I thought I would start with a pic of my dinner last night because it was so colourful! Greek lamb spaghetti. Never heard of it.😅 But is was very nicely presented and tasty.
Today we went of to see the Lasithi Plateau. Something that we planned for yesterday, but it was just too wet up high to venture in that direction. We had kept the car so that we might have this option. When we woke up in our hobbit hole we had no real feel for the outside weather. This required some serious reconnaissance!
It’s quite difficult to find a breakfast bakery with seating in the core. I’ll post a photo tomorrow of the place we eventually found.
After a disappointing start and stop effort we were finally directed by a fellow setting up tables in a restaurant to “the best bakery in the city”. A direct quote. Somehow we found it and I thought it was really good!
My writing libation just showed up! Now I can get the blog written in comfort before we continue on for dinner somewhere. On our way to see if our car was still where we left it in the port parking lot. €10 per 24 hours. It was there and not tampered with. Phew!
We drove east back the way we’d come yesterday. At some point we turned right and drove up wet, rainy roads and into the mountains. We’d hoped to avoid the rain, but at 750m elevation there was a good probability that we were going to get wet. But, it was better than yesterday. There were actually gaps in the clouds and it looked like we might get lucky.
I’d done some reading about the Plateau. It’s one of the most fertile areas on Crete which is probably fairly easily accomplished given everywhere else is pretty much solid rock.😏 Aa I wrote previously, this area was badly hit three weeks ago when we were on the Peloponnese by a downdraft weather event which caused considerable flooding on Crete. The Plateau was his hard and 85% of the crops on the Plateau were apparently destroyed. Mostly the potato crop. A very sad day for us potato lovers!
Looking back at the reservoir that we would later decide to return past on our way back to Iraklion.
We stopped to visit a very interesting monastery on the way into the plateau area there was a very good museum attached which was a marvel in itself.
Inside the small church which dates back centuries. Please don’t ask me how many, but lots. We climbed higher. And arrived next at some of the original stone windmills which are quite famous in this area. Most of the mills on the plateau are actually metal dating back to the 1800’s.
Metal mills… Used for irrigation by pumping and moving water.
We drove around the perimeter of the plateau and visited a number of small towns. At one point we followed a small rutted road across part of the agricultural area. This really provided some perspective on the mountains surrounding this high elevation plateau.
Of course we eventually started to think about lunch and we found a fairly traditional taverna.
They had parking.😅
We were treated by the grandpa who was in charge of the grill and he immediately cut us each a sizeable sample of pork off a roast and told us to taste it. Magnificent! We went in.
The real thing…roasted potatoes! We split a plate and a tomato and cucumber salad. Really quite good. Grandpa! Dessert on the house, yogurt with local honey!😋 I will be back in training when I get home, but for now…A different route down from the plateau. After the initial numerous switchbacks it was pretty clear sailing. Passing through yet another village.
We eventually arrived back in Iraklion and we went in separate directions…for a couple of hours. I decided to walk out the massive breakwater protecting Iraklion’s harbour. The barrier is over 2km long. A beautiful walk close by the airport and the port facilities.
For Rob.A fisherman baiting his gear and preparing to fish tonight. I amused myself by taking photos of the murals on the breakwater. A number of them were quite imaginative and detailed. Watching fishermen heading out to sea. And by taking photos and videos of the jets taking off from the airport which is so close to Iraklion that they have to bank very sharply away from the city to minimize the noise. You still hear them loudly in town until about 21:00! I’m really enjoying the zoom on my 17Pro! Surprisingly decent performances.And then there were the clouds and the sun to amuse me. Clearly I’m easily amused. 😂Reminded me of sailing in English Bay in my youth. A flautist playing along the wall. He wasn’t too bad either. Certainly added to the ambiance. Annemarie picked a Spanish tapas restaurant tonight, just to change it up. Most of the tapas were really just Greek dishes badly disguised as theoretical tapas. We tried to pick tapas type stuff, but they didn’t provide small pieces on a plate like regular tapas. Nope. They provided the whole dish. The tortilla was a whole tortilla. The waiter explained that Greeks expect to receive a full plate of food. I wish they had explained this to us at the beginning because we ordered three plates with far too much food for two people. Simply part of the travel experience!
Tomorrow we fly up to Athens late morning. Our trip is winding down as is the weather. It will be cooler and potentially wetter in Athens, but our plan to hold on to summer as long as possible worked pretty well.
