The Lassithi Plateau

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The journey up into the mountains in eastern crete to The Plateau of Lisithi was a fun journey in our little car who we have named Georgeo ( He is a Fiat Cinquecento )..... frankly, so long as the brakes were OK, we were'nt too bothered... the hairpins and the drops down the sides were a bit scary.
The Lasithi Plateau is a large flat area, well, , well, a plateau really, high up in the mountains. You can see the plateau from all sides, its cultivated with orchards.... apples, orange, lemon and lime, pomegranites too.
Its famous for its windmills.... there used to be around 24,000 in times gone by, now there are only about 5000 of them left. It is also the birth place of Zeus, in a cave where his mother hid him away from his offspring gobbling father, Cronos. Quite why he wanted to eat his children is beyond me, but John thinks he probably didnt want to give up his authority to them, although later on of course, Zeus became king of the gods, so he lost it anyway.
There are 3 ways to hike up to the cave - a steep clamber up rocky paths under the shade of trees, which we took, a paved path in the hot sun ( we came down that way) and the third..... by donkey. Now I love donkeys... they have such nice sad faces that make me want to take them home and give them happy lives, so there was no way I would subject one to climbing all that way up there with me on its back. And John, well, his legs would touch the ground on either side, thus making it a 6 legged beast, which might or might not be advantageous to the donkey. The cave itself was huge and like walking into a fridge.... gloriously cold after our hot climb. We climbed down the steps to see all the rock formations and stalegtites and mites..... during the centuries, the cave has been used by various religions for a place of worship.
Our room for the night was at Maria's hotel, in a wonderfully authentic setting in Psychro, also a typically Greek mountain village. There was some celebrations going off in the streets, clapping, singing and fireworks... not sure what it was all about, but nice to watch for a few minutes as we wandered through the narrow streets. Our evening meal back at Maria's place was wonderful. She took us into the kitchen and showed us what she had got bubbling away on the stove.... there was a lentil soup and a vegetarian casserole, so we had some of both, washed down with some beer and local wine. Delish.
I wish I could say that I slept well that night, having had a full day of driving, hiking and good food and wine.... but I thing a park bench might have equalled the softness of my bed. Oh well, life cant always be perfect.
Tomorrow.... Aghios Nicolaus.

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Photos

Caves of Dikti
The birth place of Zeus

Comments

[Deirdre]

Hi
Love the go faster haircut John! Glad you arfe having a nice time - wish I was playing gooseberry with you!. And will be even more jealous when you do S E Asia - particularly Thailand. Anyway I keep doing the lottery!