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My Godness Greece!
Crete, Fall 2011
For 2011 we decided to spend our sun vacation in Greece. We left the everyday life two weeks behind and enjoyed sun, sand and sea on Crete. Our plane took off in Dusseldorf with one hour delay - thanks to the greek air traffic controllers. They had been enjoined striking on that day. But this would not stop them from working go-slow. So much for the outward flight. The second part of this story will follow at the return flight ... but later more on that.
We have omitted a detailed explanation of each photo in order to streamline this page. Instead, a brief description appears when you mouseover the pictures. This feature is supported by Internet Explorer whereas it does not work with Firefox browser for example!
Our all-inclusive hotel for 14 days: Hotel Mitsis Laguna Beach Ressort & Spa in Anissaras near Hersonissos. An impressive palace with many small flaws, but overall relatively clean and with satisfactory food. Unfortunately the surrounding area is rather monotonous. There is no real good shopping area or places to stroll. Who makes up the relative monotony, however, will feel comfortable here as the hotel complex itself is spacious and attractive.
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What may one undertake in a foreign country in order to discover (small parts of) it? You rent a car (with a real distinctive number plate!) and go off.
Within one day we visited all the sights of the surrounding north coast of Crete. Our first destination was Spinalonga, a former leper colony. This was a morbid, almost depressing experience. The decaying houses on the small island gave off a ramshackle atmosphere which created a dull ambience. Display boards and a museum illustrated the life of the lepers who were exiled here up to the early 1950s.
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![we hired a car for day trip [Peugeot 107]](../../../files/Urlaub/Kreta/cimg5887.jpg) |
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15 km afar from Spinalonga the tranquil town Agios Nikolaos is located. The official administrative capital of East Crete offers a small freshwater lake called Limni Vulismeni. It is connected by an (artificial) channel to the seaport. Defiant rocks rise around the lake and give this place a somehow wonderland-like flair. Unfortunately dozens of restaurants and shops opened around the lake so that nothing is left from the flair but the vertical cliffs and the magnificent blue of the lake.
As a shopping center Agios Nikolaos can be recommended. In a large pedestrian zone running through several streets you get pretty much stuff .. from cheap to expensive, from brummagem to art, from souvenir to sweets...
The return way of this day trip led us through the Lassithi Plateau. Surrounded by over 2,000 m high peaks of the mountain massif Dikti, we plunged into another world. Far from the hustle and bustle of tourism, we could get a glimpse of the original and peaceful life of the Cretans.
The plateau is fertile due to groundwater and snow melt. We saw wide vegetable fields and orchards. Life in the plateau villages itself seems to run a bit slower compared to the coast life. This was our impression during this passage. Bustle was replaced by idyll, and stress by tranquility. We stopped a few times to shoot photos. An extended stop was not possible due to restricted time (it was already late afternoon).
The return flight was sweetened by an unannounced strike of the greek air traffic controllers. Only shortly before boarding the passengers were informed. The uncomfortable terminal of the small Hiraklion airport was filled with hundreds of stranded travellers within short. We were restrained for nearly half a day. The unofficial declaration of the security guards was "delay due to bad weather conditions". Har har. An official explanation did not exist at all.
The plane took off with several hours delay. The pilot announced "let's get back home and escape from this chaos". For the first time I felt safe in an aeroplane, those big steel cigars which never offer a chance of survival when dropping down from the skies. We really had escaped from this hospitable country...
Oh, right. Whether we would spend our holidays in Greece again? Anyone who carefully studied the arrangement of the photos on this sub-page knows the answer...
