Crete May 2011

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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 meal with drinks and coffees was part of the ticket price. We took off a few minutes late due to a minor technical problem, but with the flight only an hour or so, we seemed to be there in an instant.

Again with only 25 on the flight luggage didn't take long to came through, customs and immigration were also no issues.

Next stop was picking up our car hire which we had pre booked and there was a young girl waiting outside for us, off to the car park, a few minutes to complete the paperwork and we were off, on the wrong side of the road! We had also prebooked some accommodation for the first few nights in Malia and Pat directed and made sure I kept on the right (wrong) side of the road. We found our way to the hotel with only one small error.

Pat spotted a garage on the way and unleaded 95 is €1.77, it is €1.30 in Cyprus.

Hotel Neon is cheap and cheerful, we checked in and moved the car to the free parking down the road.

We decided on a quick reconnoitre of the immediate area around the Hotel and this is definitely the low end of the Holiday market.

We saw a supermarket and had a look around, Bombay Sapphire Gin size 70 cl was €24.30, in Cyprus it is €10.70 a litre.

First impressions are therefore that Crete has become expensive.

We stopped at a bar for a drink, The Rose & Crown, it had nice comfy seats two Gin & Tonics and two diet cokes €10.20, so not as bad as I was expecting.

Back to the Hotel and an uneventful night.

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