As I headed from Rethymno towards Chania, I finally had a sunny (and cloudy but not torrentially rainy!) day. It makes such a difference.

I went to a few small towns and walked around. They are, of course, built over gorges. (One of the most popular things to do here is hike the Samaria gorge but it’s closed for the season. It’s a 10-mile walk and apparently a challenging and at times narrow gorge full of flora and fauna — Francoise this has your name written all over it. But in the rainy seasons they close it for safety reasons as it floods easily.)

There are a lot of shorter and wider gorges that remain open all year but I hadn’t planned for long grassy hikes. And it’s been raining like crazy so I think it’d be wet and slippery. Who knew Crete was so mountainous?!

Anyway I stuck mostly to roads and stairs. And the views around really are gorgeous.

I started in Episkopi. One thing I have to say about Greek towns… Other than the picturesque old narrow streets of the major former Venetian towns and beautiful views of white mountains, green countryside, and turquoise sea surrounding them, something about the architecture or maybe the condition of the towns is not that compelling. There are a lot of dilapidated buildings and graffiti and somehow the proportions of the rather flat squat buildings isn’t overly appealing. I didn’t take photos of the less attractive towns but you see the graffiti and crumbling buildings everywhere, especially in the villages.

Nonetheless, I moved on to the villages of Argiroupoli and Lappa, where there are apparently water mills and natural springs but somehow I couldn’t find them. Oh well. I had a great walk up and down stairs and hills anyway.

I moved down mountain and lunched on a terrace next to Lake Kournas. When the sun was out it was wonderfully warm. But the minute it went behind clouds it got chilly. I know it’s about -5 in Chicago so I can’t complain about 50s in January! But just saying…

There was quite the menagerie on the deck. Cats, ducks, a small dog all going around the tables hoping for handouts. And geese in the water. A German family near me loved it. I’m not sure I was as enthralled.

Afterwards in the Chania (western) region I visited local beaches, an archeological site, and the old town of Chania itself. I’m staying outside the town, in Pithari, with views out my window like this. It’s over the Souda Bay. The area is called Akrotiri, which means Cape. It is full of monasteries for some reason (even more than usual for Crete which already has a lot) and has its own mountain and many beaches.

But first, I visited Ancient Aptera. My host suggested it when he realized I like archeological sites. It’s so well situated, at the center of the Souda Bay, it’s been documented as being occupied as a look out or key town since 14th century BC (Minoan times).

As he put it, I could see the entire history of Crete there. Although the Minoan remains were destroyed (doubtless by the earthquake) — or have not yet been excavated — there are Hellenistic ruins from 900-300 BC, Roman ruins from 67 BC to 400 AD, a 12th century monastery and church, and Turkish forts from 1866-1872.

Plus there are amazing views. Overlooking the bay on one side (and Akrotiri where I’m staying), with an island or two for good measure. Then the white mountains on the other side.

Really a beautiful location. The most interesting ruins are generally considered to be the Roman ones. And they’re still excavating them.

In fact I was sort of amused because everywhere there are seemingly spare rocks or ceramics thrown aside. I think until they find use for them. It’s like a crazy big 3-D puzzle and they’re still discovering the pieces. I can just imagine — “now, where’d I toss that triangular piece with the bottom edge chopped off?!” I saw pieces with artwork and carvings on them so I seriously think they’re just trying to find and then put all the pieces together.

The cisterns with its barrel ceilings, baths, and mostly the auditorium are the most lauded.

The auditorium was really interesting as the Romans built on top of and extended an original Hellenistic auditorium. They’ve identified which parts are from which era. They’ve uncovered the roads and stairs to it plus the orchestra, stage, and seating areas. And the acoustics are still good.

After Aptera I tried to reserve the few forecasted sunny days to visit beaches. My host recommended going to Falassarna on the western coast of Crete. This was after I told him I wanted to see the two most famous western beaches (Elafonisi on the southwest and Balos Lagoon on Gramvoussa in the northwest) but am afraid of the high roads with no barriers and hairpin turns. He looked at me, puzzled and pityingly, and strongly recommended I skip them both. One has dirt roads to get to the final part — and with all the recent (and forecasted) rain it was likely to have fallen rocks. The other is through the mountains; when you get there you can walk through the water on a sandbar to an island — easy in a bathing suit but not so great in clothes as it’s about 3 feet of water. So I took his advice and went to Falassarna.

Oh well. Maybe in the drier summer I can make it there. (The third most famous beach, Vai, is in the very northeastern coast and I didn’t get there either.) Meantime Falassarna was a very long beach area (I drove from place to place) that changed from hard rocks to nice sand (and everything in between) along the coast. There were even sand dunes at one part. And pink sand at another. It may not be the most famous but I found it all beautiful and didn’t feel I’d missed out on anything?!There’s a lot to see and do in Crete and there are definite advantages to going in season (or best yet, in the shoulder months of May-June and September-October). Although someone told me the beaches are most beautiful in winter — not just because they’re less busy but also because the currents bring the really clear and clean water.

And the cooler weather and rain makes the land green.

But back to beaches around Akrotiri. Stavros is famous as it’s where they filmed “Zorba the Greek” (the author was born in Crete).

And Kalathas faces west so has beautiful sunsets though I only caught one on a cloudy day a bit south of the beach. (The town you see is Chania.)

I also went to see the most famous of the monasteries on Akrotiri, Agia Triada (Holy Trinity). It didn’t have the history of Arkadi but it was pretty, more intact, and has its own olive groves and vineyards. They make their own olive oils and wines, which they sample and sell in the gift shop! It was tasty but as we know, I’m not carrying back any souvenirs! (By the way, I haven’t commented on the architecture of the churches I visited — Byzantine so lots of gold and shiny things! Not really my style but interesting to see.)

Finally, Chania is considered to be the prettiest city in Crete. Certainly when I spoke to people about where to go on the island, they always brought up Chania – reminded me of how the Andalusians always asked if I was going to Sevilla. I agree it was the prettiest town although I only spent a half day there.

Like the other Cretan cities there was the Venetian fort and harbor. And absolutely Chania’s were the most beautiful. The lighthouse is apparently the symbol of the city.

And the narrow old town streets like Rethymno (with graffiti of course).

And views of the bays and sea. My host had advised me to try to go to the maritime museum which has a replica ship of the type the Minoans used for trade. Think small but lots of oars! Of course it closed early and I missed seeing it though I wasn’t that motivated. (I ate lunch instead outside overlooking the harbor. It was one of my few really sunny days and I hated the thought of going inside when I could enjoy the warmth.)

All in all, it was a slightly more restful part of my trip. It helped that the views on my deck area and out my window were this. Peaceful. Even in rain.

A nice ending to the major travel part of my trip. I’ll be posting this from Cambridge. I didn’t have a huge need to go there but I found a really great flight (and cheap!) out of London on Sunday. And since I was just in London I looked around for a nearby interesting town that had good transportation from Stansted, where I’m flying into from Athens, and out to Gatwick, where I depart from to Chicago. (Turns out I’m foiled again with London train shutdowns due to off peak travel track maintenance. I’m really getting tired of London’s track repairs!!! This is the third time they’re screwing me up. But it’ll be the last for awhile and I’ll just be on a very early, very long bus ride to Gatwick.)

Oh well. The funny, nice part of my 3-night layover in Cambridge is that I’ll meet up with Mary and Will there. Mary’s in London for work for a week and the only weekend they’re in town is when I’ll be there. Talk about serendipity!