PICTURES ť CRETE 2001

May 18 - May 27: flight, Almirida, Plaka, Drapanos, Souda, Georgioupolis, Maleme, Kolimbari, Chania, Rethymnon, Marathi
May 28 - June 03: Georgioupolis, Lake Kournas, Chora Sfakion, Chania, Stavros, Katholiko, Almirida, Plaka
June 04 - June 08: Elafonisi, Chania, Aptera, Galatos, flight home

balcony view

Monday May 28th - Georgioupolis, Lake Kournas

We already have some nice pics to scan, so we went back to Alchemist to go online. We combined it with a trip to Lake Kournas, where we layed on a sunbed in the shade at the waterside. In a taverna overlooking the lake we had lunch and we rented a water bike for an hour. By the time we finally found mini-turtles and mini-snakes, our time was up and we had to hurry back. Pity, but it was a wonderful day.

Tuesday May 29th - Chora Sfakion

It was about time to make a long trip through the mountains and the south coast. We drove to Chora Sfakion and it was truly gorgeous in the mountains. We passed the Askifou plateau and drove through the valley of the Imbros gorge (but way above it of course) and that was really beautiful. We may want to do that Imbros walk some day, it's 'only' 8 km I believe? When you get out of the mountains, you slowly zigzag down on a tiring, winding road with numerous hairpin bends and you end in Chora Sfakion where the boats with the Samaria gorge hikers also come in. Beautifully situated at the quiet coast, very picturesque!

Wednesday May 30th - Chania

A day "off". We went to Chania, took some pics and sat on Dionysos' terrace for hoouuuurs, heavenly! We talked to a Jorgos from Tessaloniki, who was stationed at the marine base in Souda. Unfortunately we again couldn't reach Victor.

Thursday May 31st - Akrotiri: Stavros, Katholiko monastry

Time to do something more firm today. We wanted to explore some of Akrotiri, went to Stavros (disappointing, boring village, but with a nice beach) and from the Gouverneto monastry we walked down to the deserted Katholiko monastry, hidden in a gorge. Magnificent! There was a cave, the bearcave, where we found a stalagmite that supposedly looked like a bear, but you needed a bit of fantasy to see that;) Unfortunately you also had to go up all those stairs again (144 steep and 364 long, sloping ones) and without water in the heat I was exhausted! It seemed so short, 30 mins down, 45 mins up. At 200 steps I had to hold up two fingers for a picture, but Nico could have my middlefinger in there as well! ;) Bummer that the videocamera broke down on the way. Our video footage of Crete 2001 stops here. Luckily the photocamera worked fine! On our way back we visited the graves of Eleftherios and Sofoklis Venizelos, where you have a stunning view over Chania. We got home very dirty and I don't think I've ever longed more for a shower than today.

Friday June 1st - Almirida, Georgioupolis

Nothing much today. We wanted to scan some pics at Alchemist, but the scanner wasn't working. We did spend some time online, keeps the withdrawal symptoms away ;)

Saturday June 2nd - Almirida, Chania

Another lazy day, because tonight is Metal Guide's anniversary party in Dionysos (MG is Victor and Manos' webzine that we contribute to). We went to Chania earlier to have some pics scanned there and do a part of the tour from Tony Fennymore's city guide, that we borrowed from the English Anne and Norman, who we met at Elena's café. Funny enough we ran into Tony doing a tour with a group of people!! So we knew he still did that, and we planned to look into getting on such a tour before we go (silly enough we didn't just approach him). We had fun at the party and the turn out was pretty good. We left somewhere in the early hours of Sunday.

Sunday June 3rd - Almirida, Plaka

Nico went for a walk to Gavalohori and Victor, Manos and Soula came by for a swim and dinner in Plaka at Harokopos.