Crete - Day 6

We packed up and left the apartment in the morning, with a 3.5 hour drive ahead. First we drove north west to the coast and joined the main coast road. We headed into Rethymnon and parked near the harbour.

We walked round to the lighthouse and up its rather dangerous staircase.

After lunch overlooking the sea we had a stroll round the narrow streets of the old town.

While there Scott wanted to find a pharmacy as his eye was getting rather red and inflamed. The pharmacist advised antibiotic ointment.

We continued our journey west, stopping at a supermarket for provisions, then headed inland (south) after Chania. We reached our destination, Paleochora on the south coast, about 4.30pm.

We soon found Roula Apartments where we were staying. Roula greeted us and was very nice, giving us presents of candied fruit, olives and cakes.

After the long drive we decided to stay in, we had salmon, roasted vegetables and fried potatoes for dinner.

Crete - Day 5

A wet day today, we didn't do anything! We kept thinking it was about to clear up, but it really rained all day.

Scott was suffering a bit with his eye as well. For dinner we had roasted vegetables.

Crete - Day 4

Scott woke up with a swollen eye, related to his blocked tear ducts. It was quite painful so we decided we needed to see a doctor. After much googling we decided to drive to the medical centre at Bali on the coast, about an hour away.

There we saw a doctor who spoke perfect English and diagnosed a nasolacrimal blockage. The treatment was diuretic tablets and cortisone ointment.

Since it was sunny and we were at a beach resort, we went and laid on the beach for a while, also going into the sea which wasn't too chilly.

At lunchtime we drove further along the coast to Ammoudaros beach near Iraklion. We had a good lunch at a beach bar - dolmades, fried zucchini, chicken souvlaki pita and pork souvlaki pita. After this we lay on sun beds at the bar for a while.

We found a Lidl supermarket on the way home where we bought more provisions, then drove back to the apartment. After such a big lunch we didn't need dinner so we only had some crisps.

Crete - Day 3

We had breakfast on our bedroom balcony in the morning.

We decide to climb Mount Psiloritis, also known as Mount Ida, the highest point on Crete at 2456m.

First we drove higher into the mountains to the Nida Plateau and parked next to an unfinished ski resort building. The start of the walk, at 9.45am, was at about 1400m.

It was a steep rocky path just about all the way up many dry stream beds. There were a lot of large birds hovering around the sky, and lots of goats.

It was very quiet, though we did see a few more climbers nearer the top. One French couple were a bit lost and we were able to point out the route to the top. It took us 4 hours to get there, at the top is a chapel made of stones.

It was sunny there, but there was quite a lot of cloud around so we didn't get fantastic views.

The descent felt very long, and we decided against adding on a walk to the nearby Ideon Cave. We got down just after 5pm.

We drove home and showered, then later went out for dinner.

We went to the Arodamus restaurant which had good reviews. We had saganaki (fried cheese), fava bean cream, house salad with mountain greens, spaghetti with cheese crumbled on top, and lamb Antikristo (cooked the "shepherd's way"). It was all pretty good.

Late on, the waiter helped himself to some of our wine for a toast! All in good fun, they gave us free sweets and a liqueur.

Crete - Day 2

Breakfast was included with the hotel, it was quite a good buffet with cooked bacon, eggs and sausages, as well as yoghurt, fruit, pastries etc. We then checked out and drove into the centre of Iraklion.

The car park we found was valet parking, which was a bit confusing at first. We walked round the shops and market, which wasn't quite as good as we hoped.

We went to the archaeological museum, which was full of artefacts from all over Crete, it really gave you a feel for all the civilisations that have occupied the island over the millennia.

After this we strolled down to the seafront and through the streets a bit.

For lunch we bought cheese and spinach pies, plus loukoumades, which are light pastries covered in honey. We ate lunch sitting in a small park.

After this we retrieved the car and drove out of town. Our next apartment was in Anogia in the mountains, on the way we stopped at Tylissos. There we walked round an ancient archaeological site which was nice and peaceful compared to the city.

We then drove on to Anogia. We didn't exactly know where the apartment was, so we had a bit of a wander about before stopping for a drink at a bar.

While there we worked out that the apartment was quite close by. We bought some groceries at a rather poorly stocked supermarket then drove round to check in. At first there was a bit of a misunderstanding as the lady didn't speak English and tried to sell us another room!

Eventually we got sorted out, the apartment is on two floors with two bathrooms and a mountain view. The kitchen, however, isn't very well equipped.

We went back out in the car and found another bigger supermarket, where we bought pizza for our dinner among other things. We went back, had our dinner and an early night.

Crete - Day 1

We caught a taxi to Edinburgh airport about 1.30pm. Our flight to Iraklion was with Jet2 and we were going with hand luggage only, so we had to do a bit of rationalisation to get both below the 10kg limit.

At the airport we had a pint at Wetherspoons before taking off on time at 3.30pm. We unfortunately weren't sitting together on this flight.

It was uneventful and arrived slightly early at about 9.45pm Greek time. We picked up our hire car at Avis, they gave us a free upgrade to a white Citroen DS4 diesel.

We drove to our hotel, the Sofia, which was only 10 minutes away. After checking in and taking our luggage to the room we went down to the bar. We had a couple of beers and some snacks, Cretan rusk with tomatoes and cheese and Greek salad.