Villa from the olive orchard
The Villa
View from the Villa
Villa pool
As usual, click on the picture for a bigger version.
It was a crazy start to our honeymoon. We'd gotten married on September 13, in western Massachusetts, on a farm just outside of Great Barrington. After returning to LA from the wedding on Sept 16, in addition to unpacking and re-packing, Danny had to get his final signatures on his thesis and format it so it could be turned in. That happened, and we left for Phoenix on Sept 18, dropped off Maka (the dog) with my parents, and flew to Chicago. We overnighted there, then flew to London, and overnighted again. The next day, we flew to Athens and then took one more flight to Chania, Crete.
Even then, our journey wasn't done. We waited (and waited) for our rental car to show up, and then drove through the city to get to the "New Road". By this time it was getting dark, and after getting a bit lost, we finally made it out past Platanias where we met the owner of the villa we'd rented - under a bridge(!) - so he could direct us on the final mile of the route. When we finally arrived, it was late on Sunday, Sept 21st.
The villa was wonderful - a very secluded two story house built in the middle of an old olive orchard. The house sat on a slight rise, and you could see over the olive trees all the way to the ocean. Fantastic! There was also a beautiful (but very cold) pool, which had the same spectacular views.
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Villa from the olive orchard |
The Villa |
View from the Villa |
Villa pool |
The roads on Crete bear some describing. The "New Road", which is the main highway along the northern edge of the island is 1 1/2 lanes each way. I say that because, like the truck pictured below, people typically drive at full speed straddling the shoulder line. It makes sense in that it made passing very easy, but it felt a little strange. The inner part of the island is very mountainous, and those roads are quite windy. You don't drive on the shoulder on the mountainous roads, since there often isn't one.
 The New Road |
 Road to the Lassithi Plateau |
One day, we drove to the Lassithi Plateau. On the way there, we came across a strange tourist attraction. I'm not sure how humans evolved from caves on the moon, and we didn't contribute to the lunacy by paying to find find out. The Lassithi Plateau is famous for its windmills, of which the Venetians built 10,000 to irrigate the plateau.
The other thing we went there to see was the Cave of Psychro. In addition to being a very important cult site in the Minoan culture for a very long time, it's a possible match for the Diktaian Cave of Greek mythology, which was one of the places claimed to be the secret nursery of Zeus. The cave is a short walk up a steep hill, but there are donkeys which you can ride if you don't want to climb it yourself. On the way down from the cave, we saw the at the donkeys were well trained - the handler just lets them loose at the top, and they follow the path down to the other handler at the bottom.
 Homo-Sapiens Museum |
 Lassithi Plateau |
 Entering Psychro Cave |
 Nice formations |
 Smart donkey |
One of the biggest attractions on Crete is the Palace of Knossos. The excavation of the palace and ground was controversial, since it was privately purchased by Sir Arthur Evans, and the excavations involved extensive recreations of what Evans thought the place was like. In addition to the recreated ruins, we saw a cute litter of puppies. We didn't bring any new pets home this time though.
 Knossos puppies |
 Palace of Knossos |
 Throne Room |
 Dolphin Room |
Crete also has a number of amazing beaches. While the one pictured below is lacking the sand to put it into the spectacular category, it was still beautiful, and low enough on the totem pole that we had the place to ourselves for at least a football field on either side. The nearby town of Kolumvari was practically deserted. We had a row of restaurants to choose from, and they were all empty. Platanias, just four miles down the road was bustling with tourists. This was the peak of the fuel shortage though, so maybe that had something to do with it. While we were on Crete, the customs workers all over Greece went on strike, which prevented the import of any goods into the country. Reportedly, there were trucks stacked up for miles on the northern borders. This wasn't a problem for food, at least not in the short term, but it was a big problem for gas, since there weren't much in the way of storage depots on Crete. Since we weren't really plugged into the local news, we didn't know this was going on as we were returning from Knossos.
The next day, the owner of the villa took us on a day long sailing trip with a Swede friend. We sailed out to the little island you could see from the villa with a large, mouth-like cave (according to mythology, a sea monster that was sent to devour Chania, but was turned to stone). We heard about the strike on this trip. We were a bit worried because I knew we had less than half a tank, and a long drive to the southwest corner of the island planned for tomorrow. The boat got in late and we had supper in Chania. By the time we were headed home, all of the gas stations were closed.
In the morning, we hunted around for a gas station that wasn't out, and found one that would sell to us. It was getting a bit late, so we decided to hit the nearby pebble beach (the one that ended up being deserted) near Kolumvari. Pebble beaches make an interesting sound as the waves come in and roll the rocks around on each other. There are also lots of unusual rocks to inspect. While swimming there, I found a piece of pumice as large as my fist, the largest I'd ever come across (this record did not stand long, it was smashed on the very next island).
Our tank full of gas, and with an early start the next morning, we drove to Elafonisi, a beautiful protected cove and island located in the southwestern tip of Crete. Pictures here were taken on my waterproof film camera which hasn't developed yet, so all I've got is the website linked above, and the Google satellite image below. It was a nice, relaxing day (at least after the drive on the winding mountain roads was done).
There was one thing about Crete that surprised me - the food there was fantastic. We both really like Greek food, but Cretan food isn't the same. The analogy that springs to mind is Cretan food is to Greek as Tuscan food is to Italian. There were great meat and salad dishes, some of which have influenced our meals at home. The only sad thing was the people smoke in the restaurants there, which was a culture shock. Retsina, a resined wine, is made in Crete, but the version there was milder than I expected (but still tasty). Some great restaurant experiences in Crete:
In case you're wondering, raki is a strong alcoholic beverage, which is clear, and tastes a bit like anise flavored whiskey. I'd say it's an acquired taste. On Crete, a shot of it is served as a free after dinner drink, often with complimentary fruit or honey cake for dessert, too.
 Crete to Santorini Ferry |
Other trips