of a job by reducing the costs to a point where the military industrial complex cannot make the profits necessary to sustain the business. We use multimillion dollar bombers and helicopters to destroy huts in third world nations, use taxpayer dollars to pay tribal leaders, sheiks and despots instead of building schools or creating an electric generator. Think about it, instead of buying a bomber we gave the cost of a single bomber in buildings to northern Afghanistan?  Where would the suicide bombers come from? If they have a job, are educated, and have a future...why would anyone strap a vest full of explosives on and ride a bike into a bunch of children? 

 Just food for thought..
  

4T's Garage Run

My car tends to be in the shop quite a bit nowadays, for a few reasons and the best place in town, by a long shot is 4T's Garage, so I bring it there. Most recently it was in for an oil change and a low pressure regulator/fuel filter b/c I've been having fuel pressure problems recently and that's all that's left to fix(it's an Audi A4 so the same bug as always). But specifically the rates aren't bad, they can get any part, and do excellent work, especially on foreign cars, much better than the local Audi dealer if you live in southern Maryland. The only complaint I have is that they have no website, so it's a pain if I lose the phone number...

Now that I'm done giving kudo's to 4 T's automotive, I might as well get to the point. Since the place is a few miles away, mostly flat and sidewalk running, it's not a bad run. Not a great one, but not to shabby, especially if you take the back way out of Wildewood instead of going straight to rt 235. The length is the key though, its a solid 4.3 mile run, with some additional distance if you run out to rte 4 and then back, but mostly flat with some small elevation changes to give a great speed run after dropping off your car, or when picking it up. Again this is probably only useful to people who live in Wildewood in California, MD but hell if you're bored and want to drive on down...always welcome

Route
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5438646