Day 101 to 110 Ten days in Crete (or the Zorba challenge)

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We had planned our itinerary to include a 10 day break in Crete to meet up with Megan and her friend. Unfortunately for various reasons Meg was unable to join us, naturally we were very disappointed. However, we decided to make use of the apartments booked in two locations, Gournes in the North East and Rethymno in the North west .

Crete was surprisingly cooler than the main land with an ‘unusually high wind’... according to the holiday rep. (We later found that the wind here is quite common in August, known as the Meltemi). It was the first ‘weather’ we had encountered for several months, and we had a balcony overlooking the sea in our first apartment, which was just great for watching the waves and sunsets.
Our routine of sightseeing included Knossos Palace- a Minoan (450BC) site quite incredibly size and partly restored by an eccentric Englishman, and Lassithi Plateau- a remote set of lush pastureland, villages and windmills. We als we originally planned to sale the wo got to do some great body surfing in the waves, and Kim sang at the karaoke!

The second apartment was set in a busier area, lots of shops and eateries. A short bus ride to Rethymno showed us the old town of cobbled narrow streets and lively shops, a wide harbour, and Venetian fortress. My favourite town on Crete was Hania which had a beautiful Venetian small harbour, and Kim and I found ‘the tarverna with potential’ in a most unlikely location!

After both of us reading Zorba the Greek (set on Crete) we enjoyed trying to fit the book to the island. The closest we came was to find Stavros beach used in the film (starring Anthony Quinn), but I couldn’t persuade Kim to dance in the photos!

It was good to take a rest from the Bongo sleep on beds, and lounge beside the pool, but we did not rest for long. We sought out the best beaches on the south of the island such as Perveli ,which has a fresh water river and palm trees. We visited the Arkadiou Monastry which had a beautiful facade and a horrific history (in 1866 the whole village and monastery blew themselves up along with several thousand invading Turks). Lastly we nearly killed ourselves walking 12 long and difficult miles through the Samaria Gorge...but two days later after seeing the photos we decided it had been worth it!

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Photos

Samaria Gorge
A hot, humid and painful 12 miles-but worth it!

Leaving Pireus Harbour
one of the largest passenger ports in the world

Open Air Cinema
We watched with about 12 other people the 10.30 showing of 'super eight'