Crete 1

Greetings from Hersonissos.

We are quite liking our time here. We arrived with no problems again, again had a driver with a sign waiting for us. Our apartment is really just a studio, all one room, quite basic, but very clean and on a quiet street just off the Main Street.

We have been taking it quite easy. Geoff is better at that than I am. I am always feeling that our "job" is to see as much as possible. Crete seems to be very much a tourist island, so the focus is on getting us to spend money. The season has not really started so quite a few stores and restaurants are not open yet. Apparently this is a party destination in the summer but right now we have mostly seen Europeans our age around. I now realize that I would never want to live in a senior-only community. Fortunately there are a lot of young Greeks around to mitigate the situation.

The weather is actually a bit cool, has been  around 18-20 degrees, but is supposed to warm up a little tomorrow. We walked to a nice beach yesterday and spent a few hours there but today was cooler with a cool breeze. I booked tickets on the ferry (a catamaran!) for when we go to Santorini on Monday so we took the bus to Heraklion to pick up the tickets. Remember the bus we took to Corfu, Jude? That is what I was expecting, one step up from a school bus, maybe with some chickens in crates on top. But no. The island buses are like big tour buses with comfy padded seats and storage underneath for your luggage if you have any. It turns out that the bus station in Heraklion is about a five-minute walk from the port so we should be able to take the bus on Monday and save ourselves about 30 euros.

We spent a few hours walking around Heraklion. The old port there was Venetian so it is very picturesque. Had lunch in a nice market.

Geoff thinks he could handle driving here so we may rent a car one day and explore the island. I think a guy who drove to Tobermory in a minivan on the wrong side of the road should have no problem.

I was so looking forward to having a meal like Jude and I did back in the day in Greece. I remember the delicious roast chicken and potatoes we used to have. But so far most of the food is what I think the restaurants think tourists want - fish and chips, schnitzel, chicken fingers. Even the Greek salad does not taste as good as I remember. Maybe it tasted so good because we were so hungry back then.

I took the bottom photo from the bus today.