After a couple days of rest and meeting family, we went to watch a bullfight in San Lucar de Barrameda, near Chipiona. I had never been to one, so I was anxious to see what it was like. Tickets were a bit more expensive than we expected, at 35 Euros each... for almost the cheapest seats. After a brief wait, during which we watched the horses and bull out back, and move further from the band that was right behind us, it began. First an announcer came out to announce the fight and introduce the judge (I think), then the three [View Full Entry]

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Everything worked out today. We woke up by 5am and were ready for the taxi (12 Euros) when it arrived at 5:30am. Got to the airport ontime and they didn´t even weigh our luggage, much less our backpacks. Phew... since we were surely over the 20 kilos per bag and/or 6 kilos per carry on. The young man in front of us had two bags, so the lady weighed them and at 34 kilos, he was told he owed 138 Euros extra! We arrrived in Athens and boarded our ontime flight to Madrid. They served a decent brunch of cream and [View Full Entry]

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We got up early to catch an early bus to Knossos. We caught the bus at Liberty Square (Plata Venizelou) at about 8am. It was a city bus, cost 1.15 Euros each, and became quite crowded. Knossos is right on the outskirts of Iraklio, so you don't realize you're there until the driver yells "Knossos". The entry fee was 6 Euros each. Knossos is quite extensive, fairly well excavated, and partially restored. The columns and frescoes were really cool! The crowds of mostly tours were annoying. There is a stone replica (?) of a bull's horns large enough to sit between [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the town square to wait for our minibus for the tour at 9:30am, to be safe. When they finally showed up at 10:35, we'd been worried for a while. Along with us, the driver, and the guide, there were 7 other people, all from Australia, and all apparently... well heeled, as one couple told us they came from Australia on their yacht! We rode up into the White Mountains above Kalives a bit to a town called Mahteri. Here we stopped at an old house where we met our chef and hostess. After a brief tour of the [View Full Entry]

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Mr. Tountas took us up to the bus stop on the National Road to catch our bus to Iraklio (Heraklion). We thought the bus would come before 10am, so when a bus showing "Iraklio" stopped, we started to board, but the driver's assistant saw our tickets and told us "No, wrong bus line. Next one in 10 minutes." I was under the impression there was only one bus line on Crete, KTEL, but we waited and sure enough another came in 15 minutes. Arriving in Iraklio at 12:15, we decided to take a taxi to our hotel, Pension/Hotel Rea, for 7 [View Full Entry]

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Being our 34th anniversary, we wanted things to go well. I'd kept Manoli from knowing about my special Taste of Crete cooking class until today, just telling her that we were going to be busy Tuesday. While we waited for the 7:15am bus to Hania, I filled her in. More on that tomorrow. We needed to catch this bus to Hania and hope it wasn't too late to catch the 8:30 bus from Hania to Omalos and the Samaria Gorge. Well, when the bus finally arrived at 7:45am, I was doubtful. Happily, we made it to the Hania bus station by [View Full Entry]

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We woke up in plenty of time for the bus at 7:15am, but again, the bus was a no-show. We decided instead to rent a vespa scooter for the day and try to find the U.S. Navy base near Souda, with the hope of sending some excess weight home. We did find the base, hidden away on the other side of the Chania airport, but unfortunately, they wouldn't let us on since we weren't on the access list. We continued on to Hania and strolled around the old Venetian harbor and gift shops, having capuccinos at the Teraza Cafe. The harbor [View Full Entry]

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After capuccinos (not very good, but we'll have our own coffee tomorrow), we got the lowdown from Philia Tountas and paid the bill, 130 Euros for 5 nights... what a bargain! We decided to take the bus into Chania for the day, but after strolling thru Kalives (a very quaint seaside village with a nice beach), we waited for the bus, but it didn't come. Instead, we finished browsing the stores in Kalives and had lunch at Zolabas Taverna, where we had dikos (rusk toast with diced tomatoes and feta cheese), Manoli had tomato vegetable soup and I had feta stuffed [View Full Entry]

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We walked down to the old port to board our boat for the tour. What a climb down! I was dreading climbing back up after the tour. The boat was like a small tow-0master schooner, but they used engines instead. We sailed out to the volcano's island cone. Apparently the cone has changed at least two or three times since the initial eruption in 15,000BC, with the last eruption in 1950. We hiked up and over the island to see the two cones. One is still live, with steam coming out of serveral vents. After walking back down, we boarded a [View Full Entry]

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After packing and leaving our luggage in the office, we walked up to Fira for our last chance to shop and see the view. We ate lunch at Restaurant The Greeks, having a Santorini Special Plate consisting of mashed fava beans, feta cheese, fried tomato balls, potato omelet, and a tomato and cheese spread. It was getting close to our 2:30pm trip to the new port to catch our catamarn to Crete, so we headed back to the hotel to wait. Again, Villa Manos was a great place to stay...very clean, friendly staff, and a great price. The ride down to [View Full Entry]

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