Across Crete - Chania to Heraklion

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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 had some lunch (having skipped breakfast in order to maximize swim time) at a nearby café. Then it was time to hit the road for the cross island trek to Heraklion (about 75 miles of winding coastal road). The trip offered incredible views of the sea and of the mountains. By now, John was used to the Greeks driving in the middle of the road and there were fewer screams of terror from either the front or back seat. The kids opted for watching a movie instead of the scenery, and were content with a relaxing day of sitting in the backseat. We were all a bit achy after the hike although John was quite pleasantly surprised to find that he was much better able to ascend and descend stairs than he had been the night before. After the challenges navigating to the hotel in Chania, we had carefully mapped out the route to our next destination - a small hotel in an old mansion about 10 miles south of the city of Heraklion in the small town of Agios Myronas. Exiting the main “national road” that runs along the north coast, we headed south on the Mires highway through rolling hills covered with a highly varied patchwork of vineyards, olive trees and other unidentified plantings. We located our turn and proceeded up a narrow road through switchbacks heading up into one of the agricultural areas. Staying as far as we could to the right and cautiously navigating the blind turns (dubbed “the dodgy part” by our hotel manager) we followed our directions easily to Vergis Epavlis, perched above a vineyard with sweeping views across the landcape. The afternoon manager brought us up to our suite which is the most outrageous place any of us have every stayed. The suite is enormous and lavishly furnished and decorated. Everything is exceptionally clean and appears to have been renovated within the last few months. We settled in and enjoyed the views from the multiple balconies and then headed down to complete our check in process. Yannis introduced us to the Dalmatian that lives on the property, pointed out an olive tree for us, and gave us suggestions of places to go and to eat, complete with detailed directions. He explained that the geometric patterns created by the plantings of olive trees and grapes that extend as far as the eye can see and cover at least a quarter of the island change each year as plots of land are bought and sold. By comparing the patterns from year to year, it is possible to see that whereas plots used to be subdivided as children and grandchildren inherited land from their parents, now plots are being aggregated as people opt not to farm and to sell off their plots to larger landowners. It was a windy afternoon and the pool was notably chilly, but Andrew was determined to swim so we headed down to the pool. The boys swam while the girls played boggle on the iPad. Still exhausted from the previous day’s hike, we headed to an early dinner in the small town of Agios Myronas. We are obviously tourists, but looking for dinner at 7:30 made us really stick out, since no one eats that early here. We located the family pub recommended by the hotel manager and sat on the roof terrace which overlooks the place we are staying and the hills beyond. The food was not exceptional, but seemed to be simple authentic local food. Lauren made friends with a stray cat that came looking for food and she named him “Bread” and declared him to be the best cat of the trip. We returned to our palatial suite early enough to unwind by watching the Simpsons before falling asleep.

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Photos

View of the Hills
Hillsides like this were visible in all directions - all with varied patterns of planting

Wahoo!
Cool winds necessitated a gutsy and abrupt entry into the pool

Goofing in the Pool
Andrew played a game where he would insult John until John became sufficiently irritated to dunk him

Bread
Lauren was surprised to hear that cats were carnivores and named this one "Bread" because he seemed to be happy with offerings of crusts

Offscale Suite
A view of just one of the rooms in our luxurious suite

Comments

[IAS]

Wow
That place is so *very* Greek! If it were Greek-American, all the furniture would be covered with protective plastic. :)