A long overdue trip abroad. I’m afraid this page will be like a travelblog, not live, as written once back, but with a lot of waffling on top of the pictures.
I had in mind since last autumn to do this trip for my May holidays. First proper holidays not in France or in the UK for twenty years exactly. And the last time was in Crete too. Not a coincidence, obviously, I liked the place. Circumstances, work, personal, and Arsenal meant I was very late in finalising this trip and ended up booking it less than a week before leaving! In fact, until about a month before booking, I was toying with the idea of going to Sicily as it was a place I wanted to go to and visit. But lateness meant I felt Sicily needed more organisation, whereas for Crete, I knew the place vaguely (OK my Italian while near non-existent, is still better than my Greek though), and could go through the same organism I used twenty years ago as recommended by the late Thierry (RIP). I had to pick a place (a new place, I am loyal, and don’t mind going to a similar place but I have a certain aversion to doing the exact same thing twice – though I did get back to Knossos, more on that later), an hotel and what to do. More or less in that order. So I decided to go much further East (Agios Nikolaos) than last time, picked a hotel based on location (i.e. not in the middle of nowhere this time), rental cars being advertised, etc. In the end, I was very glad I picked where I did. It might not have been the cheapest but I could afford it, had a great sea view on the balcony, was only a short walk away from city centre (including, it turned out, a pub where I could watch the Arsenal match), bus stop, boat stop, and car rental possible from the hotel.
I found a website that gave me ideas of places to visit I hadn’t been to, picked a few and planned my days more or less accordingly. In the end I modulated the order of things based on a few factors like time to settle, when to rent a car….and weather forecast, and I must admit, every day turned out to be kind of ideally timed and ordered. In that way, it was, for me, a good feat of sticking to the plan but adapting it, lucky break after lucky break, optimised decisions, just very much what I like: some degree of improvisation, natural luck and…….I don’t know, in spite of all the shit I’ve fucked up, sometimes I’m still truly blessed. Anyway let’s start the day by day ‘blog’.
Day 1 : Agios Nikolaos. I arrived in Heraklion at 11.45pm the previous night, taxi pick up (my name on a sign!) as I wasn’t part of a group (something I had absolutely no idea about when I booked!), at the hotel at about 1am, the first day was never going to be the busiest and I thought I’d just do a little discovery of my immediate surroundings. So a walk towards town via the Marina and the Port, the Horn of Amalthea and on to Lake Voulismeni. On the way I noticed the boat to Spinalonga so took a leaflet to see if doing it that way sounded like a good plan. A little stop for lunch (Souvlaki!) and a glass of wine around the Lake so I just took the time to enjoy. Later just went to check Almyros beach only about five minutes walk in the opposite direction from the hotel. A book, a towel, a little dip in the water (it really wasn’t very hot…) and yeah, the wind and temperature hardly made it beach weather, but I hadn’t even been on a beach for so long it was enjoyable.
Panoramic from the room.
View from the Coast between Agios Nikolaos Marina and the Horn.
Waves at Almyros Beach.
Day 2: Spinalonga. After much deliberation, I decided to do Spinalonga on the Saturday rather than Tuesday. The weather was supposed to be a deciding factor, but in the end, it wasn’t anywhere near as sunny as forecast (or rather it was more cloudy than forecast), but mainly it was due to taking the time to organise rental car, and also easing myself a little rather than already go on a drive. Also 12.30pm boat departure made for a leisurely morning, so having booked my ticket, I had time to stop for a little extra coffee and fresh orange juice by the sea. That day I got soaked on the island, but also somehow managed to get a little sunburnt. I had forgotten how, at certain times of the day, it really didn’t take much exposure to get an instant hit of sun in Crete. I won’t actually relate the boat journey and back (it was slightly wet, especially on the way back when only two of us stayed on the outside deck for the whole journey), but one thing, or rather, one person worth mentioning was our guide for the actual tour of the Island (an island with a lot of history and that served as a leper ‘colony’ for the early part of the twentieth century). She was clearly passionate about the island, interactive, interesting, engaging, but more than anything else, her closing speech was what touched me. Just the emotion in it, the compassion coming out, a great sample of humanism and how the story of the lepers here engages our humanity, forgiveness, and forever hope of love and better times. Actually, I can’t express in words what she conveyed, best you can do is do the same visit and hear her. She really got to my heart there. Sure she has to say it every day while I hear it only once, so maybe it still means more to me than to her, but I (want to) doubt it. And we’re back to the desired theme of this site: sharing. And gratitude (something else I’ve learnt better again this year, still indirectly from the same person who seems to have forgotten to appreciate it at times (not a dig, a regret at expressed gratitude being misinterpreted, I know the situation is a lot more complicated, and different seen from the other side), and so I made a point of thanking her on exiting the boat, and not with many words, just a thank you and touching my heart, sometimes I remember I really don’t need to get lost in words, does it only depend on me? I digress, but in spite of the weather, it felt like a beautiful day on the human score. Also, the ‘guided’ bit of the island tour lasted only about 30-40 minutes, so we had an hour to roam free around the island, I got to the top, explored, and it was really nice. A little ouzo polished off the day.
Navigating the seas (remembering I was oddly sea sick on my first cross-Channel seafare, but been absolutely fine since).
The view from the old entrance to the Island.
Very windy on top of the island, I didn’t go too close to the edge…
Day 3: Lassithi Plateau. Now with car, I took a drive. I even bought a map in the hotel shop, which proved useful at the start, until I realised that Google Maps, for all its faults and Big Brother horror is very very handy. So to get there in the first place, I used the map, and while I wasn’t certain which way to go at the start, I opted to go via the old Heraklion Road, thinking the turn to the Plateau may not be available from the New Road. Turned out to be a good decision, as the road even before that turn was beautiful and indeed, that turn was there on the old road. The roads I drove through were of better quality than what I remembered from twenty years ago, but the main thing for this day was that there was hardly anyone else on the road, so I didn’t feel stressed by driving too slowly/too quickly, I could take my time, stop to take a photo here and there or just marvel at the scenery. Also, this was the only proper ‘inland’ drive I did, so through the mountains, but in fact, it doesn’t matter if it was this road (though it was obviously more pronounced there) or coastal roads, there’s hardly any flat in Crete, so you always go up and down. I followed the signs to the Psychro (Dikteon) Cave, very touristy place there, but I managed to find a place to park before I took the walk up to the cave. Not a very big cave, but fairly impressive and beautiful. Also the lighting is well done, because the photos look a lot differen than reality, a lot more green!
I had spotted some lakes on the down part drive to the plateau, but in a more or less random way, I picked up something on Google Maps this time that said ‘Havas Gorge Trailhead’. Thought it would lead me to some gorge to trek through, but in fact it was nowhere near, just the start of the trail of an invisible Gorge (well one way was blocked by private property). I reached the designated point via some tracks (rather than road, but still drivable, I’ve seen much worse in the Pyrénées), left the car there and went for a walk around. As it turned out I was pretty near the lake (lakes in fact), but both were not accessible, fully fenced, so you could just look from outside. Never mind, I had a decent walk around to occupy a part of the afternoon, before driving back for just a little beach time (I obviously wasn’t going to the beach to suntan as I always got there at 4-4.30pm when it was not so sunny and not very warm). And then a slightly different plan, as Arsenal were playing at Newcastle (6.30pm kick-off on these shores), and I’d found a bar that was showing it so why not? Celtic were playing just before and just won the SPL title, so there were a few (civilised) Celtic fans, didn’t seem much of an Arsenal contingent (and during the game it seems the remaining ‘Celts’ were cheering on Newcastle, though there was a small group of people who arrived and a woman who cheered for the Arsenal), so I ordered my first pint of the stay (no ouzo tonight!). Arsenal won a tense match, all was well. As it was a bar not a pub, local customs applied so service at the table. Which was a bit of a shock to me as all expats population and English lady serving felt very pub like. Still, for the next two pints, I got my order at the bar and got served there as it felt the most natural thing. The lady apologised saying really she should go around the bar to serve me, but while I was actually sitting at at table, that table was about 50cm from the bar, so I think that would have been a bit of a waste of energy, no matter how nice, so I reassured here that it really didn’t matter at all (by then she could work out I was a tourist….). Also, it’s always been my attitude that whatever does not cost me much of an effort and makes someone else’s life easier is worth it. But now I know not to get abused by people who actually expect it. So she wished me happy holidays when I left. Again, it’s people like that who make the world a better place; the fleeting encounters of nice and heartwarming people, twice in two days, was a high point of my stay, got some way to rekindling my faith in the human kind. So yes, Zeus’ birthplace, a nice walk, an Arsenal win and friendly people. Not a bad day.
A working windmill!!
Overlooking Lassithi Plateau.
Day 4: Richtis Gorge.
Decided to start not too early as this was only a short-ish drive away and I got slightly tipsy the night before. A drive East this time, and the wonder of a coastal road. Breathtaking views all along. I couldn’t stop to take pictures on the way (as I was on the wrong side of the road), but spotted a few places where I might be able to stop on the way back. Obviously, no photo from my shitty phone does justice to any of the places I saw. Also digital camera….twenty years ago when I had a normal one, I felt I was already taking too many photos, but now, you shoot you shoot and think you’ll sort it out later. That’s not optimisation, and I’m afraid my quality control lets me down as I keep wondering and marvelling and so feel everything is worth immortalising. I’m writing all the lines before selecting the photos and I know I’ll have a lot of work to do. And probably won’t do it so well. I know someone who does that a lot better. Anyway, so I eventually reached the car park in the little village of Exo Mouliana, there is an official car park near the start of the Gorge in fact. I got a little confused by Google Maps but decided to stop at that well defined car park rather than follow the road down. Very happy with my choice in the end as it allowed a better walk overall and a much better option that I would have taken (more on that anon). I started following that signposted touristy road, but checking with Maps in parallel, it was not the way I ‘expected’ (but that’s the limits of Google Maps as I found out just a little later). So I decided to trace my step backs and follow Google Maps. At first it was very confusing, I got back to the village, got lost on some private way going down, until I changed tack and thought right, first, among the options given, I’ll just follow the marked roads/ways until I’m definitely out of the village. I eventually found myself on a road marked ‘Richtis Beach’. Now, the way I had envisaged this trek, was to go through the Gorge and then reach the beach and lie down there for half an hour or so, maybe have a dip in the sea. And no idea of the way back, but I expected same way I would have gone (not knowing what it LOOKED like).
As it turned out, the confusion caused by Google Maps (and in some way the absurdity of it), made the trek maybe longer, but actually much more what I wanted: going in a round circuit rather than retracing steps. I still had ‘Richtis Gorge’ as target, but amusingly, GM only had a little dotted line going from the point they said you were there to the gorge. What was it about? No idea: but the ‘you have arrived’ was just a turn in the road overlooking a precipice. Oh so you mean I have to tumble down to reach the Gorge? Clever but not much use. Anyway, so I continued the winding road down onto the beach much much further away. I had forgotten that ‘beach’ didn’t necessarily mean ‘sand’ : it was a rather rocky beach, and I could quickly forget the idea of a dip and lie down. Fair enough, I’d just be back maybe quicker to Almyros Beach later for that. Also today was the day when the weather was at its best, in fact, it was practically the only day of nearly uninterrupted sunshine. I was mostly wearing a cap (though the wind made it not so easy), which I hate to do, but protection does matter in this sort of sunshine, so I didn’t feel badly burnt. And now, onto the way back to the gorge. Small entrance fee, and you’re on, for about 4km walks of rocks and pathways not always so clearly indicated, and a lot of natural beauty and water. The most beautiful bit is naturally Richtis Fall which you reach after a little less than half an hour coming from the beach. There’s about an hour left of the gorge to go then. It’s not such a comfortable walk, and if you undertake it, I advise if possible that you wear suitable footwear. I’m obviously not saying ‘not smart shoes or heels’, but more ‘rambling shoes’ if you have them rather than sneakers. I have to admit I was a bit on the slippery edge at times with a pair of Vans, though they were not the worst pair of Vans I could have used. Small note when at the fall. They have put a table there for picnic. Which is quite nice and a good idea if there’s nobody else. But as it is, and because there is not much room to actually get to the fall bit, it’s a bit of an annoyance: I don’t like disrupting people, so as there were people there, and little wiggle room, I didn’t quite get the best view I could have got. I think that’s something they could have done without, given the space at disposal, although it is indeed, a perfect and wonderful picnic place so……yeah tough luck maybe. Anyway, I ended up back to the car park the way I would/should have initially taken, but very glad I hadn’t: if I had been to the official near-the-beach (very small) car park, then I’d probably have had to walk the gorge back, and quite frankly this is not an appealing proposition. Or if I’d gone the other way from my car park, I am not sure I would have been aware of the long way back around the mountains, so again, no better way back? For all of Google Maps’ fuckery, it lucked me into a long circular walk that I enjoyed much more.
Blessings all around in that trip. The drive back was nice, I stopped a couple of times to take a few photos before another hour on the beach near the hotel.
Ouzo for apéritif, the barman remembered my room number and was treating me very well. I guess the little things like bringing your glass back to the bar when finished helped too, but again see above regarding the pub. It’s the little things (and I’m not the only one obviously and thankfully….someone once did it for me while I was daydreaming away for a moment as we were leaving a place, and I clumsily felt the need to apologise for not having done it first). Another lovely day, the most physical of the lot, thoroughly enjoyable.
View on the descent to Richtis Beach.
Lively sea at Richtis Beach.
Minor but pleasant waterfall.
The Richtis Waterfall.
Day 5: Kournas Lake and Argiroupolis Springs.
(Note that since I am obviously not using Greek alphabet, the spelling I use is uncertain. To be fair, depending where you look, you will find different spellings for the same names, I had forgotten about that, but it struck me again, for instance is it Argiroupolis, Argyroupolis, Argyroupoli? I’ve seen them all used).
Eearly (-ish, 8.30am, it’s not the early trek times of my Pyrénéan days) start for a long drive there. Express-ish road to Heraklion and Rethymnon, the views were less spectacular that way, but still a lot of ups and downs, more traffic in some ways (but the Cretan way where there seems to be only one line, but in fact lots of room over the solid line on the side to drive over to let drivers pass you or you pass them if they’re there, it’s ace!), and a lot of speed cameras. The trick though is the speed limit is constantly changing, and while the cameras are advertised, I was never quite certain what the speed limit was where they were as there was no reminder of that. I think I didn’t get caught though, fingers crossed nothing turns up in the next few days! Anyway, I made it to the lake. A very touristy place (lots more than Richtis, a little less than Psychro?). I was hoping to be able to walk all around the lake (Lake+Mountains = my ideal scenery), but alas it wasn’t possible. Although on one side you could get a little further than GM had made me fear. And then you reach the end of the walkable path, and at the end of the path….a nice surprise. See photos, I won’t mention it in the text here :-). Short drive to Argiroupolis Springs. Now initially on that website it mentions a ‘lake’ but I don’t know why because there’s no lake (which a little research had already told me so I was not disappointed). The map itself though has a small blue area as if it were some sort of lagoon.
The blurb says natural springs etc. Which I have no doubt they are. But it looks like a lot of articifially arranged waterfalls, with tavernas built around them. I stopped for a fresh Orange Juice in one of them as I was slightly ahead of my vague schedule and enjoyed the sounds of water. I had a little walk around to see one or two places that seemed a little more ‘natural’, but overall this really is a ‘touristy’ place (though not busy at all that day) where you can eat, but as for naturally beautiful site, I’m afraid it’s been totally spoilt. It’s peaceful, it’s lovely, the water sounds are a joy; but it’s not natural anymore.
Long drive back was easy, and so I hit the beach one last time, essentially to finish my latest Inspector Banks book. The sea was at its calmest, barely any wind, but it was also rather cloudy and cold. By the time I finished my book, I found myself being the last person on the beach and quite literally freezing my tits off.
A little pan around the lake.
Spring 1
Spring 2 and a little Water Mill.
Spring 3: spot the fish! And enjoy the sound. The pleasure really is in having a drink in these aurally satisfying surroundings.
Spring 4, and another Taverna.
Spring 5. It really is the sound that made the place eerie, not the not-so-natural mise-en-scène of the springs.
Day 6: Knossos and Heraklion.
So twenty years ago, I did go to see Knossos (one abiding memory was just about managing to avoid driving over a dog on my way there, note that in this stay I managed to avoid driving over a cat, sadly I saw a lot of dead cats on the road), but I had no particular memory and while I know I took photos (they must be somewhere, but maybe not digitised, and I didn’t post any on the old website where I only put a few photos, I was maybe less invested in that part of the site at the time, though I guess the idea was already to share the beautiful sights, although it was not expressed and conscious as it is now). So I decided to go again. Initially I thought I’d be lazy and take the ‘organised’ trip from the hotel. I enquired about it early in my stay, but didn’t get enough details on how to register, and thought maybe for the price and timing, I can find other ways. Also it was on the Saturday when my plans were taking shape but not clearly established. So I looked into a bus trip and it made perfect sense, cheap, master of my own time a bit more (though not that much, as I booked the long distance bus ticket in advance with a reasonable time estimation).
One hour and a half bus to Heraklion, bus getting busier as you get nearby and start to pick a lot of people on the coast from Malia. Lots of resorts there, not sure I’d have enjoyed staying in that part. Finding the bus to Knossos from Heraklion wasn’t too difficult (again I’d looked ahead so wasn’t worried). Oh and the Wifi on the Agios Nikolaos to Heraklion buses is better than at the hotel… And so I arrived at Knossos under cloudy skies (and a few drops of rain at times). Small queue to get in, and there we are. It’s not a huge site and even taking your time, one hour is enough to see it all. The thing is, naturally, I’m attracted by the colourful columns and paintings, but old stones don’t speak that much to me. It’s interesting from a historical point of view, and architectural too, you get a few written explanations (well you can also hire a guide if you so wish), but I realised that this doesn’t do it for me quite like natural beauty does, or still-standing architecture. So yes, some of it has been reconstructed, but other parts will interest you if you are into archeology and history, maybe not so much into arts and aestheticism. But as I said, there were enough red columns to attract me. Oh, and another peacock on the site.
With the timing of my bus back (again, glad I decided to push that one hour from my initial consideration, it made for perfect timing), once back down in Heraklion, I had time for a circular walk around the old Venetian Port. Some nice arches and a fort, and one more look at the sea before it’s time to board the bus back. A quiet evening ensued as I had to be up at 3.30am to catch my taxi (individual taxi again, though I had to enquire of the arrangements that evening as I hadn’t been informed via the hotel, but thankfully, the lady in charge of the organisation was very helpful).
Easier to look through the side window when on a bus trip!
Day 7: Travelling back.
One last Kalimera. The same guy at reception was there as on my arrival, still keen on speaking French, remembering my room number too (whether it was from the welcome or just because I was actually the only one leaving so he’d have been informed, I don’t know, thing is, I try to never assume, and the romantic intepretation is not always the correct one, however much I’d want it to be). Early light brekkie just for me, taxi, drive, and the airport by the sea. Not much to say but goodbye, with a few mountain views on the plane back always a treat.
Much colder in Paris, but no strike this time unlike twenty years ago. Grey, but then it hadn’t been so sunny in Crete. I’ll miss the scenery, sure I had a busy holiday; but then if the plan had been to just relax on the beach, I would have been just better off somewhere closer perhaps?
Efcharisto for reading, and if not, I hope you still got to enjoy some of the photos, as they remain the driver fo these pages.
