Rethymno and Chania


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January 9th 2009
Published: January 9th 2009
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Pat looking over the battlements of Rethymno Fortress
Thursday, 8th January, 2009.

A bright sunny morning. I took some pictures from the balcony as it looked so nice. Need to think about what we are doing today.

On another subject, the travelblog holds various information about how often it is viewed and all that sort of stuff. As at this morning, our travelblog has now been viewed on 1919 occasions.

We decided to spend some time looking around Rethymno.

So we left the hotel about ten and went for a coffee first at the Livingroom.

We then wandered the town looking in the shops, we bought some pastries at a shop for our breakfast. There are some differing architectural styles, the Venetians were here, as well as the Turks, who left their mark and a few minnaretts.

We went up to the Fortezza Fortress and looked around for a while. The headland the fort stands on, allows various views around the area, and overlooks a lot of the town.

The weather was wonderful and we were in T-Shirts. The fort covers quite an area and we enjoyed looking around.

Next door to the fort is an archaeolgical museum and we had
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The Fortress
a look around before heading down the hill and looking for somewhere for lunch.

We found a place just off the harbour, Helona and had a Pork Chop Special and a Beef Stifado, with a Greek Salad, €34.30.

We the strolled along the beach and along to the port area. There was a market that was just closing for the day. The port area was massive and largely empty space. There weren't too many boats and only one biggish one. Some pleasure boats tied up for the winter and one full size pirate ship called Captain Hook, obviously used as a party boat in the summer.

We continued along the beach, it stretched for quite a distance and we were never going o walk that far, but we ambled along for a while. The Hotels and apartments hug the coastline all the way along as well.

We then headed up into the town, to walk back a different way. The pavements are all new and the road in good condition, lots of good quality shops. Rethymno is quite a place.

We arrived back at the Hotel at four o'clock and took a well earned rest.
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The harbour area


We decided to have a Take Away Pizza from across the road. So we popped to the supermarket and bought a few things. Then got the Pizza, and back to the hotel.

Friday, 9th January, 2009.

Another bright start to the day.

We left the Hotel at ten thirty heading for Chania (pronounced Harnia), which is about sixty kilometers. Pat had a holiday in this area in May 2000, at a place called Kalives and this was signposted as we drove along, so we took a small deviation and drove this coastal town. Pat said that it hadn't changed that much in the nine year gap.

We went back up on the main road and into Chania, heading as usual for the Port area, to find somewhere to park. We ended up following signs for the Old Town, which took us down to the harbour and we found some pay parking, so lots of spaces. We arrived about eleven forty five.

Coffee was first priority and we found a cafe in the sun and sat outside. We had a filter coffee, a Nes coffee, some home made chocolate cake and walnut cake. The cakes
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The Old Town
were really good portions and warmed up. It was all scrummy, and we enjoyed watching the world go by.

We headed along the Harbour, which is heavily influenced by it's Venetian heritage. Then back through into the Old Town, which are narrow streets and alleyways, all very cute. You also notice the Turkish influence with a Mosque and Hamman, in various locations, and Arab script, in some things.

A fascinating place, with modern and old shops all around as well.

We wandered around and back down to the Harbour, found a cafe for a quick drink, and use of facilities. The toilets were quite amazing, and stylish new units in an old fashioned design.

We left about three thirty and headed away from the town. We passed by Souda Bay, and had noticed the War cemetery, so took a small detour.

The cemetery contained 1527 graves, the majority from WWII, and mainly around May / June 1941, when the Germans invaded the Island. A number of Nationalities, including British, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand.

The Cemetery is in very good order, so compliments again to the CWGC. It is situated directly on the coast,
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Commonwealth War Graves
at the end of the bay, so a wonderful location. I made a note of our visit in the visitors book.

A further note for this particular location, was for me this time. In October 2007, I was travelling on business on one of the Fred. Olsen cruise ships and a port of call was Souda Bay, Crete, just for the day. From the cemetery, I could see the location of the berth, and as we drove back, we passed by where I had walked that day.

The weather had clouded over and was a lot cooler here, but it improved as we got closer again to Rethymno.

We had to circle a few times for a parking space to clear, but one did no to far from the Hotel, so we parked and got back to the Hotel at four thirty.

Both of us have now found the place we had been to on Crete before, and Ironically, not to far apart, geographically.

Pat also thought she wasn't going to be visiting any more war grave cemeteries for a while, and certainly maybe not in Greece, but that was proved to be wrong.





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31st October 2009

Rethymno/Chania
Hi there, I came across your very interesting and informative article quite by accident whilst trying to calculate how far apart Rethymno and Chania are (pre holiday planning!!) and I wondered if you could recall the distance involved. You mentioned 60K but it was not clear as to what locations that was between. Grateful for a reply regard Richard O.

Tot: 0.397s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 53; dbt: 0.1189s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb