Crete......Rethymno to Mochlos

From Rethymno we went all the way across the island to the small village of Mochlos. We found this village, off the beaten track, last year while staying on the Elounda peninsula.  It is very small, unspoiled and has great fish restaurants.

We chose a place to stop for lunch which was exactly half way, Gouves. Unfortunately the # 1 rated restaurant in Tripadvisor was not open when we got there.......so we went to one just up the road, around the back of the church, called the AVLI..... this has to be a very common name, it means yard or courtyard, in Greek.  We had dined at the AVLI in Rethymno the night before.....  however they were worlds apart......

It actually is #4 on the Tripadvisor list.  I think people go to the other restaurants because they are easier to find, however this is an extremely pleasant place to sit outdoors.

The Avli in Gouves is a small  family run place and has outdoor seating on a terrace just outside a very old church,  which apparently still has services there once per month.

Lunch was the typical meze type...greek salad, eggplant, etc but was very fresh and good and we think it is definitely worth a visit. The house wine was also excellent.

The  #1 restaurant was just starting to open up around 3.30pm as we were leaving.  It is on the main road through the town and the outdoor seating would have definitely been noisier. We were very happy with our choice of the Avli!

In Mochlos we had booked into the Mochlos Villas and can very definitely recommend this place.  We chose to stay in the villa  Kalypso as we thought it might have the best view.......we were correct!
The Petrakis family have built 3 villas to rent out, 2 are quite large with 4 bedrooms, the other only has 2 bedrooms as it has an art gallery beneath it.  Mrs Petrakis is an artist, but she also has works by other local artists. Worth a visit.

We arrived to fresh fruit, homemade marmalade, homemade cake, honey, wine and olive oil. This was followed several times during the week by fresh eggs, tomatoes and cheese!  And more olive oil!  The Cretans consume more olive oil than anywhere else in the world and apparently live longer!

 We wished we had not stopped at a supermarket en route!

The villa was fantastic and the views over the village were superb.......

....and it had a view of the Minoan archeological site on the island we intended visiting, by boat or by swimming over!