Burton Dane Travels

We're traveling through Europe and parts nearby for a year. We'll be posting our pix and adventures here.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Crete







Crete is about 5 hours long by 2 hours wide in a car. Much of the easily accessible coast is fully developed for a July/August tourist season. In May it’s a light mixture of tourists midst the construction and clean up.

We stayed outside of Chania, a beautiful medieval city of restaurants, jewelry and clothing shops, hotels and ice cream cafes. Our studio in the Ammos Hotel had a patio by the pool, which was by the lounge chairs on the beach. We met our basic needs with the kitchenette and internet in the room. It was here that we truly started the island phase of our trip. May it go on much longer than planned.

The highlight of our week was the daylong hike down the Samarian Gorge. This loop trip was a daybreak bus ride to the head of the gorge, the 16 km hike, a boat ride to a village and another bus ride back to our start point. It was all public transportation but mostly used by hiking tourists. This eclectic group included some Greek men that insisted on booming out “romero”. Maybe that means “spectacular” or “beautiful” or “I should have worn better shoes”. I bet it was cathartic given it’s repetition and volume.

We also thought the gorge was “romero”. No sightings of the endangered Kiri Kiri goat but we did find some cool plants. The maroon, lilly looking plant contained a putrid smelling liquid inside the flower. This attracted flies which appeared to pollinate the seeds hidden down there. A few of these flowers could make an area smell like a rotting dolphin (you’ll have to return later for that story).

We made it through the gorge safely, then Jules broke her toe by stubbing it on a chair in our room. This mostly healed after a few more days of beach time. I should have taken a picture. It looked like a little eggplant.

The other highlight was the Limnopoulis Water Park. Huge slides and winding tracks that you could ride down on rubber tubes. All with a loose notion of safety by US standards.

We allowed our cynical side to take over at the Knosis ruins. This is an important Minoan site that was uncovered and reconstructed under the directions of a Brit named Don Evans. Out of at least five successive cities on the same site, he partially rebuilt one of them. To the extent of recreating complete rooms with frescoes and wooden pillars in vivid colors. To us, it came off a little bit too much like “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

We left Crete on an evening ferry to Milos. We used a different ferry company than the one Ben praised in his post. I think that's why he didn't want his picture taken. This trip included a stop at Santorini but it was dark and barely visible. Kind of like peering through the windows of the Louvre.

We’ve now spent five days on Milos, a beautiful island. Our camera is failing so we’re missing some great pictures. Hopefully, we’ll get a new one soon in Athens.

Mark
+30 6939 099411
skype: markdane

1 Comments:

  • At 11:38 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    BEAUTIFUL!! Really, do wish we were with you--have a wonderful time. Jules --no more accidents!! Love Mom

     

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