Just Pretend I Was On My Own Writer's Strike

I know I promised the Crete post more than a week ago. Sorry it's taken me so long. So...where were we? We flew from Athens to Crete on our second morning in Greece. It's a really short flight (40 minutes). As soon as we arrived, we rented a car and drove to our hotel, about an hour from the airport.

The scenery on the road between the airport in Heraklion and our hotel in Rethmynon was pretty. We drove along the coast most of the way. We arrived at our hotel a while before we were supposed to check in, and the man at the desk told me the room was not quite ready but would be ready in two hours. I checked in and we left in search of lunch. We found a nice little restaurant called Zizi's, had a good lunch, and Luke even got to play on their playground. It was really nice. We returned to the hotel to pick up our key and had to wait almost an hour longer in the lobby, which is frustrating with an almost three year old. Very hard to keep him quiet for that long!

Finally we were shown to our room. We walked through the resort, past three really nice pools, and up to our condo which overlooked one of the pools. We got this hotel because we traded in our timeshare week, so we had certain expectations in mind for the condo. It was nice and clean, but compared to some we've traded in for in the US and Canada, it had a much smaller kitchen and no washer/dryer. It was nice, though, and we unpacked and settled in.

Jason took Luke almost right away to go swimming in the indoor pool, only to find out that the heater for the pool and hot tub was broken. The girl on duty in the pool area was literally running warm water into the hot tub, turning on the bubbles, and then draining all the water when it got too cool, only to repeat the process. Jason and Luke returned to the room pretty quickly. Luke was blue-lipped with chattering teeth!

All in all, the hotel was just okay. We knew in advance that it was off-season, and knew not to expect everything to be open. However, considering it was a highly-rated resort, we expected it to have some amenities open during hours we could really use them. The indoor pool closed at 7, which meant if we went exploring during daylight hours we couldn't swim at night. Also the heater wasn't fixed until the last day we were there. It was sort of disappointing. We decided early on in the week, though, that we were going to enjoy ourselves anyway. We just changed our expectations from imagining we would veg out at the hotel to expecting to really get out and go somewhere just about every day.

We tried asking for sightseeing advice at the hotel desk, and they were no help. So we went out in search of dinner and found a great little pizza place. We ordered our pizza and then asked our waitress where we should go. She made a little list for us and told us about several places on the island we should visit. We loved the pizza place and went back there THREE TIMES that week!

So after a good night's sleep in our condo, we got up the next morning and went exploring! Our first destination was a little mountain town called Anogia. Our waitress had told us it was an old-fashioned town where we'd see people in traditional dress. She also mentioned that it was a place where the pastime was shooting holes in the traffic signs! On the way to Anogia, we saw signs for a cave. I am married to Mr. Adventure. You know we had to stop. I was expecting it to be like the ones we found at Turner Falls (that are not on the official map)--dark, scary, and claustrophobia inducing. So, I dreaded going. This one turned out to be more like the Natural Bridge caverns or Carlsbad--walkways, lights, even a tour guide. We had to buy tickets to go in, but it was cheap. It was really cool.

After the cave, we went the rest of the way to Anogia. When we got there, there were lots of older women who had black kerchiefs on their heads who were wearing black tops and skirts. If this is what she meant by traditional dress, then we saw it. Nothing else too interesting other than that. We drove through the town and found a place to eat lunch. I chose it because it looked pretty and like it might have a scenic view. In reality, the balcony we sat on overlooked a construction area! It was still a pretty restaurant, anyway, and they also had a little tricycle for Luke to ride on. He had a great time playing while Jason and I ate.

I won't write every detail of every meal in Crete, but let me say this. We live in a country where you can't readily buy pork. All the bacon and ham served in restaurants--even Chili's and Johnny Carino's--is beef. I am not that big of a pork eater, so it doesn't really bother me too much when we're in Cairo, except every now and then when I'd like to make a good breakfast with bacon or sausage. When we're at home, I NEVER order a pork chop, and I rarely ever cooked them at home. Let me tell you, though, I ordered a pork chop at this restaurant and thought I was in heaven. It was SO good. It tasted just like one Daddy would've made on the grill. Same spices, same flavor...so delicious. Look how happy I am! I then ordered pork chops at just about every other lunch or dinner meal where one was on the menu. (I'm hungry right now--look how much I've written about pork chops!)

The next day we went to the mountains in search of snow. Jason was so excited that the mountains were snowy! We drove for what seemed forever before finally reaching snow. We parked the car, got out, threw some snowballs, took some pictures, and got back in the car. Luke enjoyed watching his Daddy throw snowballs and throwing a few himself. I just took the pictures!



The weather in Crete was great, but not predictable. It was cool enough to wear pants and a jacket most days, but there were some days that were really hot, and then up in the mountains we needed real coats. I didn't pack as much of a variety of clothes as I should have. Luke had what he needed, but I was cold!

After seeing the snow, we drove to another coastal town called Hania. It was a really nice town with lots of good restaurants and shopping. We stopped and ate lunch there, then walked around looking at toys and bikes for a certain little boy's birthday coming up. I went in every toy store I could find--on a mission. That's where I found Luke's Fisher Price fire truck that he loves so much now.



The next day we went into Rethmyno, the town nearest our hotel, and visited the Venetian fortezza there. It was built in the 16th century, and has a great vantage point for views of the city and mountains. I expected it to be more like a castle, but it was really acres and acres of land surrounded by stone walls with many buildings scattered inside that were used for various purposes over the years. There is a mosque on the grounds that was built on the foundation of a Catholic church. Hm.

Luke threw a wall-eyed temper fit as we were approaching the fortress, and it was probably the worst he has ever had, before or since. I didn't even know him. So, the first 15 minutes of our visit there were NO fun, but eventually he found his happy place and we enjoyed running through the meadows together, discovering tunnels and climbing and collecting rocks. (Luke loves to find a rock, then exchange it for a bigger one, and then an even bigger one, until he eventually has a rock the size of his head that he can no longer carry around! He's done this since he was about a year old and Jason used to take him exploring in the fields by our house.)
We thought it was really cool that we could explore all around this really old fortress, and no one told us where we could go or couldn't go. We were free to discover and see as much as we wanted to.

The next day we had a slow morning before going back to Hania. It was such a nice town we decided to visit again and see more of it. We had been really warm the day before, so we dressed a little less warmly, which was a BIG mistake! The wind was whipping off the Mediterranean, and we were cold! We walked along the sea wall out to the lighthouse, anyway. In this picture you can see it way off in the distance. You can see we have the stroller, too. The walkways looked deceptively smooth. We ended up ditching the stroller and coming back for it later.


Very pretty Hania harbor with snow-capped mountains in the distance.This is our only family picture of the whole trip--I took it with the timer and it's chopped us all off, but it was so cold I didn't want to wait to take another!
We finally reached the lighthouse and climbed all the way up to the top of the stairs.
Here are Jason and Luke up on the sea wall by the lighthouse.

The next day we stayed around the hotel again most of the day. We did venture down to the beach near the hotel. It was really quiet and very pretty. I love the Mediterranean. It's so blue, and I think I like it better than any other big ocean or sea I've been to yet.
We just walked along the gravelly shore for a while and let Luke play in the sand (and choose rocks, of course).
I just sat still and shot pictures of Luke playing for about 10 minutes. I love these two.

The next day we drove over to a pretty little beach town called Plakias. On the way there we stopped to hike down a lot of steps into this gorge, where there was a little church and a really neat series of waterfalls. Jason couldn't resist the urge to climb, so Luke and I sat and looked at flowers and butterflies and played in this little cave under a rock while Jason explored.
After climbing back up to our car, we headed on toward Plakias. Unfortunately, Luke had just fallen asleep when we arrived in town (the steps wore him out, I guess), so we didn't stop and get out. We drove a few minutes out of town, pulled over, and all three of us napped for a little while in the car!

By this point in the week, our camera battery had almost run out, so we didn't take many more pictures.

We had to check out of our hotel the day before we were scheduled to leave Crete, due to a mix-up with our plane tickets. So for our last night in Crete, we drove back to Heraklion (where the airport was) and stayed in a hotel there. We had fun doing more shopping and walking around the city. Jason ate lots of gyros, and Luke and I ate crepes, which he called "chocolate sandwiches." This one I am eating here had bananas and chocolate in it, and it was the best dessert I have eaten since Christmas. And it was my dinner. Does life get better than eating dessert for dinner?
That's chocolate on my chin.

All in all, a wonderful vacation. We were gone just over 10 days, which is just about when we hit our limit. I was ready to get back home, but not ready to leave Greece. It was a lovely place to visit and we'll have many wonderful memories from our trip there.