First time in Crete...

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Crete has been for a while on my wish-list....for two main reasons....to visit the Palace of Knossos, and to stay in the European hotel who first introduced the concept of private pools for a large number of rooms. I admit, there is a lot more than this to Crete, and I may have to come in the coming few years.



We stay two nights only in Crete, the first one at what is supposed to be the impressive Elounda Blue Palace in Elounda, and the second night in the capital of Crete right in Heraklion. Little upgrade with Europ Car as we ended with a convertible. Would have been wonderful if they didn't actually gave me a dump! Just before going back to Heraklion from Elounda, I found out that the water tank was punctured...thi is basically the best way to explode a car engine. Good news found it on time and just got a 2 euros liquid bottle to get us back safely to Heraklion.



The drive to Elounda is pretty uneventful...so not a lot to write about this...just that driving with a convertible, even a dump, is always fun! We stopped in Agio Nikolaos for some supplies shopping, as yes, Crete produce some serious wines! We reached the Blue Palace just on time for lunch. It was fun to bump in Jean-Francois Coppe on his way out. You will only understand if you are French, rather irrelevant if not.



The Elounda Blue Palace is to my knowledge the first hotel in Europe to have introduced private swimming pools to a decent number of the rooms in Europe. You find those hotels everywhere in Asia, but this is still something special in Europe. Well, I would be on for some serious disappointment. Yes we got the upgrade to a suite with private swimming pool. But I would rather call this a room with a swimming pool, as it has strictly nothing of private. We have landed in a posh and snob hotel without much of a soul, and with seriously inefficient staff! So from here, not going to be easy to write a nice review of such a place!



The easiest way is to have a look at the pictures. I have to admit, even if service was really down most of the time, the dinner at their Greek restaurant was a pretty nice affair. Next morning, I was on for diving. They have a dive center right in the hotel, but it is operated by an independent company....Greece would be my 51st country when it comes to diving. I had a nice talk with the diver master...ok, so visibility is nice, and there is not much fish around....welcome to Crete! At 80 euros a dive including equipment, guess one dive is more than enough for me! It's actually the first time I see a DM feeding fishes just to make sure we had some around us. Well, there is baited dives for sharks...here, the biggest we saw were few feeding groupers...and a very shy octopus!



It was already time to drive back to Heraklion. Staying in a pretty cute hotel right downtown. Didn't get to late to Heraklion, as I wanted to spend some time visiting the Palace of Knossos few kilometers out of the city! The place is simply huge. We didn't find the Minotaur, but Knossos is a real must do in Europe. Thinking that this place reached his apotheosis some 3000 years ago, it's just impressive!



It was already time for a last dinner in Crete, for once, in a non-tourist place, and next morning...early rise! This morning, no plane, but the ferry to a mythic island north....just over two hours of a super fast and super powerful ferry surrounded by Russian day-trippers...not my cup of tea... but next stop is one of these unique places on earth...even with the crowds!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Crete
We were in Crete in 2003 and had a marvelous time. We'd love to go back. Thanks for the memories.