Hurry up UK Summer

A small throw back to a few weeks ago. Half way up a Cretan mountain, dining at the only Taverna in the village. The most amazing “prawns” and freshest of salads.

Come on UK summer, where are you??

Crete 2015 - Day 5 - The Wind doth Blow & Ouzo Mike

This holiday is idyllic, great villa, beautiful surroundings, lush food. Any downside? Unfortunately yes. The villa owners told us that the wind gets up occasionally. This is the worst understatement I have heard for a while. It blows a bloody hooley. Enough to stop you sun bathing and going outside in general. This was one of those days. We decided to be active. A walk down the Hill of Death to the beach and back.

A little cloudy but the wind was a little less at sea level. Two of us were stupid enough to go in the sea. Testicle withdrawing coldness due to the early part of the season.

Then it rained! A quickish scuttle back up the hill to home.

One of the recommendations in all the local guide books was a visit to Pefki, a hillside town at the top of a gorge. Too far to walk so into the mighty Focus we all got. Up and up we went. Pant wetting drops off the side of the road was causing Mrs CT to have an attack of the vapours. It might well have been an old Cretan village but it looked more like it should be twinned with Beruit.

The real reason for visiting this elevated village was because of yet another recommendation that we all subscribe to - a good Taverna. So out of the car and off in search of the Piperia down some very narrow lanes. It looked all closed up due to the rain shower but at he chance of some Euros, Georgia shot out of the kitchen and started to lay a table. What a joy. The tapenades and olives were worth the trip on their own. The ladies studied the menu from cover to cover. Please note cardies due to continuing wind.

Food chosen. Mr R went for fried shrimp whilst Mrs CT chose grilled shrimp. "What's the difference between those apart from 5 euros I quipped?" Well the picture below explains all. Mr R's were little tiddlers.

Suitably stuffed, back down the hill to the villa. The guys went to our favourite little watering hole for a quick Ouzo or two. The little lady who runs this thinks we are underfed and always brings us a little snack.

Mike continued his Ouzo binge at dinner confirming his wish to wear white tights and pom poms.

Meanwhile the girls hit the beer. A weird role reversal.

Laters

 

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Crete 2015 - Day 4 - Nothing Happened

Well virtually nothing happened. It was just a day of chillin around the pool, lunching, napping and dinner. Woke up to fabulous sunshine. Early breakfast and straight to the pool area - 2 m from our front door. No one else here.

Mr R commented that it could be nothing else but heavy petting in the pool due to our combined kg. Cheeky git.

Okay Flipper boy, how good did you look waddling your way into the pool?

Then watch him do a length of the pool in under 1s.

The only other highlight of the day was as we were having a few sundowners, a man treated us to a little pole dancing. Health & Safety eat your heart out.

Here are some more pics taken from our balconies, yes we have 3! Including one of a little white church perched right at the top of the mountains behind us. More of that tomorrow when we attempt to reach a small village just beneath it! Oh good Mrs CT in a car going up the side of a mountain - hold on to your ears.

Laters

 

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Crete 2015 - Day 3 - Hill of Death & The Valley of Horror

Due to the late night pizza, breakfast was on the small side. Activities for the day were discussed and decided that exploration of the harbour area (by car) would be good followed by a trip down the hill to the nearest beach by car again obviously.

The village centre was picturesque containg the usual handful of bars and tavernas along the beach. A small working fishing harbour was at one end. Many of the tavernas owned a boat and proudly announced that fresh fish was on the menu. Something we must try.

Walking past the harbour to the headland we took the path upwards and to areas unknown. Views back to the village were worth it. The colour of the sea was something else.

Passing a couple more tavernas, one owned by an Irish lady, brought us to a ford - no not a car but a road crossing a river. At this point we need to engage the assistance of Mr G who is an authority on all things feathered. His reputation had been damaged on recent walking weekends by failing to spot the difference between a blue tit and a chaffinch, much to the amusement of the locals. Anyway, can you identify these two?

Naturally after all this walking, refreshment was called for. A stop at the Olympio Cafe for beers and water. this particular establishment was number 1 in the Trip Advisor listings. Well worth a visit. So onwards back to the car - no - the ladies had spotted an ice cream parlour. Purchases were made.

One thing we had to do on our way back was to restock provisions. Only on day 3 but we were running dangerously low. Mr R and I had nothing to do with the shopping list but just look what they came back with! The Party's Wine?

Okay, consumables now safely in the fridge for later on. Now to find the local (non hotel beach). "Turn right after 100m and you will find the beach at the bottom of the hill", so the instructions said. Hill! Bloody hell, a 1 in 4 track made from roughly poured concrete, 1 car wide, caused Mrs CT to enter "giving birth to kittens" mode. At the bottom of the hill sat a delighful handfull of ancient villas and a welcoming taverna. Not being dressed for beach/sea based activities, lunch was agreed upon. What a setting, what a find. A deserted beach and good food. Some pictures.

Whilst having lunch an older lady of german descent, came and spoke to the owners about something or other. It transpired she occupied one of the mentioned old villas that can be seen in the above picture. Her and her husband had just been swimming and were pre-ordering lunch to be consumed after they had changed for the occaision. How nice. This transpired to be the cause of horrifying images being burnt into our retinas only minutes later.

Again in the above picture, hidden by the tree from this angle was an outdoor shower. We had finished our lunch, Mr R had turned the car around and we were off back up the Hill of Death on our way home. As we came level with the villa, screams of horror came from the back seat. Helga the hairy was doing what she had said, having a shower before lunch - absolutely starkers and in front of the remaining diners. If this wasnt enough she bent down to pick up the soap as we passed. Mrs CT said it was something like one of those grey hairy boom microphones used in TV - The Valley of Horror (I was going to use a much stonger word for this part of the female anatomy but had to censor it due to some of my younger readers). Scarred for life we made it back home safely.

So bad was this incident, the only cure was Vodka and bitter lemon - okay consuming a whole bottle just hours after we had bought it was a little decadent but hey we are on holiday :)

Traditional Greek dinner later on. Mr R though he was becoming Greek due to the excess of Ouzo. The next day he was determined to find some pom poms for his shoes and some white tights. Whatever!

Laters

 

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Crete 2015 - Day 2 - Late Breakfast, very late lunch & ridiculous time to eat dinner

The sun, by now was balsting its way through the tiny clouds and scattering them far and wide. Pool time was here. A good size pool that we all attempted several lengths in. These are proper lengths, please note Mrs B, not 2 strokes and you're at the other end.

We had the pool area to ourselves as being one of only 2 groups in residence. The other group, Brendan and Claire, preferred driving every day, to a secluded little beach at the edge of town where, with other like minded people, they choose to take all their clothes off. We decided that due to non-pc body shapes that we owned between us, that this beach was off limits. Harry & The Twins are not for public viewing (see previous blog from Sorrento 2014).

By 1 o'clock Mr R & myself were becoming restless in the sun and decided the time had come to do a little exploration. A walk down town was chosen. We had been told that the easiest way to the nearest beach was through the Sunwings carpark (hotel of Scandanavian types seen the night before) and then trough the swimming pool area. What we did not realise that this was not just one pool area but several as the hotel is built on 6 levels on the side of a hill. Eventuall we reached said beach only to find that you could not naviagte in to town but rather had to go up back to the main road. Oh good a complete loop through Lollo land (the 7ft giraffe you might remember).

A typical small Cretan town with a mixture of little houses, restaurants, bars and shops, alas half of the latter 3 shut and probably not opening for the season. Most residents grew their own food including this lady with her wild artichokes.

We only made it 2/3 of the way to the harbour before the 32c overcame is and we just had to find a bar. Down a little alley towards the beach we found a delightful watering hole. Mr R decided it was time to go Greek and chose Ouzo whilst I stayed on the ice cold Mythos.

A bit of a Reggie Perrin Moment took place here. A gentleman stripped down to his trunks, put all of his belongings into a rucksack, which he left under a table. Then proceeded to get into a sea going kayak and paddle off towards the horizon, never to be seen again! Whilst we spent another hour and another round or so of drinks the ladies were no doubt grumbling about lack of food. Back to the villa then only to find them asleep! Lunch at Harry's Bar was chosen as it was next door. Several (too many) plates of excellent food later we stumbled back. Lunch at 5pm is too late. It meant no one was hungry for dinner, or so we thought at the time. At 9pm we decided to wander down to the same bar we had discovered during the day just for a drink. Needless to say the ladies had to stop at most clothes shops on the way. Mr R and I decided to misbehave.

Drinks drunk, a walk back up the hill would get us home. Oh no. The ladies wanted coffee so decided to stop at Obelix's which turned out to be the villages fast food joint. What was meant to be just a drinks outing turned into a very late dinner of Pizzas etc. I spent the 30 minutes trying to eat mine whilst trying to fend off a friendly put audacious little kitten. Got home at 12am, over fed and over tired. Straight to bed! Not a wise idea on full stomachs as we all found out later on.

Laters

 

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Crete 2015 - Technical Problems

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we have a little glitch in the photo department. Service will resume tomorrow hopefully.

 

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Crete 2015 - Day 1 - New Planes & Bad Memories

After an early start, 03:15am, and very little sleep, the intrepid four (Mr & Mrs R, Mrs CT and yours truly) set forth from Stanwick for the annual Spring Break activities. Not so much USA style but more a more laid back and relaxing 9 days in the sunny Isle of Crete.

Under 2 hours from the door to relaxing in the No.1 Travellers Bar at Gatwick enjoying our first drinkie, wine for the ladies and an excellent beer for the guys.

The little orange aircraft waiting for us had only 6 hours on the clock (yes planes are measured in hours not miles). Smart seats, fresh smell and overall lovely. Amazingly easyJet had managed to put a £65m plane on the tarmac but could not remember to put more than 5 menus on board. The passing of said item from row to row did slow down our second drink of the holiday somewhat. Settling down to watch, The Hobbit, I'll Give it a Year and The Imitation Game on various iPads made the 3 or so hours pass relatively quickly.

So now we are strapped in for landing, happily listening to the pilot telling us that it is 30c at our destination. Sun, sea, souvlaki and ouzo here we come!

a gentle 2 hour drive through the middle of Crete brought us to the south coast resort of Makriyalos ( no. 41 on the map) and our beautiful villa at The Grapevines.

Only 17:30 and we are thirsty and very hungry. Only one thing for it - a Taverna crawl. Why spend the whole evening in one when there are some many to choose from. Harry's Bar next door was first stop. Several cold bottles of Mythos and plates of dips, beans, beetroot, bread were consumed with a gusto. Probably a little too quick as the beer hit the ladies instantly - the holiday starts here they declared.

So onwards a little further into town. When I say onwards I mean down a fairly steep hill that we were going to have to navigate upwards on the way back. We actually only made it to the start of town before we found second course. Plates of squid and souvlaki, this time with wine and complimentary Raki. More of this potent firewater later in the week.

The strangest sight of the night was a group of 10 twenty year olds with buggys and identically aged kiddies. All the adults were single ladies - not a father in sight. Either the men were watching football somewhere or this was some evil breeding experiment designed to produce the perfect Scandanavian. Why this nationality? The only hotel, Sunwings, in the town was opposite and the residents were entirely from that part of the world. This brought back some horrid memories of a previous holiday in Crete which was meant to be Adult Only. I wasn't sure but did I just catch sight of.......no it couldn't be surely.......oh my god I think it is........Lollo!! The seven foot giraffe cunningly disguised as a children's entertainer..........help! Get me back up that hill now.........obviously stopping off for a wine and coffee at the Cretan Wine bar - sanctuary half way home.

Laters

 

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