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Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Friday, October 13: We got up at 7:30. Although it was Friday the 13th, it was a mild and mostly sunny day. After breakfast in our room using the food we'd bought the evening before, we took a last walk down the beach. We were on our way by 9:30. The new road got us through Iraklion without any delay, but it became the main street of Hersonissos and some of the other resort towns tothe east that we passed through. We drove into Malia just out of curiosity, but didn't find much to see. (We had already decided not to visit any more ruins.)
By the time we got to Agios Nikolaos at 11:00, believe it or not, the day was actually
getting warm. This was supposed to be the most popular tourist town in Crete, and we could see
why. It's located on a small hilly peninsula jutting into the beautiful Gulf of
Mirabello. The
town rises gently up the mountainside from the water. There is a small lake, now connected to
the gulf and used as a marina, right in the center of the waterfront.
Through the tourist office, we got the name of the Havania Apartments, along the coast
less than two miles from the center of town. There was a terrific view. The mountains across the
Gulf were shrouded in haze, with a layer of clouds over then, giving them a ghostly appearance.
Unfortunately, all the rooms facing the sea were taken, but we got a nice apartment on the side. The hotel was right on the water, but the shore was very rocky there. They had a small
swimming pool and plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas. It was also only 100 yards to the
municipal beach. We walked to that beach, had a nice swim, lay in the sun, and had an unusual
snack (risotto with burgers).
We walked back to the hotel where Jane had a swim in the pool. We sunbathed until 3:00. Then we drove back to town and walked around for two hours. The high spot (literally and figuratively) was our climb to the top of the steep hill behind the lake. The view was fantastic, including an optical illusion of a large cruise ship floating above the buildings around the lake.
We went back to our apartment to relax before dinner. We drove into town again at 6:45 to see it by night. We ate at Zefiros along the shore, then walked a bit. It was getting windy again. We had a cappuccino at a harbor-side table with a fishing boat within an arm's length. When we got back to the apartment after 9:00, we realized I had left my Greek fisherman's cap on the table, so we had to drive back to retrieve it. We emptied the car and repacked our luggage for the ferry trip the next day. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 |
