We got up early - at Kara's suggestion - so that we could walk down to the Old Port before going on our semi-private tour at 11:30 am .

So we got up at 7 am I think, took about a half hour to get ready, and then headed up to the main street in Fira where we saw signs for the steps to the Old Port. I guess we noticed as soon as we were on the steps going down the cliff in hairpin turns that this was the donkey trail too. Soon after starting, I heard a click click sound that was the banging of the shovel and dust pan of the man who was attempting to remove the larger pieces of donkey droppings. They also hosed down the steps - at least toward the top. After we passed the cleaning man, we encountered lots of donkey droppings. I knew that I smelled manure last night at dinner. The restaurant sort of overlooks the path down to the old port as it looks out over the crater. The view is just so stunning that you can't take your eyes off it.

Kara asked me if I heard the bells. I think I had but now I definitely noticed them. They were attached to the donkeys. The donkeys were being driven back down to the bottom of the steps to be ready for the tourists who wanted to ride them back up to Fira. The first time it was exciting to have the donkeys pass by. I took photos - we greeted the donkey man. The second time - the donkey man was less friendly - and there were more donkeys. I think both times we had been able to get off the steps to observe the passing of the donkeys. Lower down, with steps steeping in donkey droppings, we were stopped by a donkey blocking our downward progress ....as another group of donkeys was barrelling down the steps. I was beginning to panic. Kara was telling the donkeys to make room. So the new group was able to get past our donkey guard and thus so were we. Once at the bottom, we walked to both ends of the port area. It was hemmed in by cliffs. I bought some Santorini postcards and we headed for the cable car entrance. Riding the cable car up was fun - we got to see the caldera bay and Kara took a few selfies of us.

We had toyed with the idea of having breakfast at one of the cafes at the Old Port but then decided to come up and go to the waffle place for breakfast. They had a crepe special with fruit so I had that and Kara got a savory crepe with spinach and feta. Both were good.

I don't know whether our excursion took credit cards - good thing that I got more money out of the ATM because it didn't seem as if they did. We got back to our hotel and the man talked us into having some coffee which we did but I left Kara with her coffee so I could start gathering my stuff. We have had a bit of a problem getting all our electronics charged because we only have electricity in the room when we are in it. In any case, we were on time - waiting for our pick-up. When we went to the next hotel, the two other people who were on the tour with us weren't ready yet and we had to wait for them.   It turned out that they had been up until 4 am the previous night and didn't hear their alarm go off until 11:20 am. They turned out to be very nice - Janelle and Sam from Washington DC