GREECE!

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Arrived Patras at midnight. Mounted our tail and head lights, and rode off the ferry, along the port road with all the trucks till we found a hotel. The first one, and it was fine. Full breakfast and on the road by 9:30. We decided to ride about 40 k‘s to Ajion where we could catch a bus to Pireaus.  The coastal hiway was pretty, but lots of traffic. In Ajion we tried to catch a bus, but could only get one to Athens. When we tried to get the bikes below, the loaders said ‘no space‘ even though there was plenty of room. After a bit of a fight, and being told to wait another hour, we realized the bus went away full. The ticket seller, who had gone home by now, had bumped our tickets to the next bus so he could get his friends or relatives on. Anyway, we got on the next bus, arriving in Athens at 5pm. We then found out the bus to Pireaus is a local bus. We had to carry our loaded bikes up a narrow spiral staircase about 20 meters above the 8 lane road to the other side. When the bus came, the driver smiled and said ‘no bikes‘, so, 6pm, Friday, rush hour in Athens and there‘s Tom and Sandra naviguessing our way to the ferry port. No map, no GPS, and no clue! Following the signs we arrive in Pireaus in about 45 min. No close calls, a few horn honks, no swearing, all good. We asked a guy on his motorbike for directions when we arrived and he told us to be very careful, Greek drivers are ‘crazy‘ We replied we just rode in from Athens and he laughed and shook his head, muttering something like ~you‘re crazy, not the Greeks!
Anyway, we made the ferry, which is an overnighter and expect to be in Chania by 7am. We saved 75 Euros by not getting a cabin, so we‘re just heading off to a nice dinner and bottle of wine onboard.

Waiting for our Bus

Our first hotel

CHANIA TOWN

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Ferry arrived early and we had a quiet 8 k ride in to town.
Nice that the old town is as beautiful as I remember it. Big breakfast at a waterfront cafe and found a room with a small balcony overlooking the picturesque harbour. We roamed the streets as we waited for the room to vacate, watching the fishermen try their luck and the morning sweepers make their rounds. Quiet day recovering from the lack of sleep on the ferry last night. We‘re just happy to be here and settled in.

Arriving at 6am

Cat wants my bacon!  No Way!

Roaming the streets looking for a room

DAY RIDE OUT OF CHANIA

OUR PROPOSED ROUTE IN CRETE

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Headed out this morning  in the sun for a day trip to Agio Lake for some birding. After a few false side roads (the cafes put up erroneous signs to drag you past their business) we managed to find the lake where we spent an hour bird watching. Tough to do without a guide book, but a photographer there pointed out some eagles and then some buzzards. The lake held a few ducks, with European Grebes being the most interesting.
When it started to rain we went inside for a frappe (see pic) and a salty crepe. Delicious!
When it stopped raining we ventured down a local road through the orange groves back to the beach road. The rain fell in buckets and the waves were crashing on the beach. Luckily it was a tailwind and we pretty much sailed back to Chania. Now we‘re on our 2nd glass of wine with our wet clothes spread out all over the room.

Sandra uses here seat cap as a rain cap

AFRATA

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Great ride yesterday into Kalivari, and then north and uphill about 400 m to Afrata, a very small town where we found a taverna willing to open just for us. She also found us a room and agreed to serve us dinner. Later that afternoon we continued up the Rodopou Penninsula as far as the pavement allowed, and then walked about 2 k‘s. The wind was fierce, cold and blew right back to our bikes, and a fast ride back to the room.
The taverna owners had a fire in the hearth, homemade wine on the table and a great lamb dinner ready
We had a lively discussion around the economy, how to make ‘virgin‘ olive oil, and then onto strong women in relationships!
That just about exhausted their English and our limited Greek was of no use at all.
This morning we worked our way downhill to the main road and into Kissomos where we found great small apartment on the water for 30 E. We've discovered the season is not starting yet, and every where we go they are getting ready, but not quite open. But if we go and talk to the owners, the are sometimes willing to put us up. So far, so good.

KISSAMOS TO FALASARNIA

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Rode to Falasarnia Beach today. Up about 700 feet and down to a beautiful beach where there are no tourists. We‘re just a little early yet. The sun came out while we were touring the ancient port and we managed to lay on the beach for about an hour. We toured the beaches, boat harbour, and the ruins for about 4 hours and then climbed for about half an hour back to the highway and a speedy ride back into Kissamos. The studio where we‘re staying is warm and they‘re friendly, even though there‘s no one else here.
Tons of birds today as we rode through the olive groves. Tough to bike with one hand while looking through binoculars. I really need a bird guide! Homemade dinner of chicken curry, with a decent French red. Mm...

View from our Beach Front Room

LONG DAY

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All the way from Kissamos, past Chania, to Kaldoves. The last 20 k‘s we‘re on the hiway, where they drive with 2 wheels on the shoulder to assist passing  (they don‘t see too many bicyclists) We put a sign on the back ~ please don‘t hit us! Crete needs tourists! But then we realized they were just coming closer to read the sign!
We managed to find the old road that led us to a nice studio overlooking the water. A great meal and some local wine and all is good again. Our longest day yet at about 75 k‘s.

EASY DAY

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Only 20 k today on the slow road, stopping for ‘English Breakfast‘ Go figure this one out ~ you can order a cappucino for 3E, or you can order English Breakfast with orange juice, two eggs, two slices of awesome bacon, (no thin sliced Schnieders crap here) sausage (ok~half a european weiner) two eggs, three slices of bread and marmalade for 5E! Oh~and it comes with a cappucino! I know some of you are going oh ~ so many calories, but when you bike for 5 hours you start to crave the calories.
We got a room in Georgeolopilis and then went out to Kouvras lake for a beer. Great spot. Temperature has finally warmed up (I sunburned my legs) and we walked about 4 k down the beach in barefeet. Ah! FINALLY!

Waiting for Breakfast

FINALLY! SOME HEAT!

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Another short ride today to Rethymnon. Beautiful weather, stopped a couple of times to admire the mountains. Such a contrast to be on the beach and look up and see snow covered peaks. We've found a nice room with a huge private balcony and we‘ll probably spend 2 nights.

Really nice not to be cold!

RETHYMNON

Love the town, lots to see with a beautiful inner Venician Habour, fort and great little lanes reminiscent of Venice. Apparently the Venicians bought Crete in a complicated political land deal in the 1200‘s. The architectural influences have survived making walking the streets very entertaining. Unfortunately it‘s hard to photograph with the camera phone so you‘ll have to wait til I get a chance to upload the camera.
We‘re off today across the island to Plakias. The 35 k‘s of riding will take us up over the spine of the island and down a gorge to some great southern beaches.

MILI GORGE

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Great hike yesterday. In typical Tom & Sandra style we grabbed the bikes about 1pm after wandering the streets of Rethymnon and headed ‘down the beach aways‘
4 hours later we dropped into our room, tired and sweaty. We found a road leading out of town, and I wondered ~ is this the road to Mili gorge? It wasn‘t, but after several mis~calls and redos, we ended up at the exit to the gorge. So we set off uphill, and an hour later exited the top. Lovely walk with lots of history and springs every where. We decided to walk out the road (never backtrack when you can make a circle out of a walk) and wandered back to our bikes. A severe short climb back out, and sailed back to town and our great balcony for a beer and nuts. Finished off with a great meal in the old part of town, and then an enterprising store owner talked us into having custom ‘Tour de Crete‘ shirts made, just for us.

Traffic Jam Cretian Style

Rythimnon

RIDE TO PLAKIAS

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Headed out of town for the big climb up and over to Plakias on the south shore. Road was busy at first as we climbed slowly out of town, but became more rural as we hit the top.  We stopped at an ancient Minoan burial site, which was fascinating where there are Rock cut tombs.
Great riding as we headed east and cut through Kotsifou gorge to Plakias.
Stunning riding today, probably our best yet.

PALM (PREVALI) BEACH

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Breakfast on the balcony, then we rode west to Souda, turned around and headed east to Preveli.
This beach is the beach you see on most posters encouraging you to visit Greece. Beautiful clean stream, backing up into a shallow lake lined with Palm trees (hence it‘s other name ~ Palm Beach)
Sandy freshwater lake on one side, 40 feet of sand, then gorgeous gentle sea.
Oh, and it‘s usually filled with nudes.
Today Tom was the only nudie, and that was just for a quick dip to wash the sweat off!
Today we saw a group (5 ~ 7) of Lammergeier (bearded) Vultures soaring 50 ft overhead. Extremely rare, and extremely huge, they were awesome to see. We followed that with a pair of Peregrine falcons high in the cliff.
Dinner on our balcony tonight with bottle of red to match the sunset.
Delicious!

Seaside Balcony

Starting today's ride with a view of the route tomorrow.

Prevali Monastry

Souda Beach

Rest Stop - so we did!

Beach from the parking lot

TRAPPED IN SPILI

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Strong winds today as we climbed out of Plakias, through Kourtaliotiko gorge with the Griffon Vultures, up again to Frati, and along the ridge to Mixorrouma where we rejoined the main road into Spili. At one point we pushed the bikes uphill bucking a 40 k headwind that filled our faces with dust.
We are now sitting in our room waiting to go out to Kosta~Marias for a good homemade Cretian dinner with local wine and Raki after.
Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but the winds have blown dust from Africa over the coast, and we expect there to be ‘red rain‘ tomorrow, which is what happens when it rains through the dust storm. Everyone has told us it‘s dangerous to be on the road when this happens, hence we are ‘trapped in Spili‘
We stopped at a taverna in Frata for coffee and to get out of the wind, but we realized the place was closed and the only reason the door was open is because the wind blew it open, breaking the lock. So here we are looking foolish as the neighbor finds us inside a closed broken into taverna. He believed our story, called the owner and all was okay, but we still didn‘t get a coffee!

AGI GALINI

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Left Spili before the rain, but only made about 8 k‘s when we had to take shelter under cover at a gas station.
We waited until the road dryed off and carried on downhill. We made about 10 more k when we could see the rain chasing us towards the coast. We fled downhill at breakneck speed, and except for the face battering occasional rain splatter, made it comfortably into Agi Galini. Found a room with a sea view balcony and headed out to explore the beach. Every resort was furiously cleaning and painting, getting ready for the season opener next week. Even our place, now with 3 of 28 rooms rented will be filling up next week.

RIDDLE FOR YOU

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What do Crete and Silver Star have in common?
SNOW!
No shit. Fresh snow just above us as we headed out of Agi Galini. Poured most the night, so we were glad to see the sun when it came time to pack up.
8 k‘s of uphill then a nice long speedy downhill. We rode up to Festos for a look at the Minoan ruins, then rode the back roads into Mires, arriving in a rain squall. It was market day, although we arrived too late to do anything except watch them clean up.