Blogs from Heraklion, Crete, Greece, Europe

We arrive at Crete airport and caught a taxi to our hotel. Fortunately the hotel was very close to the airport, so it only cost us €15. We checked in and spent the afternoon relaxing as we had been up since 2:30 that morning. That night we headed out to find some dinner, but because it was the equivalent of a Christmas Day holiday, nothing was open. We eventually found a small mini market that was open and got some food and made sandwiches for dinner. After a pretty unfulfilling dinner, we settled down for the night, ready for the next day. Tuesday arrived and we got up pretty late after a big day travelling the day before. By the time we were ready to go out, it was lunch time. So with that, we wandered ... read more

Off the boat and I met a nice Bulgarian lady who gave me directions. I found the motel without much hassle and settled in. The people at the Sun Hotel were very accommodating, and the owner was nothing short of amicable. I walked the beachfront and bought a few souvenirs. The next night I attended...well, I sat in on a Greek wedding. The waiter gave me Raki on the house. Thankfully I purchased a charge case for my IPhone, and I had enough power to record some of the wedding. Perhaps the most memorable event happened when the waiter proceeded to open one bottle of spirits at a time and pour one drink for each dancer that took the center of the room. When the dancer had swallowed the drink, he would take the bottle and ... read more

Sunday 15th May 2011 Our friends Pauline & Malcolm had very kindly offered us a lift to Larnaca airport - about a two hour journey from Pegeia - and they were picking us up at 1100. We did our final packing and closed the house down. The journey to the airport flashed past as we nattered in the car and the journey only took an hour and a half. Traffic was very light. We had some lunch at the airport before wishing Pauline and Malcolm a safe journey home. We checked in and went through to departures with no hassle. The flight was an Aegean A3 913 to Iraklion, Crete. It turned out that there were only about 25 people on the flight, I haven't been on an as empty plane for years. A pasta hot ... read more

Dear Friends, Due to the possible problems in Alexandrie (Egypt) we don't visit this city. In stead of Alexandrie are we sailing to Heraklion, the captitol of Crete and the fourth largest city of Greece. The weather is great. We don't go to the ruins of Knossos, but we visit the old city center today. To learn more about Heraklion, read the Wikipedia article here below. Thanks to Wikipedia Name The city was named Arabic rabḍ al-ḫandaq 'Castle of the Moat' in 824 AD. This was hellenized as Χάνδαξ (Handax) or Χάνδακας and Latinized as Candia, which was taken into other European languages: French Candie, English Candy, all of which could refer to all of Crete as well as to the city itself; the Ottoman form was Kandiye. Locally, it is often called Κάστρο (Kástro, "castle") ... read more

Took our lives into our own hand by driving up into the mountains. No road rules here at all,. double lines means nothing here, We had lunch at Sfinari - Captain Fidias (the local fisherman) cooked local fish for us all. Even tried goat souvlaki (never again). Continued driving through the mountains and drove through some very poor and isolated towns. Today we left our villa at 8.00am and drove (2 hours) to Knossos which is ancient Mineon ruins, (2500 BC), We had our own private tour guide for Euro 70 (ripped off) and learnt all about the Mineon era. After another relaxing lunch in Iraklion we walked to the Fort and the Port for coffee. Heading back to Platanias now to our usual destination - the supermarket for more beer and Ouzo (oh, and some ... read more

Tuesday, October 26 Karleen got up this morning, at eight with the rest of us (Chris had the mechanic come at eight to check out the motor) and announced that she was done with the boat, that the guys could take it down the coast, but we were driving. Ok. Actually, by the time I got up at eight, she had been up for a hour and was fully packed. So as to avoid a hasty decision, we put it off, went window shopping, got breakfast, toured the town a little bit. There is a gorgeous lake right in the middle of Old Town where the four of us had brunch. All of one side is overgrown cliffs and olive trees, with a tiny white chapel in the middle of the trees. Colourful boats are tied ... read more

Just over a week after arriving back from Sarajevo, I was off again to start an exciting two-week odyssey through Greece. The nature of living in London means that short weekend breaks are the name of the game - but as the places you can go for a short breaks start to decrease, and as thoughts of heading out on long trips start to increase, I find myself leaning towards more and more "extended" holidays. And so the trend has started in Crete. Following my usual rush to the airport (not helped by unplanned train cancellations - the fact I actually made it was a miracle) I arrived at the gate only to find out that easyJet were having trouble "locating their crew". One of the more amusing delays for a flight - not that I ... read more

Andrew was deeply disappointed to have missed out on swimming the previous day (a topic of much discussion during the hike) and was determined to get up early and swim as much as humanly possible before checkout time. Despite his request to be woken up at five, we allowed him to sleep in till 9 and then honored his request to be taken immediately to the ocean. John and Andrew enjoyed having the beach almost to themselves for an hour while Lauren and Sonia took it a bit easier. We all met up at the pool for a final swim, indulged in an ice-cream sundae at the in-pool bar, and then found the hot-tub in the hotel gym for a final bit of relaxation before checkout. We checked out promptly at the noon deadline and then ... read more