After last night’s very busy buffet we decided to get down to breakfast early this morning, a good move! We sat outside on the deck and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The breakfast spread was amazing, the best we have come across so far. It’s a bit frustrating that you can’t sample it all, but we will do our best over the next couple of days. Tomorrow I will definitely sample some of the selections from the honey section, lots of choices!
We set out for our driving tour by backtracking towards Rethymno, but then turned left and headed up into the hills.
Before long we started driving into Kofitsou Canyon. It’s only short but quite narrow. The most interesting thing about it is that in the midst of the gorge you come across a tiny church called Agios Nicholous ( half the churches here bear the same name!) which is tucked into a rocky cliff within the canyon. There are only a couple of parking spots but the place was deserted so we had plenty of time to take a look at it and to enjoy the views down to the sea on the southern side of Crete.
We drove down into the beachside town of Plakias, one of the main towns in Crete’s southern shore. This side of the island is much quieter than the northern side, smaller towns and fewer hotels. It’s very appealing.
We parked by the beach in town and went for a stroll. There were several.people enjoying the beach, swimming or laying under the umbrellas that line up along the beach. Ty he beach itself is grey and a bit gritty and rocky. We are so spoiled in Australia with our beautiful beaches, so many of the beaches we’ve seen in Europe make me think, why would you bother!
Next we drove back up the hills and stopped briefly at Preveli Bridge, a pretty high arched stone bridge that was paid for by the local monastery in the 1860s
Heading further down the hills we arrived at the parking lot for Preveli beach. The beach is unique and popular as it’s the location where the river winds through a long forest of palm trees before it meets the sea. There are boat cruises that come from Plakias, and lots of people park on either side of the river and make the rough, steep , rocky climb down to the beach. We just took a look.down from the overlook!
Now we started to climb back up higher into the mountains. The drive up was pretty as we passed olive groves and little churches.
We passed through Kourtaluotiko gorge, another deep gorge that is popular because of the walk that winds through it. You can walk down into the gorge to see waterfalls and another cute little church. We just drove through and enjoyed the views of the steep cliffs.
We made a lunch stop in the cute mountain village of Spili . It’s claim to fame is it’s lovely lion fountain. It’s a long row of 25 carved lion heads all spouting cold fresh spring water that comes from the mountain peaks and is filtered through the natural limestone. It is clean and fresh and very safe to drink and it dates from Venetian times. We sampled the waters and then sat down for lunch at the cafe nearest the fountain. The waiter fills everyone’s water glasses directly from the fountain! We shared a club sandwich and chips and I had the nicest fresh homemade lemonade. Neil was happy they had a local beer on offer.
From Spili we took a high mountain road, a different route back to the other side of the island. This one climbed wayyyy up through mountain passes and through tiny little villages that were basically shut for the season. We passed very few cars and saw hardly any people until we started to come down the other side. The scenery was fantastic!
We finally arrived back at the hotel around 3pm..Time to relax for a few hours before we got ready for dinner. Tonight we had booked a table at the Mitato restaurant. Their speciality is aged meats cooked on a traditional circular grill. The grill is the focal point of the restaurant and had a half lamb roasting in it while we were there. Naturally we ordered the traditional lamb, roasted on the fire for 5 to 6 hours. It was amazing!
We were also serenaded by a talented musician who played traditional Greek tunes on a variety of ethnic instruments, 6 different ones ! I only recognised the balalaika.
It was a wonderful meal and more than made up for the less than stellar dinner of yesterday.
The weather is expected to deteriorate over the next two days so we have our plans flexible for tomorrow. We might explore some more or may just have a quiet relaxing day for our last day in Crete.