Crete Walks (3)

In the past two weeks we have taken three interesting and varied walks: a walk up the Ayia Irini Gorge, North of Souyia, a small town on the South coast of Crete, a walk from Souyia to the ancient town of Lissos, and a walk up to a small stone church at the base of the White Mountains, the Lefka Ori, Southeast of Hania.

The Ayia Irini Gorge is located to the West of the world famous Samaria Gorge and is reached by heading the same way out of Hania, but taking a right turn past Ayia to Souyia, instead of a left turn to Omalos.  The road climbs, crosses the White Mountains near a PPC (the Greek electric power company) wind farm, and heads down toward the coast.  We parked at the end of the gorge and walked in about a kilometer.  The shortness of our hike was due to two factors: we were not sure of our own hiking abilities and this was the first hike for our dog, Thassa.  Thassa was intimidated by the first big rock along the trail, backing out of her harness and heading for the van, but was soon making the climbs quicker than we could keep up with her.

Here are a few photos in the gorge:

After our walk, we headed to Souyia on the South coast.  Souyia is a popular tourist town in the Summer, attracting naturalists and naturists, but this time of the year is still nearly deserted.  But we were able to find a place to park and camp along the beach and a good taverna that welcomed dogs.

Our meal included artichokes and "small beans", which, you can see, were fresh peas, and grilled feta in a foil swan.

Our campsite on the beach, looking East.

And the sunset, which includes the foil swan, now miraculously transformed into a cloud.

The next day we hiked from Souyia to the site of the ancient town of Lissos.  It is a 4 km hike, first through a short gorge, up to a level headland, then down into the valley where the ruins of the town are located.

The first two photos show our first look into the Lissos valley and a cave along the descent.

During the time of Greek settlement, Lissos was the location of a sanctuary of Asklepios, a god of health.  Here is what Costis Davaras has to say about the sanctuary in his excellent book "Guide to Cretan Antiquities": 'In the sanctuaries of Asklepios, patients entered the temple and "incubated," after purifying themselves and offering sacrifices.  The god appeared to them in their sleep or in a vision and recommended treatment or healed the disease.  Numerous inscriptions contain the sincere thanksgivings of healed patients.  The attribute of Asklepios was the snake.  This symbol still survives today in the caduceus, emblem of the medical profession."

After exploring the sanctuary, we all relaxed, and maybe "incubated", on the small, rocky beach.

There are also two small Byzantine era churches at Lissos.  Here are photos, outside and inside, of one. You can see that the builders took advantage of whatever material was handy.

Some photos of the return hike.

4 goats

1 old goat & 1 dog 

The final hike was more along the lines of a Lenten pilgrimage up to the church of Saints Peter and Paul in a mountain valley, high above the small town of Kares.  The walk was along a road which was surfaced most of the way, rock and gravel otherwise, and we suspect it is drivable, but the goal was to see if it was walkable.

The hike starts at the Kares platia, with its venerable platan, and rapidly ascends into the foothills of the White Mountians.  Further up, the road follows the West side of a river canyon, which eventually opens to the mountain valley, the location of the church and some stone shepherd's huts.  Unfortunately, the camera batteries ran out before we could take pictures of the huts.  The walk up took about 3 hrs and the distance was 8, maybe 10 km.  We visited the church, the door held shut by a piece of wire, as is often the case with these old churches, payed our respects to the Saints, left a remembrance, and headed back.

An early view of the mountain valley and a look back over the town of Kares (zoom in and you can see St. Lucy).

A shrine along the way and a look back to the North from this point.

Still closer.

Even closer and the first view of the church.

It's really there!

Saints Pete and Paul on the left.

Big City vs Small Village

We spent five days in Athens over my Birthday weekend. We went to five museums, ate five dinners and went to five archeological sites. We also went on some long walks. We were very loyal to our Rick Steve's Guide Book! His guided tours of the archeological sites and the museum were very good as were the walking tours. As we found out after we returned home, there are parts of Athens that are not safe to walk through. So it's not a bad thing that we stuck to Rick Steve's. I think Athens is having a very hard time. The economic crisis has caused a lot of people there to be living on the margins, Greeks and emigrants alike. But as usual the people were wonderful and we enjoyed being there very much. I was asked what I liked best. There were so many things that I liked that it is hard to choose, but I'll have to say the reconstructed Stoa of Atalos. It was rebuilt in 1950 to be exactly as it was when it was new, and in the same location at the ancient agora of Athens. It is the long colonnade building with two levels. It was used for shops, offices and a place for gathering, standing in the shade and leaning up against the columns. The columns were made smooth for the bottom 6 feet so that it would be comfortable to lean on them. I like to imagine what it would feel like to live at different times and places. The stoa gave me a chance to imagine! Then, what I liked least. The overwhelming graffiti, almost everywhere you look, to me is devastating. It is so destructive and depressing. Poor Athens.

We spent a wonderful day with our family in Athens, visiting, going to a festa and watching and participating in dancing, eating a wonderful dinner, and going on an excursion to the temple at Sounion  And eating more. Another nice thing that happened is that friends happened to going to Athens during the same time, so we had dinner with them one night, actually on my Birthday! They didn't know it was my Birthday, I told them later. So, for me it was a surprise birthday party, a surprise to spend it with friends.

Now the small village. We went on a walking tour of Vamos last weekend. It felt like we had come home after our excursion to Athens, back to the familiar sights of an old stone village. A wonderful meal, a tiny surprise dessert (actually two this time) and raki. In Athens we didn't always get the surprise dessert and raki, so it was good to get back to that tradition! We are definitely spoiled.

So many things about Athens I didn't mention. The market (all meat) was stunning. We went expecting a market like in Catania Sicily. That one had all kinds of food.  The one in Athens, at least the big indoor area was all meat, it was huge, huge, huge. You will see some pictures of it. And it was not static, I mean the butchering was not always finished so there were lots of meat cleavers and sounds of meat cleavers and ...... It was a lot of reality at one time. We ate lunch in a small restaurant there. But it was hard especially for me, I had the view of the market, Grier had the view of paintings and the kitchen with tasty smells.

We rode the night ferry there and back, that was fun too. We had our own cabin. I went straight from the ferry to work. Felt a little stunned, but made it through the day. Yikes this is getting long! Now for pictures.