Chania, Crete

Chania is a very charming place... 

We wandered around a lot, getting lost on the narrow cobbled streets.

It has a small but very interesting Museum...

and shows that it had Turkish influence ....

as well as Italian......

We also checked out the market....

Lots of fish.......and plenty of cats!

An amazing choice of olive oils....

The Raki we seem to be served everywhere for free.....

We haven't tried the Ouzo ........yet........

Once again we  ran into a demonstration ..... but there wasn't the police presence that we had seen in Athens.

We had chosen a nice place to have lunch, off the beaten track but within fairly easy reach....

unfortunately it was closed! But it did look nice!

So, we then decided to go to Stavros, where Zorba the Greek had been filmed.

This has a beautiful small family type beach on an inlet from the sea.

It is very small with just a handful of restaurants but we had a nice healthy lunch!

Arrival in Crete

We were happy to arrive in Crete, even though the arrival time was 6am!

The demonstration the day before was calling for a general strike for 24 hours, the day after our trip so we were happy not to be stranded in Piraeus…….

We were met at the port with our rental car. Great service but the car looked a little sad. I pointed out a few scratches…to be met with a shrug. Afterwards we understood the shrug.... when we found that the car had a lot of large dents at the rear,  not surprising after we have now seen how they drive here. Not quite India but the 2 lane roads are used as 3 lanes even when it says no overtaking.  You are expected to hug the hard shoulder.

As it was quite early and we could not arrive at the hotel until the afternoon we decided to explore a nearby peninsula.

 Very little there except olive trees.  They were everywhere, laden with olives.

We checked out the small little churches en route to a lunch and wine tasting we had arranged just south of Chania.

The winery was called Nostos, apparently the Greek word for nostalgia.

It is run by  a young American Greek who went to NYU but made a decision to return to her father’s roots. He had been born in the home which is the winery now. His father died when he was 4 and left his mother a widow with 4 small children.At the age of 13 he was put on a boat to New York with a younger sister to join an older sister already there and an Aunt. Sadly by the time he arrived his Aunt had died! However he overcame all and today he owns a series of restaurants on the East Coast.
The American dream????

After a long light lunch......

with wine.....

 we went into Chania.

This is a delightful town with a beautiful Venetian port and lots of old homes which have now been turned into boutique hotels. We chose one on the front, the Hotel Amphora as we wanted to have a view of the port.

 Our room was very simple but to be recommended.

 The hotel is small but the people there are very friendly.

Exploring the town was easy….. lots of places to enjoy a drink and people watch!

We chose a very nice restaurant for dinner, Portes, which has tables along the inside of the wall which circles that side of the town. 

 The food was excellent.....

We are really enjoying Greek food.....

And have grown quite fond of finishing with raki.....

Athens.........continued!

On our second day we decided to visit the National Archaeological Museum.......

 but it didn't open on Monday mornings!  So we walked there in order to get a 'feel' for Athens.

We did!  We ended up in a demonstration......

The museum is huge and definitely well worth a visit......... but extremely tiring......

So we did a typically tourist thing and took a small train to see the rest of the city......

we needed to give our feet a rest!



We then took a taxi to our next night's accommodation!

It was a little larger than expected.....

But actually it was quite comfortable and we slept well...

particularly after the Raki......

didn't know what it was at first but it is the Cretan equivalent of Grappa!