2018 Greece 13

This is Sunday and we take a bus to Chania (also spelled Hania and pronounced hahn-yah).  This is Crete’s most evocative city with it’s pretty Venetian quarter crisis-crossed by narrow lanes leading to a magnificent harbor.  It’s only 28 miles from Kissamos but the bus ride takes an hour.

Our first stop is the Archaeological Museum in a beautifully restored 16th century Venetian Church of San Francisco.  What amazed us the most is how small fragments were glued together to re-create the vases and vessels.  There were also glass vases from a 3 C BC glass foundry.  I had no idea glass could be this old.

 

After coffee in a nice garden restaurant we went to the Byzantine Museum.  This had a limited number of items to display and was a disappointment after Archaeological Museum.

The town was humming this Sunday.  Outdoor restaurants abound in the city and are wall-to-wall on the harbor.  Almost all were full or near full.  So how do you choose one?  It’s common practice to have a “salesman” outside trying to lure you in.  I saw one with a sign “No Pressure”; this appealed to me so that’s where we went.  We later discovered it has a 2018 Trip Advisor Mark of Excellence.  And it certainly was good.  But we haven’t had a bad meal since we’ve been here.

 

From our outdoor restaurant (below) we could see a Mosque across the bay, but it wasn’t open. And we came across two bikes that looked like city rental bikes but were unique in that they were made of wood.

 

2018 Greece 12

Today’s scheduled ride wasn’t particularly long or hard, even if the trip out was mostly up-hill.  At 2.5 km, I had a flat rear tire.  The bike outfitters told me that we had 2 inner tubes since our wheels are different diameters.  But when I opened the trunk bag I saw only one tube, one to fit Brenda’s wheel.  No problem, we can patch the tube.  It took a while to get the tire off and when we did, we could not find a hole in the tube.  So, what’s happened?  We reinstall the tube and tire, pump the tire up and start to get on and the tire is flat again.

So we start walking back to town.  But suddenly I had a thought: the trunk bag seemed pretty big to have only one spare tube.  And sure enough there was a bottom compartment which had the spare tube I needed.  So we take the wheel off again and install this tube. We get it back on the bike and for some unknown reason, the brakes are rubbing the rim.  So it takes me more time to adjust the brakes.  By the time everything is sorted out, we’ve probably lost an hour. After some discussion, we’re back on the bikes and back on the ride (uphill).  But the grades get steep and the temperature rises (86 degrees).  So we turn around, not completing the ride.  I need my eyeglasses adjusted and it’s lunchtime in Kissamos.   Unfortunately, the eyeglass place doesn’t have staff that can make the adjustment until Monday.  No photos today.

2018 Greece 11

No cycling today; we’re sailing.  On a boat which will handle 400 people; this is the small boat. 

 

From the Kissamos harbor it’s about an hour’s boat ride to Imera Gramvousa – the Island of Pirates.  There are 400 plant species in Gramvousa, three of them cannot be found anywhere else on earth.  There are also 98 species of birds.  The main attraction, if you call it that, is a 1579 Venetian castle.  At least that’s what the tourist literature says.  Actually it’s barely a ruin, no indication of where  a castle used to be.  And to get there you have to climb 400-500 feet on slippery, rocky soil.  There are some steps, but some of these are pretty tall steps. I huffed and puffed on the climb and was very disappointed at the top.  Coming down was more difficult, as it always is. A couple of times young people asked “Are you all right?”  Did I look as if I was about to die?  Maybe!  And as I approached a very big step, a young black lady in front of me held out her hand and said “I don’t look strong, but I am.”  Thanks, lady.

The next stop is the lagoon of Balos, listed as one of the best beaches in the world.  Well, I’m not a beach person.  I don’t like sun, sand or salt-water.  So what made this one of the best?  Beats me.  Second picture below Patrice took of me trying to hold up the umbrella.  Are we having fun yet?

I must have left my shirt on the bed.  When I returned to the room the maids had folded it the same way they fold the towels.  Brenda told me to enjoy this one; she’s not going to fold my shirts.

But the next day, they folded her jacket.

2018 Greece 10

Today’s official route is more difficult than yesterday’s.  According to the  Ride With GPS software, the maximum grade is 18.8%. Yikes.  (The steepest paved road in the world is in Dunedin, New Zealand – 23%.)  So we decided to opt out.  Instead we did the short ride which we missed on the first day,  The Shore East of Kissamos.

Left, a nice lunch location but we were there before lunchtime.

   

We came to  T in the road but it was gravel in both directions. We weren’t sure where we were but Patrice headed out anyway.  The rocks were bad enough but then we encountered deep sand and our wheels sunk.  When I finally got up the only option was to walk the bike for a while.  We got to what I think is the end but there is a path off to the  right.  Patrice and Brenda take off on this “path” through a field.  It’s narrow and branches hit me from both sides.  I holler “This is stupid.”  but they continue.  Damn hard-headed women.  We did finally come to a road and they feel vindicated.

We find a taverna which is open, run by an old woman who has almost no teeth. We are the only customers.  For once, we find someone who has only limited English but she understands beer.  It is very early season here and she has not stocked up on many items on the menu but I had a pretty good pork chop and the tomatoes in the Greek salad were fantastic.

 

The restaurant is less that 1 km from a Roman Amphitheater.

We’re not sure what this is; it was beside the Amphitheater.  Maybe an alter?  The stone in the manmade alter matches the natural stone behind it.

2018 Greece 09

Today was a tough cycling day starting with an 8 kilometer climb.  The main destination was an archeology site, the Ancient Roman City Phalasarnis (or sometimes Falasarnis).  To get there we had to ride on a rocky unpaved road, not pleasant even if you have a mountain bike with fat tires as Brenda and I did.  The Phalasarnian civilization started early but was at their zenith around 400 BC.  It is believed that the Romans trashed their own city, possibly because the inhabitants had become pirates.

Picture on the left below is of vegetable hot-houses lining the ocean-front.  Climbing up from the ocean, we had a tough 3-mile climb.  Brenda and I walked part of it.

An of course I had to take a photo of Betsy’s skirt.  She is co-leader of this ride.

2018 Greece 08

Our first cycling day was pleasant.  How could it be bad with blue skies, blue water and temperatures in the 70’s?  We had two rides today, both leisurely explorations of the shore to the west and east of Kissamos.  A few of us didn’t make it to the afternoon ride due to the two hour lunch.  Can you blame us? Sitting on the Med, enjoying the ambience and eating great seafood (fish, shrimp and calamari)?

We stopped along the road to visit a shrine and chapel built into a cave.

2018 Greece 07

BRENDA’s IMPRESSIONS OF ATHENS

Athens is a big city, quite old and very historical, but in many ways it is just old.  Obviously many resources are being used to protect and restore the Acropolis and Parthenon.  The rebuilding of that area began in the 1980s and will continue for many years to come.  This applies to many of the other important sites in the city. 

The highways around the city were fairly new thanks in part to the 2004 Olympics held here. The EU has probably helped also. Even the streets within the city were pretty good. The airport was modern and clean.

The Greek people have a great pride in their heritage and their city.  This was evident in how they proudly talked about their city, and the food and drink.  It was quite impressive given that the unemployment rate fluctuates between 15-30% depending on the season.  Tourism is a big business here and employs many from March through October.  We never saw evidence of unemployed, wandering people.

We did see lots of gypsies and they can be very in your face.  This is a cultural group we just don’t see in the US, certainly not in Dallas.

While the tourist areas are clean and tidy, I observed that much of the residential areas were not so tidy.  Older buildings, pollution, additions to structures contribute to this not so glamorous look.  Plus, the density of the population plays a role in the over-crowded feel.  Of course, we were staying in the center of Athens, just a few blocks from the Acropolis.  My outlook would have been different had we stayed in a suburb, but what visitor would want that?  I’m sure if Dallas was this old the same would be true.

CONTINUING ON

The history lessons are almost over!  But not quite.  Today (Monday) we flew from Athens to Chania on the island of Crete.  Then a limo took us to Kissamos where the biking will begin tomorrow.  Crete is the largest of the Greek islands.  There are about 1,000 in all but only about 100 are inhabited today.  About 10% of Greece’s 11,000,000 people live on the islands.  Crete is very important in the history of the country, so let’s talk about it.  Also I’ll include a sentence of two about other cultures to put things in perspective.

Over 4,000 years ago, on the island of Crete, a 12-hour boat ride from Athens, the Minoans were traders, not fighters. Society was like a corporation: ruled by CEO kings, managed by CPA scholars and blessed by bureaucrat priests. No one knows where they originated, and no one knows why they disappeared about 1450 BC. Even the poorest in Crete lived well in multi-room apartments with indoor plumbing. With ample leisure time, Minoans were avid sports fans. Tanned, relaxed good-looking men and women are shown in frescos dancing, fishing or strolling with goddess through a garden of exotic animals.

After the Minoans the Greek mainland was dominated by local tribes called the Mycenae's – warriors, not traders. But they disappeared also and Greece fell into the “dark ages”, 800 – 500 BC.

About 800 BC, Greek tribes began experimenting with democracy. A large military city, Sparta conquered its neighbors turning them into slave farmers. Sparta grew to 3,000 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware.

Opposite the oppressive, militaristic Sparta was the democratic, luxury-loving and business friendly Athens, population 80,000. Athens prospered, exporting cash-crops (wine and olive oil, pottery and other crafts) to neighboring cities and importing the best craftsmen and thinkers. After they defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, an excited soldier ran 26.2 miles to Athens to tell the good news. He died after the run, but The Marathon was born.

The Greeks dominated the ancient world though brain, not brawn. At school both the body and the mind were trained. In the Agora (marketplace) Socrates, Plato and Aristotle debated questions that still occupy the human mind. Both Plato and Aristotle founded universities that would attract Europe’s best minds for centuries.

And then the  Romans came.

 

Our hotel for the next 10 days has a pool and beach chairs on the Mediterranean. We have large rooms and balcony’s on the Med. We’re here for 10 days and breakfast and dinner is included.  This costs us $1,400 per person. Not bad, heh?