Day 64 Crete part One

Tuesday, October 5th. Leave Santorini for Crete, Heraklion (“Iraklio”).
The “Super Cat” ferry leaves Santorini around sunset. The ferry has about 200 people on board and does about 30-40 knots on two hydrofoils. So far we have found all of the Greek Ferries to be very good: reasonably punctual, unload and load turn-around times are typically less that 15 minutes, new or newish boats and well maintained, and good staff service. No famous ferry strikes so far. We leave around 6.30pm and get to Iraklio after dark around 8.30pm and then wheel our suitcases around the harbor until we get to Hotel Kronos which is recommended by Lonely Planet. It’s an uninspiring city hotel but well run and clean and we pay 57 euros for a room and breakfast.
We had dinner at a local’s café and, as is often the case, were given some fresh water melon and a small carafe of the local fire-water, Raki, free of charge. However, we both woke up with headaches and so …
Wednesday October 6th
we postponed the planned visit to Knossos (main Minoan remains on Crete) and instead rent a car for 6 days (25 euros/day) and head down to Lentas/Lendas (translation from the Greek (unreadable) Cyrillic script to our Roman alphabet is variable and whimsical and the pronunciation seems to vary as well which makes for frustration and fun in getting directions. We cross the biggest valley in Crete (very fertile with oranges, bananas, almonds, figs, pomegranates, apricots, melons, wine grapes and some of the 13 million olive trees that are on the island), it seems farmed corner to corner, but it’s only 60 km and so we arrive at Lentas in time for a late lunch at El Greco overlooking the Libyan sea and 150 miles off the coast of North Africa. We rent a room with a balcony view of the sea for 30 euros a night at Niki’s place. (Niki Apostolaki, 70400 Letas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 0030 28920 95246/0030 69748 47622/0030 6976 755055). This small town has about 100 buildings and a few tavernas and maybe a thousand mountain goats wandering around. Every backyard has a Minoan mini-excavation going on and to get to our room we have to drag our suitcases around some exposed Minoan columns and duck under some grapes hanging from the vine above our door.
Lentas is very basic in what it has to offer but is cheap and quiet and has been discovered by the Germans, Swiss and Austrians as a place to escape some of their winters. A lot of them are repeat visitors. They love to be totally nude on the beach and you apparently don’t need to be attractive to do this. Greece started a country-wide ban on smoking in public places September 1st but you wouldn’t know it, all the tourists and locals here smoke while they eat and the hotels do not have dedicated non-smoking rooms. It’s coming but in the meantime tough on Christine and me.
We swim every day in Greece. The weather is perfect and the sea is warm so our shorts are always damp, sand in our hair and we are usually covered in salt. (Great).
Food. Lunch at El Greco yesterday was some lentil soup and some sort of vegetarian Moussaka (Iman something) with a glass of Ouzo and water. Dinner at the same place was tomato, onion and cucumber salad and then stuffed zucchini flowers and roast lamb and roast potatoes. ½ carafe of house white, one Mataxi brandy and one cappuccino. 26 euros. Breakfast today (from the local mini-market store here) was fresh brown bread and jam and goat’s milk yoghurt and local Greek honey and coffee.
Thursday, October 7th., still at Lentas.
Now there’s a thunderstorm and it’s pouring down-I’m wondering if the roof on this place will leak.
Man, it’s really thundering and lightning now and one of Niki’s little cats has come in to hide under our bed sheets. Electricity has gone and so has the local internet café I’m guessing, will have to send this tomorrow.
We woke in the night to find Niki’s small cat sleeping in our bed with us out of the thunderstorm. Cold water shower in the morning-don’t know why and it’s OK.
Friday, October 8th. We think Day 68
Rental car tires look flat and it’s zig-zag 30km to civilization over the mountains. We make it and get some air. We visit Gortis which is the Roman capital of about 300,000 when they were here (about 67BC to about 400AD). At the peak Crete had about 2m people and now has a ¼ of that. Amazing partially (10%?) excavated ruins of that town and you are invited to wander amongst the olive trees and see the other parts of this Roman town. We did that and farmers have just plowed up Roman columns and other artifacts and piled them up around old olive trees so they can get on with their work-guess they have been doing that for centuries. What is more fascinating is that the Dorians (Balkan invaders around 1200BC, no one told me this in high school) came in and stayed a thousand years and wrote their laws on the stones at Gortis-and we just saw that). All the infractions (rape, theft) and all the punishments (different if you were rich or poor) are there and the Romans came in and seem to have adopted that and preserved that and then built their own capital at the same site one thousand years later. Fantastic and we enjoyed several hours there very much.
Then we went to Phaestos/Phaistos/Festos/Phistos-take your pick…
Minoan ruins at the top of a plateau overlooking the Messara plain and built twice (pre-earthquake and post-earthquake) and we spent another two hours there. Also truly amazing. Simple elegance in the design of the Royal Palace. Alabaster, marble, gypsum- light on intricate designs but just a well laid out set of buildings and a great view when you get up in the morning. As everywhere in Greece they are still excavating.
Then we need to find somewhere to sleep and so we followed a suggestion and went to Pitsidia and then Metala and rejected both as fly-blown old hippie hang-outs. Then we tried the southern sea-side town of Aghia Galini and rejected that as well and so drove the 60km to the north coast to Rethimnon and chose Hotel Fortezza in the old town near the Venetian Fort. Room 207 at 65 euros a night including breakfast. Big spenders tonight and so went to the supermarket opposite and bought a small bottle of ouzo to have an in-room celebration and pre-dinner drink.
Day 71 Monday October11th., Chania (Hania), Crete. Hotel Athini.
Ask for room 8, it has a four-poster bed and two double windows above the waterfront and overlooking the old Venetian fort and the harbor that it guards. 50 euros including a breakfast.