Crete - The Center

We left Kindelis on Thursday morning and reached our next stop, Kapsaliana Village Hotel, in the early afternoon. On the way we stopped off at a ruined roman town for about 45 minutes. The town was being excavated and catalogued, we saw a team of three archeologists with a pile of broken pottery shards, but still had sections open to visit such as the cisterns we scrambled down into.

Kapsaliana is an abandoned village that a local architect has restored and turned into a resort with 17 suites located about 20 km inland from Rethymnon. It has amazing views, a really good restaurant and very friendly staff. Our first afternoon was spent relaxing on our lovely terrace reading and enjoying music on Christos' new toy (the FoxL platinum Bluetooth speaker). We had dinner around 9pm .... It was a tasting menu with four different wines (white, rose, red and dessert) and while we are still not sold on Greek wine (fine for drinking but not good enough to warrant space in our bags on the way home), the food was excellent, in particular a feta cheese paste that was delicious! Then it was back to our terrace where we polished off a small bottle of Raki while watching "The Wire".

Friday it was off to see the Arkadi monastery and nearby village of Margarites, famous for its pottery.  The Arkadi monastery is famous in Greece as the scene of resistance in the 1866 Cretan revolt against the Ottomans. The locals, including hundreds of women and children, had taken refuge inside its walls and when a large Turkish army arrived and stormed the monastery, one of the defenders blew up the gunpowder storage magazine killing those inside, Turk and Greek alike. Given the viciousness of the conflict, the Greeks thought it better to die than to be subject to the Sultan's wrath. While the Turks initially regarded it as a victory, the incident brought the conflict to the attention of the larger European community who sided with the Greeks over the Ottomans. While the place was thick with tourists during our visit, it was still very moving to walk in the old gunpowder magazine and to imagine the final moments of those who would rather die than surrender to what they regarded as a vicious enemy.

After Arkadi it was a short drive to the lovely village of Margarites where we visited more than half a dozen pottery workshops and of course bought way too much pottery (pottery seems to be a fascination of ours). The prices were unbelievably low, we suspect as a result of the ongoing financial calamities of Europe and decline in tourism in Greece, so we loaded up with eight bowls, two plates and a platter! Christos wanted to buy more but Lisa wisely forbade it as we somehow have to get all this stuff home!

We arrived back at Kapsaliana around 4pm and spent the afternoon relaxing until dinner at 9pm which included one of Christos' favourites, Okra (bamyas in Greek) as well as pork and chicken dishes that were quite yummy! Finally it was back to our suite for a little TV on the terrace and some white wine.

Our last day in the Center of Crete involved a trip into Rethymnon for the day. We spent the day wandering the old town doing a little tourist shopping (dishcloths embroidered with Crete, olive oil soap and a bottle of Raki for later consumption), visiting the archeological museum and roasting in the heat. We also enjoyed our first pints of Guinness in some time at a local bar where two of the other patrons turned our to be Scots and we ended up chatting for a good while on history, politics etc. while enjoying the dark cold goodness of Guinness. The two Scots started talking to us by opening that Lisa must be Irish (red hair) but were even more excited when Lisa told them of her Scottish heritage.

One of the things Christos has noticed is the seeming amnesia the locals have regarding the Turks ... The old mosques still stand and have generally not been re-used but rather are boarded up and virtually ignored by the locals. Usually the main mosque door is locked and flowers or other obstacles are placed on the door steps, transforming the entry into just a part of the wall.