30 August 2012

Post No8 - 2012 Trip - Crete

We couldn't possilby spend all that time in Italy with 'the Australians' without showing them some of Greece, and after a few relaxing days back in Koroni to catch our breath, we drove up to Athens and caught a flight over to Crete. It was a new experience for us all, apart from a stay there for me way back in the 70's.

The first night we ventured only as far as Sissi, a small town on the water, buzzing with tavernas. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we stayed again the following night!

We took the scenic route and drove through some very dramatic countryside.

Next day we were off east towards Sita which I remembered from a visit in the 70's. 


We stopped off for a coffee in the famous Agios Nicholas which was as bustling as ever, and then continued on through the increasingly barren landscape to Sita for the night.

 Sitia had changed quite dramatically since my last stay. In my early days of painting, one of my first large acrylic paintings was from a photo I took when we stayed here in the 70's.  I am currently attempting an updated version, hopefully downplaying the apartment buildings up behind the harbour!



















One other place I remembered from that visit was a little place called Myrtos, on the South Coast, just past Irepetra. We took the gamble and headed there for the night, and it paid off. Myrtos still has loads of charm, and a very nice laid back feel to it. It still seems to consist of mostly narrow streets with little whitewashed houses, a lot of them leading straight down to the blue sea. Its wonderful to see there are still some of these villages around.


Next it was time for a dose of Greek history, and we'd realised we would more than likely have to save Knossos until the next trip, so off we went to Phestos. This is a Minoan archeological site, where the Phestos disc was discovered.  It was amazingly hot there, but an fascinating place and set in amongst high mountains and lush plains.


 and saw plenty of  'lines in the landscape'


Once we reached the north coast, we spent the night in Rethymnon, an interesting place with its Venetian facades,
but the following day we moved on to have a look at Chania, and decided that was the perfect spot to spend the last couple of nights and have a break from the car. We stayed in a great hotel right smack bang on the waterfront amongst all the restaurants and didn't have to venture far for anything.  Having said that plenty of wandering was done as there was a maze of laneways in every direction, buzzing with life.  It is fairly touristy, but beautiful and it worked extremely well!
checking out the menus.....

 We also did do a short trip to nearby Stravros which is famous for as being where the movie Zorba the Greek was filmed, and having just watched the film again recently, it doesn't seem to have changed too much since then! If you know the fil, you can see the mine up on the mountain, and the tiny house, right by the beach.
Sadly, our titme in Crete went way too fast, and it was time to head back to Athens again for a couple of nights before putting Rita and Peter onto their flights.

Just a little footnote. There was actually some sketching done enroute this time as Australian Peter became my 'sketching buddy'. I'm soon hoping to be able to get my sketchbook into shape, fill in the odd blank page, and produce something to put online in the not too distant future.

Needless to say, I have many many beautiful photographs of all of the places we visited on this trip, in France, Italy, Switzerland and Crete, and they will be appearing on my Picasweb site soon, at which time I'll add a link.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely photos, Jackie! Sissi isn't far from us at all! When we are on Crete in the summer we stay in Hersonissos.

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