Image courtesy of Readerwalker

As the eruption under the Eyjaflalla glacier in Iceland kept me on the ground yesterday, together with half a million other people in Europe, and I found myself confronted with the question of what to do with another evening in Cambridge. So I decided to give the Oak Bistro a try which is just a two-minutes walk from where I live but which so far had slipped my attention. The Bistro is located in a historic coaching inn at the corner of Regent Street and Lensfield Road. People sitting at one of the few tables in the front room can observe the busy life at the crossing. As an elderly lady with a hearing problem kept shouting at her company, I decided to take a table in the back of the bistro. The Oak features an eclectic menu with hints to a number of international cuisines. I started with some Shetland scallops which still had their coral attached, placed on a bed of a very nice, light, citric green salsa, accompanied by a Viognier Altas Cumbres Lujan de Cuyo from Argentina from 2008, a relatively light and crispy white wine. For main course, I choose to go for the wild mushroom risotto, which was good. The chef ignored my resentment against truffle oil but luckily used it very sparingly.With it, I had a Broken Rock Chenin Blanc from Coastal South Africa, again  2008. It held what the wine list promised.

I finished with a selection of cheeses, which was a mistake (three relatively large pieces of relatively boring cheeses), only to have reason to drink one of their desert whines, followed by a glass of Armagnac and Espresso.  Overall, it was a very delightful evening with good food and the Oak’s friendly and attentive staff.

Did I make my way home? Yes, I was able to get one of the few remaining Eurostar Tickets for the next day and took the train from London St. Pancras home to the Black Forest. Breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, dinner with your loved ones at home in south-west Germany. Life could be worse.

As a start, it was recommended to put on the dive suits in the center, before going on the jeep, driving 20 min to a different spot on the beach, getting on a very small rubber dinghy with a total of about 10 people and driving another half an hour to the first dive spot. I found this inconvenient. Everything was very crammed and it was certainly the least comfortable dive trip that we had since doing our Open Water certificate in Thailand. The first dive spot at the white island in the center of the caldera of Santorini was quite nice and relaxed. It was a wall dive of about 18 m depth and 45 min length. Visibility was very good.

The second one, however, wasn’t. Without proper briefing, the guide led the group into two caves, which is clearly a violation of good practice. People without training for dives without direct possiblity for ascend should not be led into such situations. Since I felt I had to follow my buddy, who had already entered the first cave, herself following the dive guide, I went into the first but refused to enter the second. The lunch break was too short and unpleasant due to the small, crammed boat.In this particular case, I have to say that I could have asked for these things beforehand and would probably still have gone on this tour if I had known before. It was our first dives since 2003 on Bali and since there are only two dive bases on Santorini (one was already closed), there was not much of a choice.
The dive trip was 60 Euro per person.
If I compare this with almost all other dive trips we had, food, space and guidance was not sufficient. The situation in the cave was nothing but dangerous and I therefore cannot recommend this center.

But let’s start with the good things. As probably all of the places in Oia looking towards the Caldera, the crater resulting from the disastrous outbreak of the Santorini volcano 1600 BC , the view is stunning. The suites are moderately spacy and the staff is friendly and tries to fulfil the wishes of the guest, as long as they are standard. And here is where the problems start. The communal areas of the hotel are all located around a small pool where also breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in small caves. If you don’t insist, the music is turned up to an unbearable level. If you ask for it to be turned down, your request is fulfilled and minutes later the level comes up again. You can do this three times and then the discussion starts. “It’s the policy of the hotel”, is the first answer to your “Why”. Further dispute ends with the typical “I only work here” and “Talk to the manger”.

So, you go back to your room – but only to find it as a victim of a chemical assault A so-called “air freshener” has been used by the room maid in such an amount that breathing get hard and asthmatic attacks follow. I thought this might have been an insect repellent used only on the first day but it wasn’t. After the room being “made up” in this way, it was not usable for more than three hours. Since the rooms are carved into the crater walls, air exchange through the small window in front is slow. We asked the room service to stop these assaults for the rest of our time being here, which worked.

Directly next to the potentially most private senior and superior suites in the hotel, there is the laundry and assembly point of the personnel, always accommodating a large enough number of people to create a constant stream of loud chatter in Greek and Russian, starting at 8 am in the morning. The place could be wonderfully quiet. Maybe this is again the policy of the hotel, so the guest do not feel too lonely here.

For a location where one is just supposed to relax in various places, this hotel is a total disaster. The only potential place to hide in silence and shadow is your room, which, again, is in the chatter range of the laundry personnel (not only our room, but a least a hand full). I can only recommend to avoid this hotel if possible.