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Birth of Crete – Venizelos Eleftherios Venizelos – The Great Man of Crete Just two years before the Holocaust of Arkadi in 1864, a child was born in Mournies, a village just south of Hania. One of six children, he was the fifth, to be born of Kyriakos from Mournies and Styliani, his mother, from Therisso….
and its return to life There is a large village in the southwestern, central area of Chania, Crete, which is called Kandanos. You can get there by following the route to Palaiochora. You will find this village on the road 16 km before Palaiochora. Just before you arrive at Kandanos, you will go through the…
The Hidden Gem of Crete Suppose your journey takes you from Rethymno through Spili to Agia Galini or the Messara Plain, or from Iraklion to Festos and Matala. In that case, you might inadvertently bypass one of Crete’s most enchanting regions – the Amari Valley. This serene and picturesque valley, nestled between the mountains, is…
Ah the wonderful fig tree. It grows everywhere and the figs appear mostly in October and November, although there are, of course, winter figs, even spring figs, and summer figs I have heard. But there is something special about the fig tree. Forget the milky sap that some are allergic to, forget even the lack…
One of the finest flowers seen in Crete is the wild Cretan poppy. So many people see so many flowers that the poppy is often ignored in favour of the wonderful orchids and the myriads of stunning flowers that are seen here. But I love the poppy. It is straight, wild and serene. It is…
Today is the nutty season in Crete. Perhaps we are all nuts for living on such a beautiful island, but I would live nowhere else. But now nuts are the thing. The lovely chestnut trees are disgorging their wonderful nut for us all to pick up. The nuts are wonderful. They appear in October just…
On Saint George’s day in the village of Asigonia in Crete, the shepherds bring all of the herds down from the mountains to have them milked. Shepherds milking sheep From the other side, it looks just like this: Five sheep at a time Then, of course, the milk has to be pasteurised: Pasteurisation Then the…
Whoopa . . . I really love this clip from Zorba the Greek. It is the final moments in the film following the enormous disaster that Zorba caused running logs from the monastery on top of the hill down to the sea. They took the clip on Stavros Bay in the Akrotiri peninsular. Anthony Quinn…
High in the mountains of Crete, there is a plateau that once, some years ago, was famous for windmills. The scene of so many fluttering windmills was a sight to see. It used to look exactly like this. Lasithi Windmills as they used to be In fact, these were not so much windmills, but windpumps….
The monastery of Panagia Chrisoskalitissa, Our Lady of the Golden Step in English, is in the remote southwest of Crete just six Kilometres from the lovely lagoon beach of Elafonisi. And it is glorious. Panagia Chrisoskalitissa Monastery I took this photograph when the sunset happened and thank heavens I had my camera to hand for…
Kalamaki, a village just north of Matala on the Messara coastline of Crete is a place that we have known for many years. Just over twenty years ago we, my wife and I, were there visiting one of the two very small tavernas that were on the beach. There were a few other buildings, but…
Here in Crete, we have a relatively large collection of incredible jalopies – most still on the road. Some of them go back forty years and consist basically of a rotovator without the blades with a seat and trailer on the back. Later they joined the front engine to the trailer and then we had,…
