Improving.

Both the weather and my cold are improving to a degree. It was wild, wet and grey this morning but gradually the rain eased and some blue began to appear in the sky.

My cold symptoms have lessened to what I consider a 'standard' cold with just a cough and runny nose with most of the flu like aches and pains now gone. But, despite today's walk starting in Borth I decided not to go. For a start I wouldn't like to pass on this particularly virulent cold to my fellow walkers one of whom has COPD and another is having cancer treatment. And enjoyable as being out in this weather is it might not help my recovery and I don't want to get worse and have to miss my covid jab on Tuesday.

So it's been a quiet day at home, doing admin, and tidying up those small piles of 'stuff' that appear around the place. 

I've also been taking photos for a book I want to make to show the work we've done on the house. Recording things might qualify as one of my obsessions though that word implies a fixation on something that others see as mundane. For me reading my journals or looking at a photo transports me right back to a particular time. I don't know about other people but there are too many memories in my head to have instant recall without some sort of a prompt.

And now for the last time a few more holiday snaps.
 

Spinalonga and the stunning blues of the sea.

Sunrise.

Most evenings we would stroll around the harbour then sit and watch the lights that illuminate the ruins on Spinalonga turning on as the moon rose behind the island. 

One evening as I looked at the moon I was surprised to see what had been a full moon the night before was now a crescent moon. Or so I thought until we realised that we were watching a lunar eclipse. We weren't the only people watching and when the moon was completely covered by the earth's shadow everyone started clapping. I rushed back to the apartment to get my camera and took some photos of the 'Blood Moon' which was really more orange than red.

As well as the lights on Spinalonga some of the restaurants had lights in the sea. One evening there was a village wide power cut. People were walking round using the torches on their phones though when I walked down to the sea front the restaurants had their own generators (I think power cuts are quite common) and Spinalonga was still lit up. 

Pete and I had been playing cribbage in the apartment  as a nod to when we played cribbage in the local taverna on a visit to Paros 50 years ago which had intrigued the villagers. We tried a hack that I had seen on FB of putting a bottle of water on top of the phone light. That worked well giving us a table lamp effect to play cards by.

Of course I had to take a photo of these cakes in a bakery in Agios Nikolaos. Very much special occasion cakes I would think. 

While we did not buy much in the way of cakes we did buy a lot of fresh fruit often from the markets. This plum came with its own map of Crete on it.

Elounda.

Storm Amy raged all through the night and into the day with the heavy rain not easing off until late afternoon.

My throat is not so sore today but my whole body aches, not nice at all. Once I'd washed up after breakfast (Pete did offer but he's not feeling too good either), I retreated to the sitting room to watch the storm and the tv at the same time while undoing a crochet project I decided wasn't right. 

So let's head for sunnier times and visit Elounda, the small town 5km down the coast from Plaka. We went there several times on the bus and once I went on my own to the market which gave me a chance to mooch around the gift shops. (As we drove through on the way back to the airport I saw that I had missed several shell shops but then again my (eco)conscience wouldn't let me buy shells anyway.)

The main road runs through a large square where the taxis hang out by the bus stop optimistically known as the bus station.  There are two supermarkets, deceptively small on the outside but once inside they go further and further back with unexpected changes in floor level and goods crammed in everywhere. There is also a pharmacy, a nice but expensive bakery and many places to eat and drink along with the usual gift shops.

On the other side of the square is the harbour filled with fishing boats, boats offering fishing trips and numerous tour boats. Along the waterfront (behind me as I took the above photo) were many restaurants with the usual outdoor tables and more tables on floating pontoons. 

The town is backed by high mountains which at that time of the year were looking quite arid.

The beach is a sandy beach which would have suited Pete much better as he found walking on Plaka's shingle beach difficult for his damaged ankles. On the day I went to the market on my own I tested the public toilet by the beach and found it to be perfectly clean and adequate (you hear some dreadful stories and I have some bad memories from our visit to the Greek Islands 50 years ago).

A pretty Greek orthodox church sat in the centre of town.

As we waited for our Happy Train trip the sound of Ska music coming from Rudi's Bar across the road took Pete back to his youth. Unfortunately for him we did not have time to go in the bar. In fact we didn't go in any bars or tavernas apart from the one in the mountains and the one attached to our apartment. When we were out we always took bottled water with us. Peter found local beer on sale at the supermarket in Plaka and I was happy to drink coffee on our apartment terrace.

A Day In Agios Nikolaos.

According to the Met Office we were going to have a wet night followed by a dry day before Storm Amy made itself felt. But somehow the light morning rain just got heavier and heavier and by the afternoon the storm was well under way. Right now it has stopped raining so I was able to go and pick some tomatoes but huge waves are rolling in and breaking against the sea wall.

I went off to ride this morning. I had Cadno for which I was thankful as he is such a gentleman to ride. However that may have been for the last time as Cadno has been sold. He's 18 and after 10 years of being a much loved riding school horse he will now have a single owner and a quieter life. But he will still be kept at the stables. I already knew that Hazel is up for sale (£6,000). She has done well in competitions and jumps nicely but is not really a riding school horse as her spooking could unsettle indeed unseat novice riders. A new horse is arriving soon, a chunky 15.1 7yro cob. I can't wait to see what she is like.

Today's lesson was back to leg yielding and establishing bend. A nice steady lesson just right for getting back to riding. Especially as my cold is getting worse. Apparently half of Aber has a cold and/or a sore throat. only to be expected with the uni students arriving and the start of the children's school year. Once I got home from shopping, unpacked and hoovered our bedroom I wrapped myself up in front to the tv with a big mug of tea. 

No rain in Crete, at least while we were there.

We travelled by bus (only £2 ) to the nearby city of  Agios Nikolaos where first we visited the weekly market. While bigger than the market in Elounda it wasn't anything like the size of London markets. (I've been comparing prices today and while the produce was fresh and much tastier it was still about 50% more expensive than in the supermarkets here.)

After we'd looked around the market I found the way down to Lake Voulismeni. Legend has it that the lake is bottomless and connected to either the underworld or the volcano at Santorini. It is in fact over 200ft deep and was probably formed when an underground cave's roof collapsed.

 

Peter had decided not to use his phone in Crete as the only roaming deal he could get worked out to be very expensive so we relied on my memory of the map I'd seen on the laptop. I don't mind following my nose and hoping for the best but Pete wasn't too happy about wandering through random quiet streets especially when the stepped lanes went over steep hills. I should have taken a photo of the map to look at while we were walking which is what I did when we found a map by the lake.

That helped us find our way to the archaeological museum which is considered to be one of the most significant in Crete.

From the entrance to the museum we had a good view of the higgledy piggledy buildings climbing the city hills.

The modern museum was well laid out with the exhibits dating back to Neolithic times.

These early Minoan wine jugs are around 4,400 years old.

I had Pete stand by these bigger wine storage vessels to show their immense size. One of them had been repaired and then used to store grain.

A pot from the palace of Knossos. Hopefully we will visit Knossos and Heraklion museum on our next visit in the spring when it isn't so hot.

One of the early rooms had a glass floor over a 'sea bed' as the objects on display had all been recovered from the sea.

There were a number of cases of small clay animals, human figures and body parts which would have been offerings at the many temples on Crete. I liked the fact that some were made in moulds, showing a thriving local industry supplying offerings for visitors to the temples to purchase.

There were later rooms of what looked like ceramic blanket boxes but were in fact coffins. You were folded up into them and one had two skeletons in. Yuck.

We had a very interesting visit to the museum though I wish they had seats for visitors to sit of amongst the exhibits. (There was a row of seats on the way out by the very clean toilets, three types of hand soap to choose from.) There were chairs for the museum attendants which I saw one lady sitting on but some low benches would have been good.

Spinalonga.

Still grey but warm here on this our 49th wedding anniversary. (Peter had to made a dash to town to buy chocolates and roses, better late than never.)

After a walk to the shop to stock up on throat soothing sweets I managed to fit in an hour of gardening before our Welsh class. Although the class is now three hours we had a twenty minute break in the third hour so it didn't seem too hard. 

It's disco aerobics tonight. I've done the usual check and had to stick down a few loose 'gems' on my indulgent sparkly trainers.

But now for some blue skies -

Spinalonga.

The island of Spinalonga lies across the water from Plaka and is a very interesting site to visit. Originally fortified in antiquity to protect the city of Olous (destroyed when Santorini erupted) it was rebuilt and fortified by the Venetians in the 17thC. Later it was colonised by Muslims (the Ottomans) when one of the island's industries was the export of salt. More recently (1904-1957) it was repurposed as a leper colony. The two large rectangular buildings were the hospital but many inmates lived, married and worked in the houses of the colony.

 

We crossed the water on one of the many boats that carry tourists backwards and forwards to this World Heritage site. A pair of large ceremonial gates (behind the trees) set in the fortifications face Plaka.

The tourist boats however go round the southern tip of the island and land by a larger beach.

We began by following the circular brown route around the perimeter of the island and then tackled the steep and precarious red route to the circular bastion. We didn't make it to the very top of the island as it was very hot and the paths and steps were rugged to say the least. We had stopped for a breather half-way up and were passed by ladies wearing flimsy flip-flops and getting rather worried about their descent.

This was where everyday folk and later the lepers would have entered through iron gates into a tunnel under the wall.

Once through the tunnel and inside the walls we came to what is known as the market street which is was lined by shops and homes.

Many of these have now been restored and it was possible to enter them or wander through the paths between the houses. Inside some were useful information boards in Greek and English. We found that in general on Crete all signs were in  both Greek and English or at least in the Latin alphabet. (That's how they refer to our letters.) 

Somehow, despite the number of other visitors I managed to take photos without random people in them. I do regret not taking more of the steep sections but I was too busy watching where to go to get my camera out.

The Ottoman houses were interesting. Each was built around a small courtyard off which were store rooms, kitchen and toilet with sleeping quarters on the upper floor.

On our way around the island we passed the bastion at the north end of the island (above) and later made it up to the semi-circular bastion at the south end. (below) We were extremely glad to sit in the cool of one of the cannon openings through which was blowing a refreshing breeze after walking and climbing in 30+C. I thought about climbing to the upper ramparts but the steps were narrow and I worried about coming down them so stayed safe where we were.

Eventually we made our way down to the lower levels and back to the beach. The boats must be in some sort of co-operative because you buy a return ticket from one of a number of places, jump on a boat and return on whichever boat is leaving next. Providing that is it is going back to where you came from. I was able to stop a couple, who wanted to return to Elounda, from getting on a boat back to Plaka.

Up Into The Hills.

Today has been damp and grey but remarkably warm. 

I have spent most of the day working in the garden and have at last got the hedges under control. The escallonia hedge between us and the neighbours really needs its depth reducing but I won't do that until spring. More of the perennials were ready to be cut back (I'm too soft hearted to chop down anything that still has flowers). Bees are still visiting the lavender and I can see new flower spikes emerging so it will be a while before I can give the lavender a trim.

Both Pete and I have colds, probably picked up on the flight home. Pete's is of the streaming nose variety (it didn't stop him from going rowing this morning) while mine is more stuffy head and sore throat. I didn't think it would be sensible to go to choir tonight both for my sake and the other choir members so I sent my apologies this morning. 

And now for more sunshine- 

Although we spent a lot of time on the beach we did visit other places as well. One trip was to go up into the mountains on the 'Happy Train'. I've stuck the photo at the end of the post because it gives such an 'old folks on holiday' vibe but in reality it was the perfect transport. The open carriages let the cooling breeze in and made it easy to take photos as we trundled along. 

Having begun our journey in Elounda we drove back to Plaka where we stopped for long enough for people to wander round while we dropped our shopping off at the apartment. We then drove up the side of the 1,500 ft mountain that shelters Plaka stopping on the way to take photos of the views over Spinalonga and Mirabello Bay. 

Eventually we ended up on the other side of the mountain at the village of Vrouchas where we got out again. Our guide was knowledgeable and amusing at the same time. He told us that this church, one of two in the village, had taken forty years to be built by the villagers.

It had taken one man four years to do all the paintings holding the brush in his mouth as he didn't have the use of his arms. I'm not sure how long ago this was but the Greek govt recently restored the paintings.

This was the village meeting place with an amphitheatre where the villagers gather for music, festivals and celebrations. On the right were stunning views down the mountain to the sea. Even though the population of the village is only 125, many family members return for weddings, christenings and funerals etc.

This was the old village bread oven where everyone would have brought their bread and meals to be cooked. The other mural shows scenes from the days of wheat growing.

Then back onto our transport and further around the mountain to the even smaller village of Selles (pop 75). There we saw the ruins of one of the many windmills that were used to grind the wheat.

All along the roads are these roadside shrines or kandylakia. There are often placed to remember an accident but may also be to express gratitude or simply to indicate that there is a monastery or church in the vicinity. 

Note the wind turbines in the background. A sensible idea to use the strong meltemi winds that blow across the island.

Having turned around at Selles we went back to Vrouchas for a meal in the taverna. I tried to make friends with the taverna cat keeping my hand about a foot away from the pretty grey feline. It came forward to sniff and then gave me a good whack with its paw, claws retracted. Okay, no stroking permitted. After the meal it was back down the mountain again and we got off in Plaka rather than go all the way into Elounda and getting the bus back.

One thing we noticed was how pleased people were if we attempted to speak Greek. Pete is better than me at languages and could ask and answer simple questions. I stuck to a few phrases and greetings and was happy enough to be familiar with the Greek alphabet. Kalimera is for up until whenever you have your lunch, kalispera is for after lunch right through to the evening and kalinikta as with 'Good Night' is a farewell. We'd also read up on customs and how hands are used. Thumbs up or a raised palm should not be used instead thank you is shown by placing your right hand over your heart.

Here's the Happy Train. A good day out.