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My travel in Europe:
Crete, island of Greece, 2021


Content:


Samarias, Falassarna, Arkadi, Eleutherna

Day 5:

Today's wishes is to see the Samaria Canyon and maybe a short walk there. If we get time we will drive to the most Western part of the coast and visit Falassarna.

Petres Beach:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

As short stop after we left Rythemnon, in the background we see Chania which we will pass by today.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We left the motor way and continue on a smaller road that go to Samarias Canyon. Then we are up in the mountains again. This is close to Laki.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Everywhere we look we see a lot of olive trees.


The roads we are driving at today:


Samaria National Park:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Driving on the roads with lot of goats that gently moves aside when we come. We have reach the Samarias Canyon, got ten minutes without rain. At least we were able to take some photos.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

If we had walked all the way to the Southern coast it had taken us 6.5 hours with a guided group.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Samaria Gorge:


Seliniotikos Giros:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We drove further to the West and take another road to the North. We have decided to visit another archaeological site, the Polirinia. Have read about some Roman aqueduct at that place and we love the old Romans culture.


Prasses:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

On the way we passes the area around Prasses and once again we have these wonderful views.


Polirinia:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We found the site after a while. To come to this place we had to drive the car upwards a very steep road. It's a cafe here on the summit, but it was closed. We got ten minutes until the rain started again.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Polyrrhenia:


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Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Do you want to call home ?


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Underground channels that lead the water to some place that were in need of water supply.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Roman aqueduct, after had walking around in the alleys of the old town we found it.


Kissamos:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Up to the North coast again, just where the Kissamos city ends on the West side we found a restaurant at the coast.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Now I got a lot of messages with warnings from my friends, there is a strong earthquake going on at Crete just now. Just the days before we booked the tickets it was also an earthquake. They are now warning about tsunamis but its on the East coast and we are at the West coast. Still we had the ocean under observation, if the ocean rises, how fast can we run ? I asked the waitress if she know anything, she told us: "Earthquake, who cares, we have them all the time". We relaxed and finished our dinner.


Falassarna:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

The last thing to do today. North of the Falassarna Beach there is a Roman excavation.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We found it, but one hour to late, it was closed. It's a very big area and it's only partly excavated.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We could still see part of it through the fence. Could this have been a luxury Roman villa ?


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

My feet hurts now and I walk slowly back to the car, not all the way, Gunilla walk at fast speed and went back with the car.

More information about Phalasarna:


Day 6:

The fourth and last day we have the car. We aimed for the widows village but came to another place to our surprise.

Monastery of Arkadi:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

On the map we saw there was something at this place, but couldn't see what. We drove up the hill to have a look. To our surprise it was a big monastery.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

This tree has a bullet in it, from some revolution in the 19th century.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

The monastery is very well preserved. Lot of exhibitions to look at or just to walk around here is pleasant.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Up on the second floor we got a better overview of the monastery.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Cats have their lunch, don't disturb !


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

At this place was earlier a windmill, now a military memorial place.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Arkadi Monastery:


This is a map of our trip today:


After the visit at the monastery we now want to see some excavations. On the map we can see that there are something at Eleutherna.

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

One stop on the way to have some memorable views we found.


Eleftherna:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

This is the road down to the excavations, but ...


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

They have closed it because of some work.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We took a coffee and a soda on the cafe. From this place we had a view over the area. In the middle there is a grey roof, that is one of the excavations.


Ancient Eleutherna:

Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We don't give up so easy. Not far away there is the ancient Eleutherna place. We went to that place, and wow what a lot of interesting things we found.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

A narrow pathway lead us to a defens tower.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Strange carvings in the rock that we don't understand.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

There are a lot of things here to investigate, but we can't stay the whole day and have to sort out the gems.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

No rails, you have to be stable when walking, it's very high above the ground below.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Here we had enter one of the water cisterns. What an incredibly engineering work. How to know how thick the pillars must be and how big the opening between them can be.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

The cistern is very big, lot of tons of water can be stored inside here.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

A sign told us that there is a fountain down here.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We found it and it pours water out of it.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Eleutherna:


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Moving on, now we have a view to the other side of the valley. To the right of the building is the cafe we visited.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We walk up to the village, needs something to eat. We visit the restaurant with the gentle man who helped us with maps so we could find all these interesting things.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We moved on, down in the valley it's more too look at. It's closed, we think it has to do with Greek's poor economy today. But doesn't matter, we could see what we want anyway.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

What a well preserved staircase, maybe thousand of years old.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

It was not much information to find, maybe part of this is from the Minoan culture.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

This looks more Hellenistic to me, sorry, I'm an amateeur.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

A last view before we leave the area.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

Now we have to go home. It's the last day we have the car and don't want to be late. It's darken very quickly after 6 pm also and we don't want to drive in the darkness up here in the mountains.

Here we have stopped at a viewpoint over the valley. We sat here for a long moment.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

What does Gunilla look at ?

On the way down the mountain we pass through the small village Margarites, famous for its pottery. We didn't stop, but regretted that later. We visited it later again when we rented another car next week. As I told in the beginning, it's very good to have two weeks, more relaxed.


Two weeks at Crete, Western side

We park the car at the hotel, took a rest and then went out for something to eat. We eat often but not very much each time, we like to sit at the restaurants and talk about what we have done during the day.

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Day 7 to 9: Crete, West side

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