Sun sets at Fira in Santorini July 2009 (c) Rachel Miller.

The town of Fira on a Santorini cliff edge July 2009 (c) Rachel Miller.

LIFE ON A VOLCANO
Coming from as inland as you can (in the world) - north Birmingham - I am always fascinated by the exoticism of seaside towns. Even Grimsby and Cleethorpes astound me sometimes but this was magnificent. The sunset at Fira on Santorini in the Greek Cyclades happens over an extinct volcano. We sat and watched it on land that had been blown apart by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions over a million years ago. The mass of earth which had joined the present island with volcano island was sunk below the sea in 1650BC leaving Santorini out on its own, hewn precariously from craggy cliff edges striped with red, black and white rock. Bit more dramatic than Blackpool beach.