Crete

The first night in Crete was a little rough after such a long day of no sleep and travel. We checked into our hotel and then went and explored Heraklion. It was already after dark when we arrived at the hotel, but it was incredible how much marble surrounded us!  The streets were lined with it.  However, there was also graffiti everywhere too.  We found several places to eat and picked one that looked like it had some amazing gyros.  It did not disappoint!  The food was amazing.  We walked around for a bit after eating and then made it an early night to try and get some sleep.  The sleep was a little rough, and we didn't get much.

Very much a city, but it wasn't overly crowded

Waiting for our food and observing the culture around us.

The food blew us away!! We knew it could be great, but it was better than we expected!

And it wasn't just good because we were hungry and had been eating airplane food.

It was just THAT good!  I had never seen fries on a gyro before, but that was the perfect finishing touch! Everywhere we went after this served fries with the gyros.

Beautiful buildings everywhere

Lion's square was part of our dinner view.  It's a monument from the Venetians. 

Streets of Marble!

 

Safari Tour

We knew the island of Crete was big and thought a tour would be the best way to see the island.  We are so glad we took the tour; it was amazing!!  We loved learning about the more traditional Greek way of life and to see so many different things.  The natives we met were all super friendly and giving.  The guide and group we were with made the day even more enjoyable. There were people from England, Denmark, and Lithuania in our tour.  Everyone spoke English so that is the language we all spoke to one another.  Our guide spoke pretty good English because he married someone from England.  After picking up everyone our first stop was to a tiny village, Potamies and to see the goats.

We learned that there are more goats than people in Crete.  They also made the most delicious goats cheese from the milk that was collected.  We also tasted some local olive oil and were offered raki, a hard liquor made from the grapes.  We declined the raki, haha!

The goat loved Kenney of course!

The well was functional and used for people and animals.

The first picture is a 92 year old woman using the stones to ground flour.  We attempted the same thing later.

This is a herromily, used to make flour. We all took turns grounding the flour ourselves.  It's much harder than it looks.

We all fed the goats and got pictures with them.

Olive trees grow everywhere too. There are millions of olive trees on the island.  A lot of the people work in the tourist industry during the summer and then help with the olive harvest in the winter.

Aposelemis Dam and the Gorge of Embasa

There was a dam created to help catch all the melted snow to help with tourism, to fill pools and have more fresh water.  This village of Sfendili was flooded when it was created; it's also called the Cretan Atlantis.  Some older people stayed in the village until 3 years ago, not wanting to leave their home. 

The view from the road where we were standing.

The mountains we were headed to see.

Our Rover was pretty packed! We all took turns rotating seats, but the back was the worst place to sit.

The gorge

Our guide walked around the side of the road and collected oregano, thyme, and sage literally growing like weeds.  It was awesome, and they smelled so so good!

The ancients would climb to the highest peak you can see if there were volcanic eruptions or tsunamis.  Crazy they would hike that far and high!

The herbs were all over the rocks.  It was crazy!

The trees always depicted with anything Greek. 

Zoomed in view of the peak

A monastery on the mountain side. 

The herbs collected on the trip.  The Anise grew all over to roadsides too.  The basil was at all of the restaurants and coffee shops.

The Village of Psychro and Fruit

Our group stopped for coffee in the village while Kenney and I walked around and explored.  There was a lady on the side of the road mashing tomatoes.  I tried to talk to her, but she didn't know English.  It was cool to watch her squeeze the tomatoes while I would just go buy a can in the store.

The local people found us at the coffeeshop and gave our group a huge bag of fresh grapes.  They were the best grapes I had ever had!! So so good.  When everyone left there were still tons of grapes so I grabbed them and we snacked on them the next few days.

Pottery being sold by the local artists.

Random buildings around the town.

It's hard to see but there is a dog on top of that roof that was barking and chasing us on the edge.  I thought he was going to fall.

A painting of the plateau with all the windmills.

Fresh yummy walnuts.

Our guide picked up a pomegranate off one of the trees and peeled it for us.  He also grabbed pears, apples, and more.  My bag of fruit and our stomachs were full and we hadn't even gotten to lunch yet!!

See, the basil grows like crazy!

A local going about his day.

A handmade tapestry.

Olive Oil Factory & More

There were a couple earthquakes the first night we were in Crete so the cave where Zeus was born was not open.  I asked our guide to take us to an olive factory instead, hoping to see how olive oil is made and really wanting to see how they did it anciently.  The factory he took us to wasn't the best, and it wasn't currently operational.  They showed us the machinery and used pictures to show us what happens when they are actually making the oil. It wasn't what we were hoping, but we didn't have many other options anyway.

We were able to taste some of the flavored oils they made as well as some of the local honey.  It all tasted really good.

The outside of the giftshop.

Inside the factory.  It was amazing to see that they use every part of the olives.  Nothing goes to waste.

The Lasithi Plateau.  It was once filled with close to 10,000 windmills.  In the winter it fills with snow.

The Lasithi Plateau a little further down the road.  You can see the soccer pitch from here. 

This olive tree was over 500 years old.  There are about 30-35 million olive tress on the island.  Some of the trees are native and some have been planted by man.

This is the Plateau Limnocanaro which is slightly higher in elevation than the Lasithi Plateau.

The mountains behind us covered in clouds are some of the highest in Crete.

Our guide was pretty funny and had a great sense of humor.

View higher in the mountains looking down on the water from the dam.

Our tour group with the Brits on the right, us, the Lithuanians, and the Danish on the the end.

Driving through other villages we saw a man on his roof drying out beans for the week.

This is one of many bells made from the shell of a bomb from WWII.

We also saw some homemade wine being produced.  They get in the back of the truck and crush the grapes with their feet and let the juice gather in the barrell.

Well, out of place, but here we are overlooking the gorgeous countryside.

Lunch at Ano Kera

Here's our guide taking a picture with us.

During lunch there were a lot of bees and the Brits were terrified!  It was pretty funny because Tim eventually had to get up and sit at another table for a bit.  Kenney was pretty tired because he started laughing and couldn't stop.  We had a good time with them.

Lunch included a Greek salad, dolmadakia/dolmas, tzatziki, and stuffed squash leaves.

I had the roasted potatoes and chicken.  Kenney had the pork and potatoes, both were delicious!!  Dessert was a really good cheesecake I didn't get a picture of before eating it.

This was the view from the back of the restaurant.

The view going to the restrooms.

The handwashing station.

The brick oven our lunch was cooked in.

The beautiful seating area of the restaurant.

Across the street an artist painted all these gourds.

The End of the Tour

Our last stop was in the village of Krasi.

This tree is 2,400 years old.  It started to get too heavy and needed to be braced, but that's an old tree!!

Trying to get the entire tree in the picture

During the spring and summer water pours out of these spouts from the melting snow.

This is just a trickle now, but it can be gushing out in the spring.

Laundry used to be done in these basins.

A view of the coastline on the north side of the island.

The water is so pretty.

Shops and Harbor of Heraklion

Our last evening in Crete we walked down the streets of Heraklion down to the harbor.  We were still pretty full from the tour and just grabbed some gelato after looking in some shops and enjoying our walk. 

There were a lot of mosaics on the streets and driveways all throughout Greece.

Not sure what this was, but it was right outside of our hotel.

It must have been a fountain or cistern at some point.

There were all kinds of shops, but the one full of olive tree wood products were so cool!

Down by the harbor right after sunset.

The Koules Fortress

The gelato did not disappoint!  It melted fast, but tasted so good and was a great end to a fantastic day!

Videos from the day

This meat was incredible!!  It tasted so so good!

The roads were even pretty!

The super delicious goat cheese we ate came from that goat's milk.

Our guide talking about olive harvest and other ways of life around Crete.

Kenney grounding flour the traditional way.

Me trying to ground flour like the 92 year old lady.  I was impressed with the abilities of the older generation!

Some of the roads got really bumpy!  He also played "I Like to Move it Move it" from Madagascar.

The gorge was beautiful and surprisingly big.

There were so many impressive things made from the olive tree wood.  Pretty much anything you could think of was in that shop!