Around the Island (Γύρω από το νησί)

House in Margarites

On our last day in Crete we hopped on a tour bus for a trip around the island. Again, I saw scenery I hadn’t expected on this island and heard mythology I was completely unfamiliar with – I didn’t know that Hera was the second wife of Zeus. It’s great to learn new things! If I could do this trip, again, I’d do it in reverse order – this tour first, then Knossos, then time spent exploring Chania – I think it would help to put things in a more historical perspective and allow me to more closely investigate this unique part of the world.



Crete has been inhabited a very long time. Gerard Gierlinski, back in 2002, discovered fossil footprints left by ancient human relatives that are

Local goats

about 5.6 million years old. There is also evidence of hominid settlements that date to 130,000 years ago. The Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, under the Minoans, gave rise to a highly developed and literate civilization. Crete has been ruled by the ancient Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Emirate of Crete, the Republic of Venice, the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, and finally became a part of the Greece (see Cruising through Chania and Getting to Know Knossos for a more thorough treatment of Crete history).  Our tour of the island began sort of in the middle of all of this history.

When you visit Eastern Orthodox churches, one of the first things you see is that there are no pews. That is so folks can come and go as they wish;

Top L to R: Arkadi Monastery, Monastery
museum
Bottom L to R: Trees with bullets, Monk's
living areas

if you’re elderly or infirmed you can sit in one of the chairs along the wall. This ability to come and go seems like a good idea to me because while I like the singing and group participation, I nearly always get bored at some point and want to move on to other activities. The current church, located in the Arkadi Monastery, was built in a Renaissance architecture that incorporates Roman and baroque elements in the 16^th century. The monastery, itself, had a school that focused on art and science, including a rather large library. The entire complex was fortified with a thick, high wall. And it was behind these walls that 943 Greeks came for refuge during the Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule in 1866. The Ottoman army stormed the walls for three days; at the end of that time the abbot of the monastery ordered the barrels of gunpowder blown up, sacrificing lives rather than surrendering. While the Ottomans considered this a victory, the Greeks and the rest of the world saw it as a tragedy. It wasn’t long after that that the Ottoman Empire was thrown out of Crete. The Arkadi Monastery became a national sanctuary in honor of the Cretan resistance with November 8^th marked as a day of remembrance. If you wander the grounds you’ll find a very old cypress tree that still bears a bullet hole from the battle that occurred there.

Our stop at the Museum of Ancient Eleutherna was a visit to a similar time period as Knossos. Eleutherna, also called Apollonia sat on a narrow ridge of Mount Ida and flourished from the Dark Ages until the Byzantine

L to R: Mount Ida, Museum exterior

era. Dorians colonized this city that lay at the crossroads between Cydonia, Knossos, and the sanctuary cave where Zeus was born, Ideon Andron. In 220 BC, Eleutherna started the Lyttian War by accusing Rhodians of assassinating of their leader, Timarchus; the outcome wasn’t particularly positive for either side. By about 67 BC, the Romans had taken over Crete, and with it Eleutherna, bringing with them new and more ornate architecture. However, an earthquake some 400 years later left the town in ruins. It was rebuilt and became one of the seats of Christianity; by the mid-600s there was a rather large basilica built for the bishop. Nature, in the form of another large earthquake, and the Ottoman attacks, finally led to abandonment of the site around 796; the area is still a Roman Catholic titular bishopric. The museum is excellent with several informative videos and an exhibit of the remains of four females in Orthi Petra. I do wish that we’d been able to take some photographs inside; the ceramics and jewelry were pretty amazing. The archaeological site is, as yet, closed to the public, but plans are in the works for tours to see the actual city.

One of the best parts of this tour was our visit to the village of Margarites because we actually got to walk through the town. The hamlet is known

Top L to R: Pots decorating a house,
Ceramics for sale
Bottom L to R: Blue door, Lemons

for its ceramic artists who make ‘Pithari’ (Greek oil jars) as well as other usable and decorative items. At this time of the year people’s yards are filled with flowers and the trees are in bloom, making this a visually stimulating area. There are also lots of lemon trees weighted down with the fruit. One of the ceramic shops was a riot of colors and strategically located next to a restaurant so that those who were not so enamored of pots could get a bite to eat and/or an adult beverage while sitting in the cool shade. I find it difficult to indulge in ceramics since at one time I did this type of art. If it’s not perfect or an unusual piece, I generally look but don’t buy; it’s also hard to get these types of souvenirs home in my suitcase.


The Crete seaside, in many ways, reminds me of other coastlines I’ve visited. However, Crete has both sandy beaches and rocky shores.

Top L to R: Windy day, Jetty
Bottom L to R: Bridge at inlet, Weather conditions

Kalyves, the resort village we visited, is on the coast at the entrance of Souda Bay. It has the sea on one side and low hills on the other. These hills are the site of Castello Apicorono, a fortified town that may have actually been the site of ancient Ippokoronion. If that’s the case, then Kalyves is actually Kissamos, one of the ancient city of Aptera's two harbors; there is still a lot of history to be uncovered (literally) on Crete. If the day had been warmer I think it would have been difficult to get us off of the beach and out of the water, but since it was chilly and windy we only wandered the streets rather than playing in the waves. If I’m ever back in this area I want to explore the stone buildings of Koumos that were built by a local man and are said to be engaging and entertaining art.

Crete has some of the best food I’ve ever sampled. The vegetables were fresh, even in ‘fast food’ type restaurants and meals were prepared when you ordered. Shopping was pleasant and once you were back from the more heavily tourist areas, quite inexpensive. And of course, the places to explore were wonderful. If you don’t go in August, this place will probably meet your expectations. Following is my review of our adventure in Crete; for information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

How we got there:

Four and one-half Carrots

Our best ride on this trip was with Valantis Bagakis (valantisbag@gmail.com). He was kind, considerate, amusing, and

L to R: Valantis's card, Street leading to Doroth's
Dream

interesting. He could tell us the history of his town, what celebrity was currently visiting, where to eat, and what type of transportation to take to get to ruins, beaches, and so forth. Since we didn’t know the address of Dorothy’s Dream, he waited while we got online and found the address. Then, once we got closer, he called the host and made sure that we were going to be met by someone. The street the apartment is on is steep, car-lined, and very narrow; Valantis backed his car up this hill, to the door, and unloaded our bags. We were delighted to get his card so that we could call him to take us to the airport – he also has email on his phone and is very responsive! He met us to take us back to the airport right on time and kept us laughing the entire trip. He did tell us not to come to Crete in August since that is when all of Europe arrives, along with the blistering heat, and unbearable traffic; I think this is good advice!

Three and one-half Carrots

‘Olympic Air S.A. is a regional airline, a subsidiary of the Greek airline carrier Aegean Airlines.’ What a lovely group of people! These folks are actually representatives of Aegean Airlines, have planes that arrive and depart on time, and seem to care about their customers. We got a flight from Athens to Crete at the last minute for €200. They also made sure that a piece of missing luggage got to the Crete airport without us having to jump through oodles of hoops to get it done – and they let another one of our group claim it when he arrived on a later flight. Their planes are comfortable and onboard service is good. We’ll be flying with these folks, again.

One Carrot

‘Ryanair DAC is an Irish low-cost airline founded in 1984, headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland, with its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports.’ The best thing I can say about this group is that the plane didn’t crash. Actually the service in the air was just fine. However, they are rarely on time and if you do have an issue – changing a flight, getting money back, talking with a real person – you have no real hope of having anything resolved. This all began because of weather; we could not get out of DFW to Philadelphia on American Airlines. AA graciously changed our flight to British Air (at no cost and into exit row seats), but that meant that we would miss our connection in Athens. We tried for more than 24 hours to contact Ryanair to change our flight (the website says you can do this up to two hours before your plane leaves) but NO ONE answered phone calls, emails, chats, nor did their app work. We flew back into Athens a day early to make sure we made our flight home, and once again, Ryanair was late. The representatives at the airport ARE NOT employees of the airline, but of the airport so they CANNOT help you change anything; they did tell us that this is not unusual for this airline. Once I got back to Texas I began trying to contact the airline. The only response I got was from their Facebook page. It’s been quite a while since I started trying to get a refund and there are layers upon layers to go through. The latest is that they want a picture from my phone of the error message I got when trying to use their app; really, how is that possible now?  This airline is now in the same bucket with Lufthansa – never fly them again!

Where we stayed:

Four Carrots

Although there are plenty of hotels, apartments, rooms, one of our group found an AirBnB offering that could accommodate seven of us. Dorothy’s

Top L to R: Entry, One bedroom
Center L to R: Second bedroom, Living room
Bottom L to R: Roof patio, One bathroom

Dream (Λιθινών 51, Chania 731 32, Greece, +30 694 051 1971) ‘… is an ample, historic, four-bedroom residence located in the “Palazzo del Rettore”, one of Chania’s oldest and most exquisite national monuments. Rising above the Byzantine walls of Kastelli, it overlooks the beautifully preserved Chania Old Venetian Harbour’ (excerpted from their website). And this is totally accurate information. It is an amazing place to stay. Our host was most accommodating, particularly since only two of the seven people arriving came in on time. We were provided with snacks, cheese, salami, wine, coffee and the ‘fixins’, Raki, fresh fruit and, most importantly, daily maid service. It’s a bit of a hike to get up to the apartment – at least 16 steps up a curved wooden staircase with suitcases isn’t particularly easy, but it’s entirely worth it. Another set of stairs lead to a rooftop patio that affords unrestricted views of the harbor and the town. There are chairs, an umbrella, and potted plants on the roof, as well. Some days we were hard pressed to leave that lovely view. Our only negative was that, being an elderly building in a city with elderly plumbing, you could not flush any toilet paper down the commode; everything went into the trashcan – hence the daily maid service. If you go to Dorothy’s Dream, be sure you take the actual address and have the phone number; the address isn’t on your reservation.

Hotel Sofitel Athens Airport (Athens International Airport, Spata 190 19, Greece, +30 21 0354 4000) is amazing. Their service is excellent. We got in late (see Ryanair review) and needed to add one person to our room. Unfortunately, due to fire codes, you can’t add a cot to a regular room.

Top L to R: Living area, Bedroom
Bottom L to R: Bath, Toilet, Workout equipment

They upgraded us to a suite, at a very small up charge, and brought in a ‘youth bed’. Evidently that’s what they call a twin bed cot. Not only was the bed plenty roomy, it was quite comfortable. The room had a king-sized bed, a couch, a large bathroom with a separate toilet area, plenty of air conditioning, a speedy internet, and, best of all, a toilet down which you could flush paper!  There was a breakfast table, along with an area to set up computers. Fortunately, we didn’t have an early flight out, so we got to enjoy these accommodations.

Where we ate:

We never ate at a bad restaurant or had inferior service in Crete and that’s why all of these have been given four carrots!

Four Carrots

Apostolis Restaurant (10, Akti Enoseos Chania 10, Akti Enoseos, Chania 731 00, Greece, +30 2821 043470) sits very near the waterfront

Top L to R: Menu logo, Crete salad, Greek salad
Bottom L to R: Shrimp, Fresh fish, Dessert

and the fish are extremely fresh! As with all of the restaurants, if you order a salad there is enough to feed everyone at the table and the vegetable are as fresh as the fish. I found that there was a difference between a Greek salad and a Crete salad; Greek salads have onions and feta cheese while Crete salads have soft goat cheese and no onions. Everyone found their meals to be delightful. One of the surprises was that there was an after dinner drink, Raki, and dessert that came with dinner. You didn’t get a choice of types of Raki or desserts, but what we were served was always tasty. However, the Raki varied from restaurant to restaurant; some of these libations were better than others.

Café Atopa (Pl. Agoras, Chania 731 32, Greece) is inside the market. I thought we’d have a snack and that it would be passable. Wow was I

Top L to R: Cafe logo, Half sandwich
Bottom: Barb with sorbet

wrong! This place has a nice selection of ice cream, including some sorbets, which Barb said were quite good. I ordered a Crete salad sandwich that was about the size of my head – and shared it with Barb. The bread on this sandwich tasted homemade and went perfectly with the tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, peppers, and sliced olives. There were two parts to this restaurant; you could either order and wait at the counter, or go around the corner and sit in an area with table service.

Οι Βασιλιάδες (Ποτιέ 19, Chaniá, Greece 731 32, +30 2821 113410) has

Top L to R: Logo, Bread, Crete salad
Bottom L to R: Greek salad, Mushrooms,
Zucchini cakes, Avocado salad

a Facebook page so if you don’t recognize the name of the street on the map, you can get directions! We seem to have focused on salads on this trip – how could you not with such fresh vegetables. The salads were a Greek, a Crete, an Avocado, plus some grilled mushrooms, and a zucchini cakes. Everything was wonderful, including the homemade bread. Of course we couldn’t finish it all, but it was certainly a great meal.

Paradosiako (Theotokopoulou 25, Chania 731 31, Greece) only has a rating of three stars on Google, but we found the food to be quite good.

Top L to R: Logo, Tzatziki
Bottom L to R: Bread, Shrimp salad

We only wanted a snack so we shared two plates. Barb ordered Tzatziki and I got a shrimp salad. The bread was very crusty, so when we ran out of pita for dipping, we substituted this homemade delight. The shrimp was well prepared – neither over- nor under- cooked and of course the vegetables were fresh. The restaurant is down a very narrow street. We watched a van slither between outdoor restaurants, dragging a few chairs out of place with its bumper!

Plateia (Akti Tompazi, Chania 731 32, Greece, +30 2821 040846) was

Top L to R: Menu, Risotto
Bottom L to R: Grilled vegetables, omelet,
Kabob

the first restaurant we sampled when we got to Crete. They have comfort food! The seafood risotto was warm, filled with shellfish, and very tasty. The grilled vegetables with feta cheese were yummy – there was enough to share around the table. The omelet would have fed several people and was full of vegetables, as well as plenty of cheese. Michelle wasn’t overwhelmed by her lamb kabob, but said it was okay. She did really like the fries, saying that they were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The view was from the restaurant was lovely, particularly with the sun setting over the harbor.

Taverna tou Zisis (Machis Kritis Str.63, Missiria Réthymno, Rethimni, Greece 74100) was a great place for a large group for lunch. They allowed us to come to the glass case so we could see what was being

Top L to R: Feta salad, Omelet, Bread, Calimari
Bottom L to R: Greek lasagna, Honey fritters,
Grilled vegetables, Kabob, Menu

cooked, then either tell the waitress what we wanted then or look at a menu. We did both! These folks did a really good job of serving a large number of folks in a limited amount of time. The owner of the restaurant came around to the tables asking about the food and supplying the password for the free WiFi. The food was very good – particularly the calamari. Barb thoroughly enjoyed her omelet that was cheesy and filled with vegetables. Michelle said that the pork kabob was delightful as were the grilled vegetables. We ate ourselves silly, again; this was good since this was our last meal in Crete.

To Maridaki (33, Daskalogianni Str., Splantzia, Chania, Crete, 28210 08880) is a nice little seafood restaurant is away from the tourist area. We

Top L to R: Menu, Mushrooms
Bottom L to R: Calamari, Yogurt and honey

had headed for another seafood restaurant, but since that place had a private party, they recommended this place. We were very happy we took their recommendation. We watched as the chef brought in farm fresh produce, cleaned it, and prepared it for us. The calamari tasted as though they had just come out of the sea. The shrimp were huge, fresh, and well prepared. And again, there was enough food to share around the table several times. This is a more local restaurant, catering to residents of Crete as well as the few tourists who wander in. What a good place for seafood!

To Xani Restaurant (Parados Kondilaki Street Venetian Old Port Chania, 731 00, Greece, +30 2821 075795) is a bit off the beaten track. We walked around corners and down alleys to get there, but it was worth the effort. This restaurant has live traditional music every evening. We

L to R: Menu, Small bites

enjoyed the music and the small plates of fried pies, dolmathakia, and several sorts of fritters. The pie I sampled had wild greens that were a bit spicy and had an interesting flavor. They tasted a bit like dandelion greens. The dolmathakia were a bit different from the usual dolmas; I quite liked them. The sweet potato fritter I tasted was slightly sweet, slightly salty, and altogether delightful. We had a great time listening to the music and sampling the delicacies.

What we did:

We had a wonderful time in Crete whether we were wandering the streets in Chania or off on tours.

Four Carrots

Heraklion Archaeological Museum (Ξανθουδίδη και Χατζηδάκη 1, Iraklio 712 02, Greece, +30 281 027 9000) was my pick for the best place we visited on this trip. The collection of Minoan art is world class since it contains some of the most noteworthy artefacts from the Minoan civilization of Crete. See Getting to Know Knossos for more information about the area.

Knossos Palace and Archeological Site (23rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities T.K. 71409, Knosos, +30 2810 231940) is the location of the oldest city in Europe. This was a fascinating place to visit, particularly with the reconstructions and the information plates. See Getting to Know Knossos for more information about the area.

Museum of Ancient Eleutherna (Unnamed Road, Milopotamos 740 52, Greece, +30 2834 092501) is a new museum with a lovely collection dating from 220 BC. I particularly like the movies since they were not only informational but included some of the mythology that was specific to this area.

View from the roof of Dorothy's Dream

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