The Winds of Crete

We should have been suspicious when the first book about Crete that we found at the Book Stop was Winds of Crete by David MacNeil Doren. Yes, windy today, yesterday, the day before yesterday, ... Writing about Crete's climate in his book Flowers of Crete, Yanoukos Istridis tells us some of the the names of "... the prevailing winds which always seem to be at work in Crete. A moist wind known as POUNENTIS comes from the Atlantic, the hot and dry SIRROCO blows from the Sahara, and the cold VORIAS streams down from the Adriatic Sea and beyond. There are also several other winds rolling unhindered over the sea from all directions including the ESESIOI winds from the Greek mainland, the LEVANTIS from Asia Minor, and the MELTEMI from Central Asia."

This past weekend we traveled to Santorini, leaving early Saturday morning and returning late Monday evening. In spite of discovering a flat tire on our rental car the first thing Saturday morning, we made the bus to Iraklion, and the Flying Cat 4 to Santorini. The trip out on the Flying Cat 4 is best left undescribed, saying only that it is rough seas indeed when one of your souvenirs is a barf bag from Hellenic Seaways.

Santorini is a busy beehive of tourism. Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco; we left our money in Santorini. In Fira, the town on the cliff overlooking the caldera, we visited several good museums including the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Prehistoric Thira. We used the excellent, inexpensive, bus system to visit the archeological site of ancient Akrotiri on the South side of the island and, in the evening, we bused to the North side of the island to watch the sunset from the town of Oia. We also visited, by boat, the hotspot itself, the island of Nea Kameni; most recent eruption in 1956.

Here are a few photos. Yes, that is Suzanna on a donkey.

House

Here are some pictures of the house we will rent, the street in front and the two beaches a five minute walk away. We move in on June 6 and 7. Andi, our first visitor, arrives on June11, she can test the guest room!

Three Day Weekend

Even though St. Lucy is not here yet, we got started on some travels. Maybe we'll have St. Lucy by next weekend, all the paper work is finished and she is in Athens. So maybe sometime this next week she will arrive by ferry. On Friday we had a windy, cloudy, hot day, as well as rain. The wind came from the south and brought red dust and heat and then it rained, so we had mud rain. Even with the rain the air has remained somewhat murky all weekend.

On Saturday we went to Chania to the archeological museum and then to the ship building museum where they have the boat that was built like a Minoan boat and then sailed to Athens at the beginning of the Olympics in 2004. The first 4 pictures are from Saturday. The first is a turkish fountain in the courtyard of the Archeological museum, then Chania harbor, and the boat. The museum was great, many beautiful pots, Suzanna could have stayed there all day.

On Sunday we headed west from Chania along the seashore. We spent the day driving through hills just south of the Rodhopou peninsula looking at old churches. The tiny white one is from the 10th century, the other tiny one is14th century. The one with the dome is from around 600, the oldest in Crete, just the dome part is old, other stuff has been added. Then we went to see the oldest olive tree on Crete. It's over 3000 years old. They took a branch from that tree to make victory wreaths for the Olympics and brought it to Athens on the Minoan boat. There are also a coupe of pictures of Ma and Pa Jefferis, not quite the oldest Ma and Pa on Crete, but we're working on it. Our hair looks grayer in pictures that in real life for sure. One picture with Suzanna in archway, and one with Grier in front of St. John the Hermit's cave house. Grier is thinking he might like to live there. the cave church is at St. John's hermitage. Suzanna was tempted by the bells at the St. John hermitage and just had to ring them. They provide ropes and they hang on the out side of the churches so it seems like they want you to ring them. They sound lovely, but maybe it was not such a good idea, the care taker showed up just as we were leaving, he didn't say anything to us, but...

Monday we hiked down to the monastery of Katholiko which was abandoned 300 years ago and has a church in a cave and an arched bridge over the ravine, then we hiked down to the water.

We looked again at the stone house in Stavros today and decided to rent that one. Hers's a few more pictures of it. So we'll be walking to the beach. There is also an outdoor grill at this house large stone patios and a stone fence around the yard to keep the cats corralled. Ah and yes there is a very nice guest room!

Winds and Houses

Winds followed the rains of last week. We read in the book The Making of the Cretan Landscape that there are winds here, at times, that are fierce enough to blow boulders around. This wasn't one of those times, but the winds did rectify our pre-Crete illusions of endless days of calm and sun.

And we have been looking at houses. The real content of this entry is the photos that follow, but here are brief descriptions of the places we've looked at.

House #1 is in Stavros, the town we are staying in now. It's a single story, stone, "hacienda" style place, with covered porches on all sides. It's a 10 minute walk to either beach here in Stavros.

House #2 is on the way to work, the closest to work of the ones we looked at, and the biggest. It feels like a castle and even has its own chapel, dedicated to the BVM. And a pool!

House #3 is in Sternes and has the most amazing view of all. The house was build by an ex-Vice Admiral in the Greek Navy and has a ship feel to it, with lots of bulkheads, decks, etc. And a pool!

House #4 is east of Hania and is an old converted tannery. It is right on the water and looks west toward the town. The neighborhood is old as well, with lots of interesting places to explore.

Here are photos, 3 for each place; votes are welcome.

Rain and Monasteries

The consensus at Easter time was that there would be no more rain until September or October and, in fact, the sky had been clear blue since we arrived. No one, apparently, had consulted Zeus, or any of these other folks, http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/sky-gods.html, on the matter, because on Wednesday it began to rain and thunder and this has continued up to today, Friday. The change has been refreshing, even if it did slow down the trips to the beach.

On Wednesday Grier took the rental car and drove up to some nearby monasteries: Gouvernetou and Ayia Triadha. The drive up to Gouvernetou is along a wonderfully awful road with lots of ruts and switchbacks; no tour busses allowed. But, once there, he was unable to tell if the monastery was open; the sign said it was closed on Wednesdays, but the gate was open. He decided to visit on a day when both indicated it was open; it's not a good idea to get on the bad side of monks.

Ayia Triadha is further down the hill and the tour buses can get there and a good number had. But, it is still early in the tourist season, it was not crowded, and it was relaxing to walk around the place. This monastery was established in 1600's but the present buildings are from the 1800's. There are shady, winding porticos all about the central courtyard which are relaxing to explore before going into the monastic church. A good number the monk's quarters are abandoned and blocked off; there used to be a much larger population, now there are less than a dozen monks. In addition, there is a museum with liturgical paraphernalia and icons; one icon depicted a sinner confessing his sins, which were depicted as not so scary black snakes crawling out of this mouth; sinners beware!! And finally a gift shop, which sells wine and olive oil produced by the monks.

See here for more info: http://www.agiatriada-chania.gr/

And below is a sketch Grier made of the church

Chania

We are slowly getting acclimated to the new time zone and the new climate. We're told that it's not hot yet, though its in the high 80s and that it won't rain until sometime next September; not sure living in Poulsbo prepared us for this.

But living in Sicily did make our first driving experience easier. This past Saturday we drove into Hania, the big city nearby, and were surprised to see traffic signals and drivers following them. Catania, Sicily (a city several times larger than Hania) has only two or three signals and their use is optional. Plenty of traffic in Hania, though, and we had to wiggle our way though all the one-way streets to the West side of town before we found parking.

This trip we briefly hit the high spots: the waterfront, the shopping areas in the old town, the Cathedral, Mosque, Turkish baths, and made note of where the museums are for future reference. We also walked by several sites where the old, old, old Greek and Minoan cities are being excavated, showing that Hania is very old indeed.

While in town we looked at some possible places to rent. Take a look at the photos and tell us which one you like the best.