Iro Rethymnon

Our first view of Crete was of mountains rising in sheer walls from the sea as we approached this Mediterranean jewel (the most southerly of the Greek Islands) late on a Monday morning.(Nov 9). The sun was shining and the temperature was about 19 C so we were set for a glorious afternoon as we docked in the charming and animated port town of Aghios Nikolaos (St. Nicholas). Hilly, with narrow, steep streets that provide alluring sea views, the town was a ...

... no supermarkets, no shops, nada! By this stage we were starving as well, so the kind man who ran the hotel took pity on us and loaned us his car to take into the "nearby" village.... which was pretty much deserted. Sigh. We bought a loaf of bread, a tomato, some cheese and some ham, which was to be our dinner, and then our breakfast and lunch for the next day.

We decided one night in solitude was more than enough for both of us so packed up our gear ...

Yesterday we got up at 5am in order to catch our plane from Santorini. Most of our group was on the same plane , so we said our sleepy good byes. We flew on Aegean Air which has nice new planes. We went to Athens and then basically retraced the short flight by flying to Crete. We staggered into hotel Lato at 10am where we received a special bonus upgrade to the 5th floor executive suite. 2 rooms on the 5th floor with an ...

We had decided to go to Knossos on our last full day (Friday) as it is close to Iraklio where Chris and Milly will fly from on Friday night. But it made sense to take the last day in a more leisurely fashion and visit the Minoan palace of Knossos on Thursday. So we did.

After a brisk drive through the usual nightmare traffic and narrow streets, and our usual lunch, this time just across the road from the palace, we entered the grounds. The entry fee is €6 ...

We had a delay. Got up around 3:45 am and left Rose Cottage at 4 O'Clock for the airport. It was already starting to get lioght as we cruised by sleeping English villages. By the time we arrived at the airport it was fully light. Stood in a lond que(sp?) for check-in where we were told that our plane was delayed adnd that would we would hear further news at 10 am! (the joy of ...

... a while but I am really ready and looking forward to it! Flying into Vancouver next wednesday then somehow getting over to Victoria where will meet dad, Lena and Karen then on friday mom is arriving! oh man it is going to be so much fun! then on sunday we are all flying home together! Which I think is really nice!

So thats about it have to get out in that sunshine to keep up my dark tan ;-)) Life is so hard!!!

... how lucky am I to be Canadian where I am allowed to walk free and where I don't get harassed and where I don't have to ask for permission for anything. it's weird and freaky and good and bad all at the same time. I don't knwo what else to say it messes your ehad a little bit and makes you sad at the same time. And then you think wow maybe you take everything for granted you travel around europe by yourself having good and bad things happen but at least you have the choice.

ok so I have gone this long in my life and hear I am thinking how WONDERFUL life is sitting in the shade of a olive trea feet up on another chair reading an engaging book sipping on Ouzo and coke and then BAM sharp pain in ALMOST my arm pit! AGHHHHH I YELP a high pitch EEEE into the air jumping out of my seat slapping at myself profusly (thinking a nasty spider has copme along dropped on me bitten me and is now in my dress) but NO look into where the pain was (hard ...

... and uglier! NOT the place you want to spend on the street. BUt there was ONE bus left to Rethymno! AWESOME! got on the bus slept the whole way! (only 1 hour)

BUT there were NO buses after that adn the bus station was closed! so grasbbed my stuff adn sat outside I knew there was a bus at 615 to Plakias so whatever decided to just camp out.

have you ever tried to camp out at a bust station?? I was a little nervous as I was ll by ...

Through a series of unfortunate events, this is the sole remaining picture of our magical day in Crete. In all of my genius I deleted the Crete and Turkey photos by accident and boy was that ever a sad day. Of course the first thing I did after getting home from the cruise was upload the Sbux series to Facebook, so now the Starbucks photo is the only one left of Crete :(