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Thursday, October 12: Breakfast at the hotel in
Rethimnbo was buffet style again. It was a very overcast day.
After loading the car, we walked to the Venetian Harbor for a last look. We left Rethimno
around 10:00 heading for Hania (or Chania), less than 40 miles to the west. It rained heavily on the way, but
was only drizzling when we arrived.
By sheer luck, I drove right to the Venetian Harbor and found a parking place there. (As we had finally learned, in Greece a parking place is anywhere a car will fit without totally blocking traffic, regardless of any "no parking"signs.) We parked right in front of the old Venetian Arsenal (actually ship repair facilities), and walked by the old Customs House to the square on the old harbor. There, standing along the old city wall, we saw the small lighthouse and the ruins of the Venetian fortress across the harbor. A multi-domed 17th Century Janissaries Mosque in the square had been converted to the tourist office.
Like Rethimno, most of the architecture in the town center was Venetian. The area was badly damaged by German bombing in May 1941 during the Nazi invasion, but it seems completely recovered now. We walked through the tourist area and eventually found a huge public market housed in an old, cross-shaped building. It was still raining on and off, so we were glad to be indoors. Besides, the market was fascinating. Although they sold some items for tourists, it was still the meat, produce, bakery, spice, and flower market for the natives. Back at the harbor, we had a light (?) lunch of sinfully rich yogurt and honey along the waterfront.
We also had snacks to eat in the car. It started raining hard again just about as we reached the car. We left Hania about 1:45 and headed back to the east. We didn't have a specific destination for the night; we just wanted to get closer to Agios Nikolaos for tomorrow. I thought we'd probably stop around 3:00 at Bali, a beach resort town about half way between Rethimno and Iraklion. Somehow, though, we missed that turnoff, so we continued to my alternate choice, Agia Pelagia. This little resort village lines a small cove in the headland where the coast makes a 90-degree turn from east to south. Though described in our guide as an upscale resort, it didn't look too promising as we turned off the main road. The small road was terrible, and there were no signs. (We discovered later that this was not the most used road.) At least it had stopped raining. It was close to 4:00 by the time we found our way to the beach in the center of the village. Almost all the accommodations there were apartments, usually rented by the week. We went to Diana Travel right near the beach, and a woman there rented us a large studio apartment for the night. It was brand new, and half a block from the beach. We walked along the beach, lined with restaurants, then down some of the streets. It was quite charming. We stopped at a grocery and bought food for breakfast. After resting in the apartment for an hour, we walked some more before settling on Le Gourmet for dinner. The food and the atmosphere were great. We had our usual Greek salad, some grilled shrimp (Jane), chicken filets (me), Cretan white wine, and cappuccino. There was recorded Greek music, and our waiter put on a show all night with exaggerated spins and flourishes as he served the food (big tip!). It was a mild night, so we walked around the village some more and saw some lovely apartments. We found some delicious chocolate Magnum ice cream bars, then went back to the apartment and watched the dark clouds pass over the moon. We went to bed after 10:00. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 |
