Note: if you double click on any of the photos you will get an enlarged image and you will be transferred to the photo gallery where you can scroll through all the photos. You can return to the text anytime by going to the control bar at the top of the page where it shows: Travel Blog » Europe » Greece » Crete » Hersonissos » Blogs» Crete 2016.2 then click on Crete 2016.2. Sunday October 2nd to Wednesday 5th October: our second trip to Crete within 6 months (see previous Crete 2016 blogs) because our previous visit to Western Crete had been so enjoyable and scenic we want to see if the eastern end of the island is as good, and the people... read more

Thursday 16thJune: we decided on a short journey after the previous day’s stressful driving in Chania, so we headed to Kissamos just 30 minutes west of Agia Marina along the good quality National Road E65, then up in the hills behind the town aiming for the ancient site of Polyrinnia. As usual the satnav didn’t recognise Polyrinnia (in several different spellings) so we relied on finding a road in Kissamos that was signposted to somewhere that resembled Polyrinnia; which did. However, while road signs at road junctions to minor roads will show several villages which are in the same general direction, once one has taken the minor road and come to another junction only the next village along the road will be sign posted. So we basically followed our noses through a few villages unable to ... read more

Sunday 12thJune: a late start as we headed west to have a look at the beach at Elafonissi and hopefully an eco-resort called Milia up in the mountains on the way. I set the Garmin satnav for a town called Elos which was the only place listed on the satnav’s memory that was on our route (the multiple spellings of the Greek town names in English limits the satnav’s usefulness). All went fine until we were about halfway when we were directed off the main road up a narrow country lane through olive tree plantations up onto a ridge from where we could see the main road down below, and which we later rejoined. The only explanation seemed to be that the route the satnav had selected was marginally shorter than the main road, even though ... read more

Tuesday 7th June: an early start from the Crowne Plaza Hotel Birmingham NEC to catch our 8am flight to Chania Crete: fortunately the hotel was 5 minutes from the Airport so there was no problem arriving in good time to check-in and then have a quick breakfast before departure in a nice new, and reasonably comfortable, Boeing 737-800 for the 3 hour 30 minutes flight to Chania. Chania is a new airport (under construction since 2007, and still not completed) serving Western Crete, and it also doubles as a NATO airbase: something we were reminded about when two Greek Air Force F15 fighter jets took off thunderously as we were entering the Terminal. Then we had a comfortable 45 minute bus journey to our hotel in Agia Marina west of Chania followed by a fast and ... read more

Wednesday 12 January: Muttrah Port Muscat: after breakfast we got off the ship around 10.30am and left the port for a look around Muttrah Souq which was entertaining and then a quick look for the building that had housed the branch of Eastern Bank that I’d opened in August 1970: amazingly still there though the Bank is long gone. We took a taxi to “Old” Muscat to see what had happened to the Bank building there – where it stood is now the car park of a grandiose Government building. It seems as though most of the original town of Muscat (the area inside the walls) has been demolished and rebuilt as Government offices and ministries. We took an interesting tour around an old house that has been restored as a museum: had a look at ... read more