Day 18: Tsoutsouras, 26°,🌞

Crete’s South Shore…

Back out to our favourite Ch restaurant last night. They seemed pleased to see us. It’s not a Michelin restaurant, but the food is very good and they focus on making traditional foods for the most part. Very consistently good night after night.

***Cats everywhere. Most are pretty friendly.***

We stopped to do a little shopping on the way to dinner. I love the plates and bowls found in some parts of Greece. I took photos of these and those will have to satisfy me. I did buy a lovely tea mug!🙂 ***I had a friendly conversation with the fellow that operates the store. All original works were designed and hand painted and put together by his family.*** The kiln is right in the store.

***Noticed a fish spa on our way to dinner. I find if you just wade into the water on a sandy beach that you get a similar experience!***😅

This morning we enjoyed one last visit to Red Jane’s bakery. What a find!

***The saffron cranberry danish is brilliant!***😋

And then it was time to clean up, pack up and get out the door. We had a 270 km drive ahead of us. The drive today was eastward to Rythemio and then SE to Tsoutsouras on the very south coast. I picked it from our planning map because it had a whole bunch of beach umbrella symbols on the map. Just as simple as that. We stayed on Crete’s south shore in 2017 and really enjoyed the experience. Tsoutsouras and the south coast is situated on the Lyberian Sea and is heavily influenced by the weather and heat from Africa. Basically we are following the sun, which by coincidence is the name of a 1951 movie starring Glen Ford (Follow The Sun)Which portrays the early life of Ben Hogan who was a famous golfer. Funny the things that stick in one’s head!

One reads about how rugged and mountainous the topography is here, but it’s not until you drive it and take time to have a closer look that you realize just how true it is. It’s just incredible!

Along the way we decided to take a break in the beautiful seaside town of Agia Galini. It’s a fishing port, tourist type place. Really lovely.

We stopped at a nice little jar front restaurant for a cold drink and later ate the smoked salmon sandwiches we’d picked up this morning at Red Jane’s. We weren’t sure what our lunch options might be today, so we brought it with us.

We almost stayed the night here, but I was thinking about those small umbrella symbols. But it was very tempting!😅

Back into the car during the heat of the day. Now driving on very secondary-type roads. On the map those are the narrow yellow ones!

We climbed up into the coastal mountains.

***A small church at the top of the climb. I guess you need to prepare yourself for the precipitous drop to the sea!!***😬

It was an interesting descent with numerous hairpin turns and long drops to the gorges below. I loved it, and I think Annemarie survived it!😏 Great navigation though!

We arrived to find very, very little going on. I think Annemarie said something about how we should have stayed at the earlier seaside town. Too late now.

I had found this odd hotel that also rented cars during our planning session yesterday, but no one was home. The door was open though. After looking at various options we ended up back at this place and were finally able to connect with the owner.

He told us that he would arrive in an hour which gave us time for a swim. The water was still pretty warm. Not bad for late October!

***Very late season. Just one other person on the beach!***

Our landlord’s cousin came in to meet us and gave us a very nice updated corner room on the second floor with a beautiful sea view.

Then it was time to go out for a nice dinner as the sun was setting. A sea food restaurant…with lots of cats!

***This dark dish was cutle fish in red wine sauce. Very nice!***

Well, Annemarie is now fully on board with this town, and it’s so nice and quiet after all the tourists in the north. I think we will stay here for an extra day! At $70 per night it’s a real bargain. And he’s going to make us breakfast in the morning!