While millions of Greeks joined a strike Wednesday, and an estimated 100,000 protesters, including some with firebombs, marched outside our former hotel room, we rented a car this morning on Santorini, sort of a car, a tiny bright red Renault, squeezed in and took off on a daylong adventure around the island. By the time we reached Fira, 15 minutes of twisty turns later, everybody was carsick. But we recovered our legs in Fira, an incredibly beautiful tourist trap hanging over the steep cliffs of the caldera. You could see from all the cliffside bars that this would be quite the party place in midsummer.

Many of the tavernas, bars and hotels were still closed during our visit, but we passed one stunning view after another (photos will come later when we can get on the Internet on our computer). The general strike had closed the museums, but other than that, it was another day in paradise. Almost everywhere we walked around town, workers were remodeling houses and buildings, and most of them were using donkeys and burros to haul their concrete and other materials. This place is just a dream for a burro-buff like Charlotte.We had a traditional Greek lunch in a classy modern taverna called Zafora on the edge of the cliff. The food was good; we knew it was fresh because theyhad just opened for the season the day before. Will was fascinated by a bright yellow parakeet, so the waiter moved the cage over next to our table. The bird’s name was Donald, and Will dubbed his new friend “Donald the Love Bird.”

We left Fira and drove up the island to a black sand beach at Perissa. The black sand was dotted with pumice, it and the sand was from past volcanic eruptions. The litter, presumably, came from somewhere else, more recent. Will and I threw rocks and waded into the Mediterrean, which this time of year felt about the same temperature as the North Pacific. The sun was out, the winds had died down and it was a great afternoon on the beach.On our way back to Oia, we stopped at the Santos winery, the largest windery on the island, and sampled three of its white wines. (Santorini is famous throughout Greece for its wines; they grow the grapes in low basketlike circles of vines, tucking the grapes inside to protect them from the wind — the vineyards look like huge expanses of bird nests.)

The wines were all very good, even a dessert wine made from raisins that we weren’t sure about, and the tasting room had an incredible view (did we mention the views before?) across the caldera and towards Fira and Oia. We bought a bottle of white to share tonight, our last moments on this trip to Santorini, and a little bottle of the dessert wine to slip into our suitcase to take home to refresh our memories down the road. We kept thinking how everyone we knew would love this place.