Back to Chania

We left Aghios Pavlos with every intention of returning sometime; I really hope we manage it. We had a longish drive through the mountains to the other, north side of the island, as we want to see Chania, and that's where we fly home from.

We stopped in Spili, the regional centre, which is a lovely little town, with a delightful square with a very long fountain, a trough with a row of lion heads spouting water, some tempting cafes (but it was too early to eat) and some really appealing tourist shops. There’s quite a lot of stuff you actually would like to buy in Crete. Wihout any intention of actually shopping, I ended up buying a tablecloth and napkins and a couple of bathmats!

The drive was less stressful than we expected, because the traffic was quite light, and the roads, on the whole, wider than we expected. It was certainly a lot less stressful than Norway or round Genoa, the two places which for us define driving stress. The scenery is spectacular – the mountains go as high as 7,000 feet and still have patches of snow on the top, and there are some amazing rock formations. It’s pretty barren – there are some pines and, I think, myrtle, and strips of pink oleander down the mountain sides marking tiny watercourses.  Occasionally, it was barren enough to make me think of Arizona, especially since all the road signs have been shot up. We drove up and up, some of the time beside the Imbros Gorge, down which the Commonwealth troops escaped to the sea in 1941. The Royal Navy managed to get a lot of them off, but about 12, 000 were captured. There’s a museum, really just a collection of all sorts of military equipment from both sides, collected by a Cretan man who was wounded in the fighting as a ten year old. It ranges from an anti-aircraft gun to a box of Mills bombs (which I sincerely hope have been made safe) and a kukri. I didn’t know Gurkha soldiers were involved.

We had a late and solid lunch at a taverna near the end of the Imbros Gorge. It was charmingly decorated, all Cretan blues and white, and run by a couple who weren’t quite old enough to be our parents. It promised home cooking, and I must say, years of experience on the part of our hostess told, and it was a wonderful meal.

We stayed just outside Chania proper, a bit back from the beach but with a sea view, and today we went into Chania, which is a delightful town. It didn’t get so badly bombed as Iraklio, so lots of the old town has survived and is mostly pedestrianized. I imagine it’s a bit grim in high season, but today there were  just enough tourists to give it a nice buzz.

Old shop in Chania

Restored house in the old Turkish quarter

The harbour is really worth seeing, with massive Venetian fortifications and a lighthouse, and enormous stone sheds, for maintaining the galleys. Apparently there were something like seventeen of them but only about eight are left.                                             

Old mosque, with harbour walls on the left

The Lighthouse

There’s also an enormous customs house, and we ate lunch in what had been an olive oil soap factory under the Venetians. Crete does make one muse on the mutability of things; the Minoans, rich, skilled, artistic and sophisticated, and gone like ash in the wind; the Venetians, the great power of the Mediterranean, and now a sinking city existing on tourism.

The galley sheds

There’s an archaeological museum, with some Minoan bits, and the best thing was a whole case of pottery bulls, left as offerings at a shrine to Poseidon, in his capacity as the god who causes earthquakes. There were offerings of real sheep and goats, but presumably a real bull was too expensive, so pottery ones were substituted.  The other good museum was of Byzantine bits, with some frescoes, mosaics and carvings. Crete has an awful lot of history.

Restaurants lining the harbour

There’s a couple of leftover minarets, and a mosque on the harbour, used for exhibitions. The one today was on the Battle of Crete. There were some amazing photographs, but one board really stunned us. It was clearly the prints of a roll of film which some German had taken at the massacre of about 35 Cretan villagers, documenting the whole thing, from rounding up the villagers, separating the men and boys, to good clear pictures of the firing squad, to the corpses. I know that psychopathic serial killers sometimes take photos, but these were ordinary soldiers. I presume they were so sure that they’d win the war that they didn’t consider the possibility of being brought to justice, but how is it that they were so lacking in shame that they would document their actions?

On a similar topic, we found a sixteenth century synagogue, with library and a mikvah. It has recently been restored because it was burned in 2010, by, according to the information, two British, two Americans, and one Cretan. How depressing is that? Especially since the synagogue had a plaque in memory of the Jews of Chania,  who were deported and killed towards the end of June 1944. After D Day, when surely, surely the Germans knew they were going to lose the war.

Church with bell tower and ex-minaret

To return to more cheerful topics – I’ve bought olive oil, herbs, and saffron, and even a bottle of raki. We keep being given a free tot after meals and it’s the nearest thing to lighter fuel I’ve ever tasted. But we had a taste of some with lemon and honey (and it was weaker, thank God) and it was nice. So I’ve also got a small bottle flavoured with pomegranate.

Then we went back to the hotel and I changed to go down to the beach for a swim. It’s quite windy today, so it was mostly jumping the waves and not a lot of actual swimming, but very invigorating.

The journey back was much less stressful than the journey out; and the whole week was a terrific success. Every café had a group of old boys sitting drinking and gossiping, and definitely not helping with the housework, shopping or cooking,  with the result that  Phil wants to retire to Crete.

Aghios Pavlos

This is a super place. It’s very rocky, with all sorts of different rocks – marble, quartz, a weird conglomerate, some very dark red or even purple stuff, that I think was used to decorate the walls in Minoan palaces, and may be called something like stearite. I would look it up, so as not to mislead you and not to look a fool, but the internet is pretty wobbly here. There’s even pumice. I suppose it’s all to do with Crete’s eventful geological past, but the contortions of the strata have to be seen to be believed. There are collapsed sea caves and stacks, too. However, there are beaches, one right in front of the hotel, and others you can walk along the headlands and climb down to; the headlands are rocky and bare apart from prickly sea holly type plants and shrubs which I thought were juniper, but seem too prickly.

  

The hotel is really good – there are people staying here who are on a yoga course, and the atmosphere is mostly Mediterranean, but crossed with a bit of new age-y incense and posters of Buddha. The situation is fabulous and the owners are not charging any more than normal for the food, which is quite impressive, since there aren’t really any other convenient places to eat, and they have a pretty captive clientele. The food is good, too.The only complaint I’ve got is that the shower cubicle is tiny, so we’re just using the bathroom as a wet room, and as it’s so hot, it dries off in no time.

                         Aghios Pavlos Hotel

It’s good place for people watching as well as swimming. A German bloke was showing two nubile ladies a couple of stones – they looked pretty average for round here but he kept them talking for ages and they seemed genuinely interested. Phil was puzzling over that for ages. Then there was the English couple, younger than us but certainly well into their forties, where the woman was teaching the man “Scissors, paper, stone.” This raised a number of questions. Who doesn’t know how to play it?  How long have they been a couple – not long surely, if they don’t know things like that about each other; but how long are they likely to last if she’s reduced to teaching him how to play it, on holiday in a place like this?  Also, a large proportion of the guests are German, who are completely fazed by the British convention of saying hello to anyone you meet walking outside of a town.

   

                                       Looking out from the hotel

The sea is a bit dead, after the Red Sea, but there are a few different sorts of small fish, and sea urchins, and I got very mildly nettled by a jelly fish. I would love to see an octopus, but no luck. I think they’re quite shy. It doesn’t matter. I love sea swimming.

We are so pleased with this place that we’ve asked to stay an extra night. I reminds us of the Amalfi coast, but as it was forty four years ago. Only it’s a lot less lush. 

Sunday - to the seaside

We got up to cloudy sky and poor visibility, but still warm, so no complaints, and we drove off to Gortyna and Phaistos, which is another Minoan site. We needed cash (everyone wants cash and tells us they can’t take credit cards, I suppose because it’s easier to dodge tax.)  There seems rather a dearth of ATMs , compared with England at any rate, and when we eventually spotted one it wasn’t working. So it was a relief to spot one in a scruffy little town in the mountains, and even more of a relief when it worked. There was also a general store and we needed water, fruit and, ideally, some sticking plasters , as I’ve got a slightly sore patch on my foot. But the only box of plasters was opened. To our amusement, the lady behind the counter made it clear that sticking plasters are sold by the piece not the packet. So we bought four plasters and some local honey, as it seemed that we would be being positively rude if we left without any.

By the time we got to Gortyna it was really getting hot and the clouds had disappeared.  So we slapped on the suncream and saw what there is to see. It was the capital of Roman Crete and obviously covered a very large area, a lot of which is not excavated as it’s under ancient olive groves and a village.

                            A bit of Gortyna, in an olive tree.

What you can see is the odeon, which was pretty complete, though not as complete as the one in Amman. But on the back wall, there is inscribed the code of law. It’s massive, and deals with marriage and inheritance as well as crime. As far as I could make out the punishments seemed to be fines. What happened if you couldn’t pay the fine wasn’t specified, but it must have happened. For example, rape of a slave, male or female, cost you 5 whatever the coinage was. But rape of a free person cost you 100. However, if a slave raped a free person, it cost the slave 200. So then I spent the rest of the day wondering if a slave could conceivably have paid up, and if not, what they did to him.

                    The odeon - the laws are under the brick arches at the rear.

The other main site was a very early Christian basilica, about 250 A.D. founded by Titus, Paul’s disciple, as in the epistles. I got quite excited about that. It wasn’t quite as good as walking along “the street called Straight” in Damascus, but pretty good. A bit along the road was a small chapel over the tombs of ten Christian martyrs, from 250 A.D. That was quite exciting too. 

The graves of the ten martyrs.

  

Phaistos was  only understandable if one had been to Knossos and the museum. But as we had, it was very interesting. It’s very similar to Knossos. They both make me think of Gormenghast; massive efforts put into rituals rather than life itself, and all sorts of people under the same roof, although in Gormenghast  the craftsmen lived outside – here, even they, with their mess and furnaces, are inside the complex.  It is a labyrinth, too, with scores of tiny rooms.

Phaestos North Courtyard with processional way.

By this time it was really hot – I really wouldn’t like to visit in summer – and we still had to visit the third Minoan site, Agia Triada, which is down a hill, so quite a lot of stairs to return to the car. We’ve got the hang of Minoan sites now, but they are still strange. This one had much more obvious water supply and drainage arrangements than Phaistos.

Then to Vori, where there is a really interesting small museum of Cretan everyday life. There were some wonderful photos, including photos of the partisans and S.A.S. men who kidnapped the German commander. Fifty Cretans, who had nothing to do with the kidnap, were shot as a result. There was every sort of everyday living and craft working implement, all very well displayed. It was much better than I’m making it sound. We had a very late lunch, Cretan salad which is Greek salad with extra bits like egg and capers, which really hit the spot.

We drove on over the mountains which are spectacular, but sadly we’ve missed the wild flowers we hoped to see. We must be just a bit too late. All there is, is some broom nearly finished, and lots of oleander.

Finally we arrived at our destination, Aghia Pavlos, and it’s a triumph, a beautiful cove, very quiet as the road ends here, and a lovely hotel/taverna. I’ve already had a super swim, and now we’re off to eat.

Crete

We had a week off grandparent duties (or as it’s otherwise known, fun) and decided to go away, perhaps to Suffolk or Dorset. But the weather has been so cold and miserable, Phil decided to see where we could get to from East Midlands for a week. One of the places was Crete, so here we are, sitting outside in the evening while I write this, with the sea to look at if I need inspiration.

I must say, though, we suffered for this. East Midlands may be the closest airport, but it must also be the least efficient in Britain. And cheeky - £3 a head for express through security, which wasn’t express at all, because the queues were so long (right out of the terminal)  that loads of people were gritting their teeth and paying up. To cap it all, of four ticket machines, only two were working and they seemed to be on a go slow. The security was alarming, too – the arch beeped at everyone, even small children, so what was the point of it? Then they kept sending things back to go through the XRay again (my shoes and my E reader, but not Phil’s E reader, got the treatment), and as they weren’t wearing gloves and things kept going back and forth, not with their original bags, there must have been a high chance of contamination, had there actually been anything to detect. It all took ages, and it was really stressful, trying to keep track of one’s belongings.  Then Chania must be low down the efficiency rankings even for Greece. East Midlands and Chania were so lousy that we felt full of the milk of human kindness towards Ryanair, so that shows you.

We picked up the hire car and set off for Iraklion. We stopped for a potter round Rethymno, which was pleasant, and has a very extensive fort, built by the Venetians originally. The Ottomans converted the church to a mosque, and there were other ex-mosques, including one or two minarets. It was beautifully warm after England, but very, very windy; occasionally it actually blew one off balance, so definitely not a day for the beach.

The hotel is just outside Iraklion proper, and perfectly fine. So we walked up the road for a meal, very decent, which was lucky because we were absolutely starving.

Today we left straight after breakfast for the centre of Iraklion, and managed after not too fraught a drive, to park near the Archeological Museum. This has been under renovation during the whole of living memory, but there is one small gallery of sculpture and one gallery of the Minoan best bits which are open, and in fact were free, as today is World Museum Day or some such.

I might as well confess, I didn’t manage to choose one object. It was alright in the sculpture gallery – there was a temple frieze of horsemen from the sixth century B.C., very stylised and austere, with the riders much smaller in proportion than the horses, and I’m having that. It’s great. But then the Minoan stuff – well, I just can’t choose. The very early, prepalatial, stuff reminded me of the early things we saw in Syria, although that was even earlier. But then, it was as though the Minoans found their own view of the world, quite different to anything else I’ve seen. The jewellery! You could wear it today, too, it’s not outlandish or over exotic, just beautifully made with exquisite craftsmanship and taste. The pottery was stunning; normally it leaves me rather cold, but this was so lovely that for a moment I considered buying a replica! There was a jar or vase with an octopus painted on it, and a jug with a leaf design that made me think of William Morris. Then there were the bronze swords and knives with gold fittings, the frescos, the vases and jugs in alabaster and such, the famous bull’s head libation cup, with the most amazing and beautiful detail – I could go on and on. So I can’t, I really can’t, choose one thing. Phil chose the Bee pendant, which was utterly exquisite.

So then we had a look at the fortifications, which are Venetian and massive, very impressive, then retrieved the car and went to Knossos.

The Throne Room (as Evans thought.)

I’m glad we did the museum first, and although I’m aware that Arthur Evan’s reconstructions are controversial, to say the least, I was actually quite glad of them, because without the reconstructions, and without having seen the artefacts in the museum, I’m not sure how much the site would have meant to me. I think Crete must have been more fertile then, because looking at the hills around the site, it’s difficult to imagine how they got so rich. But North Africa used to be Rome’s breadbasket. And Crete is certainly in a good position for sea trading. However, it quite often seemed as though Evans had an over active imagination.  I must see if there’s a readable up to date account. Of course, like everyone else of my age,  I read Evans’ The Bull of Minos years ago, but ideas have changes since then, though they still haven’t deciphered Linear A.

Another of Evans' reconstructed bits, but I forgive him.

One of the nice things, was the enormous storage jars. Yo could quite see how king whatever his name was could hide in one when Heracles turned up with the man eating boar. Sorry for the vagueness of my classical mythology - it's age I'm afraid. But I do remember the jar bit, and being slightly puzzled by the idea as a child. 

Then we had a late and very substantial lunch, and went back to the hotel, for a swim and a sit. This is the life.