2022 – Mid May – Exploring Greece – The Islands: Crete

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Koules Fortress

Our flight to Heraklion, Crete leaves at 1130 AM from the Athens international airport.  We start our drive from Corinth, about 50 miles away.  Personally, I am concerned of having to drive through Athens, the airport is literally on the opposite side of town.  The only thing we have going for us is that it is Sunday, hopefully Athenians will still be in bed, or at least not on the road.

Our road trip goes surprising well.  Very little traffic.  We turn in our rental car making our way to check in.  Even this early we notice the flight is announced to be 15 minutes late.

Everything goes well, with the exception of boarding; first a mad rush to the gate, followed by a mad rush to the bus, then on to the plane.  The flight is an hour, opposed to a 12-hour car ferry ride.  While on the plane I do my best to calculate the cost and gas mileage of our car.  Several conversions are needed: liters to gallons, kilometers to miles and Euros to dollars.  In the end we drove over 1,200 miles, averaged 39 miles/gallon, spending $250.51 on 30.9 gallons of gas.  By the way, fuel averaged out to $8.10 per gallon.  It makes $3.39, our cost of gas today, seem inexpensive.

Heraklion

Arriving in Heraklion we pick up another rental car.  Much like the other cities, roads and parking spots are full.  Fortunately, the hotel has parking spots set aside for guests, we quickly snatch the last one.  Once checked in, we squeeze into the elevator to the fourth floor.  There is just enough room for the two of us and our carry-ons.  Our room overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.  More indescribable blue sea is outside our balcony.  The next land north is a long way away, so the water is a bit rougher than the other places we have visited.  Looking west we see Crete rising out of the sea; east we see Koules, the Venetian fort guarding the harbor.

Koules at night

After emptying our carry-ons, we head out to see the town and have lunch.  We notice menu items change depending on our location.  We order fish soup, beets and oven roasted feta cheese with tomatoes and peppers.  All are quite tasty.  We stop to visit the Venetian fortress right across the street.  It was constructed during the 16^th century and like the others we have visited, it has massively thick walls, walls facing the sea are up to 29’ thick.

We stroll along the harbor seeing many types of boats.  The yachts here are large.  On the far side of the harbor, we see large ferries used to transport people and vehicles between the islands and mainland.

Closed to vehicular traffic, we follow the main street into the center of town.  Shops, restaurants, cafes and bars surround us.  Families are out for their afternoon stroll.  In the large open squares in front of churches kids run back and forth; moms and dads are helping their kids ride their bikes, kicking soccer balls, or just enjoying their time together.  We continue on, one church has a large audience inside and out, with the priests’ voice carrying outside for all to hear.  Finding a bakery with gluten free options is a hard task, but some do exist.  Finding one, we order chocolate cake, and two types of hot chocolate.  We relax at a table facing the street and watch the world go by.  We notice many Orthodox priests and bishops passing by all going in the direction of the church we had just visited.  Thinking nothing of it we finish our dessert and continue exploring the old part of town.  On the way back to our room we order Greek gyros for takeout.

While waiting, we hear a brass band tuning up then starting to play, they form a procession, marching right past us along with orthodox priests, bishops, military guards and parishioners.  The military acts as an escort for a few of the priests bearing the church's sacred icon.  They proceed down the street to the harbor where they reassemble then proceed back up the street.  Scent of the burning incense is overpowering.  Speaking with our waiter, we find out that the procession is to celebrate St. Titos, patron saint of Heraklion.  We finish the day enjoying the gyros on our balcony watching the sunset over the sea.  As the sky darkens the fortress is lit up.  We pull out our cameras for another photo op.

The next day we have breakfast in the hotel striking up a conversation with the owner.  He was ready to retire but Covid has put that on hold.  Our topics are all over the place, an hour later he heads off for some important call, we head off to the public bus station for a ride to Knossos.

Knossos

The palaces we see at Knossos date to 2,000 BC, the Minoan civilization.  Knossos is also considered to be Europe’s oldest city.  Further excavations in the area reveal Neolithic people inhabited the area as early as 7,000 BC.  The Minoan civilization flourished until around 1,370 BC.  It is believed that the Mycenean civilization came in overrunning the Minoans.  Actual details as to what really happened are still up for debate.

King's throne

We picked up a self-guided tour with a tablet which shows what historians believe the site looked like at that time.  The site was occupied from 7,000 to 1,400 BC, before the civilizations’ decline.  The actual site is a partial reconstruction by archeologists incorporating their interpretation of what they found.  The palace had 1,300 rooms with the total area occupying approximately 6 acres.  Some of the original frescos, over 4,000 years old are still on-site.  Fresco is a technique of painting on moist plaster with colors ground up in a water or limestone mixture.  Large storerooms contain dozens of pithoi, large clay containers.  They were used to store oil, grains, dried fish, beans and olives.  The site is truly remarkable considering it is over 4,000 years old.

Pithoi storage pits

Pithoi

Part of the palace

Gold jewelry - bees

Next, we visit the Heraklion Archeological Museum.  In it are artifacts dating between 7,000 and 2,000 BC.  We see tools, everyday kitchen ware, dinner ware, jewelry, toys, funeral items and statues.  The pottery and sculptures workmanship is impressive.  We stop by the harbor for more photos before heading out for a dinner of stuffed grape leaves, Greek salad, grilled calamari and octopus.

Jewelry

Phaistos Disc

Chania

Road to Chania

The next morning, we pack the car for a road trip to Chania.  Unlike our driving experience on the mainland, Cretan drivers seem to adhere to the speed limit making driving pleasant.  We follow along the north shore of Crete to Chania.  Looking South the White Mountains appear, with peaks between 7,000’ and 8,000’, some are topped with snow.

Chania

Chania is packed with cars.  The apartment we are staying in does not have spots for their renters.  We start out parking two blocks away but a few hours later we are able to move the car across the street from our room.  The apartment faces the inside of the fortress wall which surrounds the old city of Chania.  On the second floor we are just able to see above the wall.  

Backstreet in Chania

Like the other fortress walls, we have seen, it is thick, tens of feet.  This one is covered with shrubs and thick grass, when I made the reservation, I thought we were facing a park from the photos, not the top of a fortress wall.

Returning to the front desk we make reservations for a bus ride/tour of the Samaria Gorge hike on the southern part of the island for tomorrow.  We want tomorrow because the weather forecast for the following day is rain.  Once back in the room we put the clothes washer to use, then take off for a two-block walk to the harbor and lunch.  We spot a small restaurant advertising vegetarian and vegan food, more importantly gluten free food.  Sitting down, the chef appears telling us what’s on the menu.  He returns with a few samples as we order.  We start with soups, lentil and chickpea.  For the main meal Nicida has stuffed peppers and I have vegetarian moussaka.  Both meals are outstanding.

Getting ready

The harbor is protected by a long wall with only one opening.  In order to see the sea beyond, one has to walk along or on top of the wall or walk through town to the harbor entrance.  The harbor is beautiful with all types of boats.  With the water so calm we pull out our cameras working to capture photos with the best reflections.  Restaurants and cafes line the harbor.  They are full of diners.  One block in from the harbor, tourist shops sell all types of goods.  We head back early getting our stuff ready for a 415 wake up for a 600 rendezvous with a bus.

Early evening on the port

The sky is barely glowing red at 415.  The sky is clear, as forecast.  After our bowl of homemade oatmeal prepared on a hotplate, we gather our final things.  Just then power in the room goes off plunging us into darkness.  I have my phone handy, so I use its' flashlight to find my way to the breaker box.  I try several combinations of turning breakers off and on.  We manage to get some of the circuits working, not all, but just enough for us to get everything together for the day.

Road to Samaria Gorge

A small van picks up five of us, the other family being from Canada.  In total there are ten of us which are dropped off at a full-size bus.  50 of us are going hiking today.  On the way we determine that my assumption of a 10 km hike (6 miles) is instead a 10-mile hike (16 km).  I didn’t slide a decimal; I used the wrong units.  We have to reset our thinking adding another four miles to our hike.  We have done six miles before, not 10.  Fortunately, it’s all downhill.  It takes an hour of riding through winding roads and mountain vistas before we stop for a rest break before entering the park.  It’s cool, about 50° and sunny.  Our guide fills us with information, primarily the latest time we should be by each checkpoint, so we make it to the port in time, to catch the boat to another town, with a road, where we catch the bus for our ride back to Chania.  The trailhead is at 4,200’ elevation with the end at sea level, 10 miles away.

Start of the trail

We start our hike around 830, before many other buses show up.  Even with most of the hikers behind us we still are passing and are being passed by other hikers.  The first mile is steep, with many loose rocks to deal with.  It is also tree lined making our hike cooler.  Within the first half hour we remove our heavier jackets stowing them in our packs.  We only briefly stop for photos not wanting to have to pass the slower hikers we had passed earlier on the trail.  After a while we are all spread out so we can enjoy the hike a bit more. Somewhere after the first mile we meet the river at the bottom of the gorge.  Rocks are strategically placed in the river allowing us to cross without getting our feet wet.  In all, we cross the river over 30 times.  Further down the gorge the river gets wider, instead of the rocks, small tree limbs are wired together on metal brackets forming bridges.

Narrow point of gorge

We arrive over an hour ahead of the appointed schedule, so we feel good about making our final destination.  We stop for ‘lunch’; a few handfuls of nuts and two protein bars we usually eat as a snack while hiking.  We are not sore, but we are only about halfway to our destination.  We refill our water bottles with the spring water and press on.  The gorge narrows considerably at this point.  The narrowest point is 10’ wide before opening again.

Drastic rock movement

The geology changes at this point of the gorge.  We see layers of rock laying horizontal for some distance then it tilts at a different angle.  In some spots we see the layers turn at 90°angles.  As the walls get higher the wind picks up at the bottom of the gorge.  

One of the bridges

We continue our zig zagging across the river having to pick the rocks or bridges to cross on.  As we continue on, we fall in with a group of hikers that are all keeping the same pace.  We are all quieter now.  I assume it’s because we have to concentrate a bit more on making it to the end.  At least I have to.  

Just past the 12 km sign we come to the end of the park.  From there we have another 2+ km to go before arriving at the town on the coast.  We stop and visit with one of the couples we have been hiking with the last several km.  They are from Hungary and are impressed we hiked at the same pace even with our fanny packs and cameras on our hips.  They were even more impressed when Nicida mentions her age.  We make it to the restaurant between 4 ½ and 5 hours from our departure.  We are aching a bit, toes, ankles, knees, hips, backs.  It feels good to sit down and we forget about the aches when the food arrives.  We enjoy salad, sardines, octopus, stuffed grape leaves and a plate of roasted vegetables.  Looking at the time we are still over two hours before we pick up the tickets for the boat.  We get up from the chairs, very slowly, our muscles have stiffened up.  We waddle along the first several steps until things loosen up enough for us to move normally.  We walk around a bit stopping for tea at another restaurant then dessert at another.  We are not interested in swimming.  The beaches look rocky and more importantly we don’t see a place to change into and out of our swimsuits.

Finally, the boat arrives, we grab a seat at the back joining our hiking buddies from Hungary.  We visit, trading stories about our travels, learning that Croatia is a great place to go.  We will have to add that to our list.  After a 45-minute boat ride we disembark then make our way to the bus for a 90-minute ride back to Chania.  The landscape of the White Mountains is breathtaking.  We climb out of one valley to the next, seeing nothing but open space dotted with a few houses in between.  We leave the big bus taking the small van back to our stop then walking the block back to our apartment.  We pick up some takeout souvlaki eating it at home in the comfort of our room.  Tomorrow is a day of rest.

The next morning, we wake to howling wind and driving rain.  The weather forecast was right.  I would not want to be hiking that trail today.  We take it easy all morning finally leaving the apartment around noon looking for lunch.  We stop at the same gluten free restaurant ordering pastitsio, fava beans, and roasted eggplant.  We enjoy our lunch, then decide to walk back to the harbor.  The winds are still blowing hard.  The waves are crashing outside the wall protecting the harbor with some making it into the harbor through a 10’ gap in the wall.  One has to time when to cross the wall.  Picking the wrong time means getting rained on by the spray from one of the crashing waves.  We ended our day with a bit of tourist shopping, looking for small stuff that we can squeeze into our bags.

We wake at 7, have our oatmeal, pack the car and start the return trip to Heraklion.  The rain has stopped but the wind is still blowing hard.  Driving back, we see heavy waves crashing the coast along our entire drive.  We find our hotel, even a close-by parking spot.  We leave our bags at the hotel and return the car.  The last mile before we drop off the car, we almost clipped a motorcycle doing over 50 as we enter the intersection.  Crete is our last destination for driving, from now on we will be taking boats or letting someone else drive.

Once we are checked back into the room we search for a place for lunch.  After lunch we find a place for some ice cream then retire for the day.  Tomorrow Santorini.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark