Drive Like A Greek!
After dinner, we walked down to the harbour to have a look around. It was beautiful, and many of the restaurants were filled almost to capacity. We were warned not to eat in the harbour because the prices are higher, and the food is not generally traditional or as well prepared.
Last night over dinner, we made the decision to drive down eastward to Rethimno. We had stayed here air a few nights in 2017 when we travelled here with my sister and we thought it would be fun to go back to see it again.
But first we had to return to check out a great looking bakery called Red Jane that we’d stumbled across last night on our way home. We took a different route home and there it was, all shut down. everything is made on site and everything we took with us back to our apartment was amazing!
Breakfast over we figured out our way out of the city and eastward to Rethimno.
Driving in Greece is pretty straight forward. It’s about on par with driving in Italy and not as challenging as driving in Turkey. You need to stay focused and watch for overtaking motorcycles on both sides of your car. Some of them fly! In the cities stop signs are just a suggestion, and because the buildings run very close to corners you need to watch for cars nosing out to see if the coast is clear. It often isn’t, but they go anyway!😬 lots of one way streets and it’s important to know which ones go which way. There are small signs to help with this. A big mystery, and not unlike much of Europe, is the placement of the stop lights. Often behind the front of the car when one stops, it’s often really a problem to see when the light changes. Not a big issue because if you are slow off the mark, someone is bound to remind you that the light has changed.
Tail gating is a national sport and I find it best just to ignore it. No point in getting flustered or upset. The annoying thing is when you arrive at a safe place to pass the tailgaters often don’t. They just sit there. I often wonder if they are smiling while tailgating?
The speed limits change pretty frequently, but usually the drivers don’t adjust their speed. So I do what my grandpa taught me when I was 17. Simply move with the traffic, drive like a local and try not to hit anyone!😅
We arrived in Rethimno and Google took us on a fun route into town. This allowed me to practice my Greek driving skills and low and behold I didn’t hit anyone!
After locating some parking we set off to visit all our favourite places. Except we couldn’t find any of them!😏 Turns out that we didn’t remember the city very well. So we simply wandered.
We did locate a leather tradesman. That was a treat.
A few walking pictures;
Once we’d walked a circuit we had pretty much seen a nice sample and decided that it was time to head home. I offered to stop at a beach we had spotted on the way back, but today Annemarie was just ready to find a cold drink at home and take some down time. No problem.
But notice that the Halloween stuff was out. They are still getting used to the concept in much of the EU as it’s still relatively new here. Lots of good sweets here, so I’m pretty sure they will figure it out soon!
Now it’s time for a shower and then we need to figure out somewhere for dinner!
Cheers!
Geoff🇨🇦
