Blogs from Heraklion, Crete, Greece, Europe - page 4

Dear Friends, Due to the possible problems in Alexandrie (Egypt) we don't visit this city. In stead of Alexandrie are we sailing to Heraklion, the captitol of Crete and the fourth largest city of Greece. The weather is great. We don't go to the ruins of Knossos, but we visit the old city center today. To learn more about Heraklion, read the Wikipedia article here below. Thanks to Wikipedia Name The city was named Arabic rabḍ al-ḫandaq 'Castle of the Moat' in 824 AD. This was hellenized as Χάνδαξ (Handax) or Χάνδακας and Latinized as Candia, which was taken into other European languages: French Candie, English Candy, all of which could refer to all of Crete as well as to the city itself; the Ottoman form was Kandiye. Locally, it is often called Κάστρο (Kástro, "castle") ... read more

Tuesday, October 26 Karleen got up this morning, at eight with the rest of us (Chris had the mechanic come at eight to check out the motor) and announced that she was done with the boat, that the guys could take it down the coast, but we were driving. Ok. Actually, by the time I got up at eight, she had been up for a hour and was fully packed. So as to avoid a hasty decision, we put it off, went window shopping, got breakfast, toured the town a little bit. There is a gorgeous lake right in the middle of Old Town where the four of us had brunch. All of one side is overgrown cliffs and olive trees, with a tiny white chapel in the middle of the trees. Colourful boats are tied ... read more

Just over a week after arriving back from Sarajevo, I was off again to start an exciting two-week odyssey through Greece. The nature of living in London means that short weekend breaks are the name of the game - but as the places you can go for a short breaks start to decrease, and as thoughts of heading out on long trips start to increase, I find myself leaning towards more and more "extended" holidays. And so the trend has started in Crete. Following my usual rush to the airport (not helped by unplanned train cancellations - the fact I actually made it was a miracle) I arrived at the gate only to find out that easyJet were having trouble "locating their crew". One of the more amusing delays for a flight - not that I ... read more

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 ... read more

IRAKLION Day 63 I did not sleep well last night and quickly realized it was due to some flu or stomach bug. So I was stuck in bed for most of the day. I ventured out because I needed cash from the bank, which unfortunately can only be found in town. So I had to wait 1.5hours for the bus and then run it into town to get cash and then back to the hotel. I couldn’t eat anything the whole day as it wasn’t staying down. I must be pretty healthy because I don’t feel too sick. I have lots of energy and if it wasn’t for the need to be close to a bathroom to puke (I know gross… I apologize) I would have ventured out to the beach. Not to mention that ... read more