Crete must be Greece's largest island, at 260 km long and with a population of 600,000. The capital city is Heraklion, which is where our plane landed, and we are staying in "Andy's Plaza" in the village of Agia Pelagia which is not far from the main city. Andy's Plaza does not sound like a very Greek name, and it's run by "George" who is about 70 and quite hard to understand. The room is simple, but clean and comfortable, and it is only 100 m or so from where Sue's conference will be, and also from the beach.
Agia Pelagia (pronounced with hard g's as in "goat") is a popular little beach, even though the sand is just a couple of metres wide. I am astounded by how many people are crammed on to this narrow strip each day.
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| The Agia Pelagia beach is standing room only for much of the day! |
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| The water is clear and warm. That's a dive school in wetsuits out there in the water. Must be hot! |
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| A bit of Cretan landscape, viewed from the bus on the way to Agia Pelagia. |
We had a swim in the evening, and found the water temperature very pleasant. I was however bitten quite sharply a few times by little fish, on my legs! Apparently it pays not to stand still for too long.
On our way back from the airport we stopped for a couple of hours in the city of Heraklion. There was a strong Venetian influence here too, including a wall around the old city centre and a fort on the harbour. The old city is very nice for walking, with shady parks and little streets running down to the sea.
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| In Heraklion's old centre, with the harbour beyond. |
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| The town hall entrance. |
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| Colourful fishing boats in the harbour. |
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| These young people were hauling their Optimists up the ramp after a sail. |
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| The bus station looked pretty dismal - until we realised we were in the old abandoned one! |
The new bus station, when we found it, was much nicer than this! We bought tickets for our bus to Agia Pelagia, and agreed that it was much easier not having a rental car (yeah right) as it gives you much more opportunity to rub shoulders with the locals. While we waited for the bus we went to the Heraklion Archaelogical Museum to start learning more about the Minoans.
