Category: Crete

We booked a ridiculously late flight (11.20 pm) to give us an extra day, and we’re lucky there’s no-one staying after us.  So we’ve stayed on all day enjoying the sun and the views (take you’re pick from previous days – they haven’t changed!).

So down to our favourite restaurant for our final visit.

Talking to the owner (he’s standing up in the background above), we never found out his name but he told us he was born and lived in Mochlos all his life.  Didn’t say he would probably die here as well, but that seemed to be the general gist.

More views …

… and more food!

And even more cats!

And finally, only for those with a strong disposition …

Now just packing up – 3.00am estimated time of getting home …..

So to begin with, a lesson in the Cretan Highway Code (or not).  On the main single carriageway main road there is a hard shoulder/cycle lane or whatever, and double white lines in the middle of the road.  The solution to overtaking and not crossing the double white lines is to drive on the hard shoulder.  Everyone does it (see below and note we are doing it as well).  Seems to work until

– the hard shoulder stops without warning

– someone has broken down or just stopped

– someone is performing an identical manoeuvre coming the other way.

Anyway, it seems to work!

So, off to Knossos.  We had wondered about visiting on the way to the airport, but decided we needed a day out.  Quite a long drive, but nevertheless entertaining (see above!).

Knossos pretty much as expected.  Both of us had been before, decades ago, but no real recollection.

No idea who the bodyguard was!

As you can see, a beautiful day, and pretty quiet apart from a coach party of Russians.  We could see from the size of the car park how busy it could get in summer.

Not sure where he turned up from!

And a couple of examples of gorgeous colours.

Finally, couldn’t resist the sunset from our balcony.

For the past few days, the forecast for Thursday and Friday hadn’t been great, hence all the lazing around for the past few days.

So off to Agios Nikolaos which is meant to be really nice, but in reality is pretty large and not especially overwhelming.  But it does have shops, which we haven’t seen much of before.

Anyway, it has ac harbour …

… and a cafe for lunch.  Fairly rough cafe but, as ever, Cretan food was excellent and cheap.  Note you can’t see the mountains in the distance!

There is then a little story about Eileen going off to buy strawberries, which we will keep to ourselves.  We agreed it was definitely 50/50!

And then up into the mountains.  You can just about make out from the background that we’re pretty high up here.

And we liked the chess set.

To our destination, which was the Lassithi Plateau.  According to Wikipedia:

– it is 840 metres above sea-level, so almost as high as Snowdon

– it is one of the highest places in Europe to have a permanent population.

And it has a cafe …

… With views whilst having a coffee.  Pictures don’t really do it justice, although as its so high above sea level it was noticeably chilly.

And used to be famed for thousands of windmills, most of which are now gone.

Long drive back down, stopping for a quick picture

and home in time to watch the sunset from our balcony.

Bit of a Groundhog Day – sun, sitting on the terrace, not actually doing very much.  Eventually we did stir ourselves a bit and ventured out to Tholos – even quitter than our little village and not a huge amount to see.

Dinner in our favourite restaurant down by the harbour.  The sharp-eyed will notice we’re sitting at the back – in advance of the rain coming, which it did.

Food is really good, and genuinely cheap.  We’ve now worked out that with the bread, olives (Eileen only), the Greek Salad and a complimentary dessert, we only ever need a main course.  So rarely spending more than €25, and it is excellent.

Forecast for Thursday and Friday isn’t so good, so likely to be a lot more adventurous.

We liked the colour of this.

Finally, for the very few of you who were there, it is 40 years to the day (4th May 1976) since I set off on my gap year.  And I remembered!

I think it’s fair to say that there was not a lot of activity!

Lunch …

… all meals including a Greek Salad.

Dessert (strawberries and cream, since you ask).

More relaxing by the pool.  It looked as though a storm was coming, but it didn’t.

However, the forecast for Thursday and Friday aren’t brilliant, so may have to make an effort to do some sightseeing then.

A bit of a shock to wake up to rain.  Imagine the photos from yesterday, and add in a lot of grey and wet, and you get the picture.

So head off to a small, unassuming town called Sitia.  Very nice lunch by the harbour, and a bit of entertainment thrown in.

Still raining …

… so we set off for Vai – known as Palm Beach for obvious reasons.

And the sun came out so clambered up to the viewing point …

…. including proof that it was me …

… Whilst others stayed on the beach enjoying the sun and a coffee.

Woke up to a beautiful morning, with a rather nice view from our balcony.

Lazed around all morning until we ventured out after lunch.  Selfies are getting better – that’s our balcony in the background.

 

Walked through the village of Mochlos and out the other side.  That’s the village in the centre – two small shops and about 20 restaurants.

Then feeling very adventurous, so a drive up into the mountains.  The small island is the one we can see from the balcony.

Bit of an arty shot of the cliffs towards sunset.

And a spectacular, and very remote, Greek Church – the road to get there was much more suited to a 4×4 than our little Panda, but we made it.

Anyone know a decent IT contractor?  A scarily early start to get the 7.15 from Gatwick.  Unfortunately at around 6.30 all the departure screens went blank.  As a good sign of the times, thousands of people immediately checked their smartphones and found the correct departure gate.

But then they didn’t have a passenger and luggage list, so all luggage was offloaded, passengers went outside to identify their own (including, inexplicably, someone who seemed unaware of what was happening and had to be reminded 3 times), and off we went, 2 hours late.

With Crete 2 hours ahead of UK, arrived about 5.00.

Eileen has done it again …

The pool on top of the house …

… and the view.

Out for dinner – quite a nice venue …

… and we ordered far too much!

It’s Greek Orthodox Easter on Sunday, so bonfires and fireworks from our balcony.