.VISITORS FROM NZ AND IMBROS GORGE VENTURE

 We have been busy with heaps of happenings in the past week here in summery Crete. We had been preparing to meet the in-laws of our daughter Kate (all currently living in New Zealand). Marty and Pauline had embarked on a trip of a lifetime to take their long awaited overseas experience and the chance to see as much of Europe as possible. They chose a cruise which came to Crete so they could see for themselves where New Zealanders who fought in the WWII Battle of Crete would have been. They both had relatives and family friends who had served in Crete during the war so this was a very special time for them.

People from abroad always ask for our address – well you would, wouldn't you? But in our village, there are no street names or house numbers so we decided to wait in the Square opposite the school.

We had proposed lunch at our place not having any idea of their schedule. Pauline had said “Don't go to any trouble”, but in truth, we needed to smarten ourselves up a bit. All our porch walls were looking horrid after the new roof works, the muddy woodpile and winter rains. Embarrassingly, the bathroom ceiling had suspicious evidence of a few spots of mould and we didn't want to look too shabby. So lots of painting and cleaning went on over the weekend and cooking for an ad hoc instantly available meal. Our bathroom and kitchen positively sparkled while all the mops and buckets sagged against the garden wall looking weary and beaten after the full frontal attack.

The weekend weather was a lot better than the previous few days and on Monday all the clouds and mists cleared up to produce a fabulous Spring Day for them. We waited in the village square as prearranged and the taxi turned up about half an hour late giving us a bare 35 minutes or so to walk back to the house, catch up on their news, eat the quickest chicken salad in history and guzzle a cup of tea and walk back to the square again to meet up with the taxi. There had been a muddle at the port office, the taxi driver had been waiting in the wrong place and had wasted two valuable hours of their precious day. Anyway, they loved what they saw, got to Souda and Marty even started asking about real estate prices in Crete just before they left! We heard later that they arrived back at the ship just as the gang planks were being raised … Phew! It was lovely to see them even for such a short time!

Tuesday was an Art School day, but our numbers are a bit depleted and we wondered about a drive to find some new students. Anyway, I had a delicious morning out in the sunshine under my hat painting one of my favourite corners outside and trying to get acrylics right before the sun dried them quickly on my palette.

On Wednesday, a group of us had planned a walk down the Imbros Gorge before the weather became too hot and dry. There are usually a few weeks at the beginning and end of the season when the rains have ceased and before the sun does not roast you too much. We all took sensible precautions and set off as early as possible. Hats, Water bottles, stout shoes, walking poles and back packs on board, we set off looking very chipper. Gorge walking seems to be quite a big tourist industry and there are places where you can call for a taxi at the bottom of the gorges (or catch a boat in the case of the Samaria which ends where there is no road access) so having left most cars at the bottom, driven all the drivers to the top and leaving one car at the top, we were at last ready to set off. The approach is down a set of steps with a rather wobbly hand rail and I wondered if it would get any easier once we were down at the bottom of these. As Gorges go, Imbros is supposed to be one of the easier to tackle – especially compared with the Samaria. It is about 8 km long, has lots of interesting mini climates and habitats on the way through. The whole walk is downhill, which seems easy but after a long winding hike over largish boulders and slippery rocks and scree, my hips and knees were creaking a bit. At one shady spot, we sat for a rest under some trees and I ventured to ask “Are we nearly there yet?”. We were, apparently after a couple of hours at our slow pace, only half way. (Inward groan!). However, the plant life, trees and birds were magical and overhanging cave-like arches, whole streams of ancient lava-type rock under foot and parts where you did feel as if you were climbing down waterfalls (which I suspect is the case in the winter wet months) made it an ambitious outing for someone who has been at home and not doing very much other than housework and painting for a longish time. My feet survived well, aching all over at the finish (but no blisters) and the narrow gorge opened out just a short drive from Hora Sfakion where we sat down to a very late lunch and chose a taverna which had the best shelter from the wind.  It was a beautiful day;  I was glad to have experienced the atmosphere of the gorge but it is anything but a stroll in the country!

On Thursday, I could hardly get around the house as my legs were so stiff and took a quiet day to rest a bit. The daily round since the Imbros walk has been a bit more domesticated but --- the eternity ring which I thought I had lost in the icy cold sea at Matala, turned up magically in such an unexpected spot, tucked behind a down pipe by the stone stairs outside and I am rejoicing. Yippee!

RATHER A LOT TO EAT …

Domestic chores have not been any sort of antidote to all the partying of the past week or two. Lots of cooking; lots of cleaning but an elephant's sufficiency for eating too. Day by day we have been preparing to receive visitors who are arriving in Crete via cruise ships and there has been a lot to do inside and outside the house before they get here - in between lots and lots of eating out.

At the weekend, we had the Annual CIC Red Cross Coffee Morning, which was a tricky occasion for our friend Ev since it was the first year that Bob had not been taking the stage. Bob was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer soon after last year's coffee morning and nobody could believe how quickly the disease had taken him away from us. So with extra efforts we had all been cooking our socks off and tables at Camping Elizabeth were groaning with all the goodies which had been prepared. All our 10 euros entrance fees and donated raffle prizes made a good show and we raised in the region of 1200 euros for the Red Cross and Samaritans. It was so good to know that we could still do a good job, even without Bob at the helm and Ev carried off all the compere-ing with great aplomb – she was quite amazing. Despite the strong sunshine, it was still not quite warm enough to go swimming in the sea yet (and we were all a bit full of cake).

All the plants have been blooming upstairs and downstairs and we have enjoyed the improving weather with gusto. I took a trip to a large house-ware shop with our friends the Brods and their friends last week. The weather forecast had not been good for that day, so we all had umbrellas and raincoats just in case and stopped at the Brods' favourite roadhouse for hot chocolates and coffees halfway there. The store was brilliant with lots of great furniture, kitchen ware and just the kitchen stools I had been looking for – sadly in flat pack form but hey ho – so I bought two and we abandoned our idea of touring Chania because the weather was windy and wet. Stopping at Cretan Corner on the way home, we shared a lovely meal together and I was glad to get to a place that I had heard of many times but never visited before. The lady proprietor was English married to a Greek man and they had a very nice taverna in a village called Aptera. On a good day, the view would have been wonderful but … it was not a good day for landscapes. When I arrived home K said there had been an almighty thunderstorm in Skepasti and flooding in various parts of Crete.

On Wednesday, we set off for Heraklion having booked an overnight stay in a hotel in the centre. We killed two birds with one stone by dropping off K's large envelope containing the MRI scan films (sheets of them) for the Oncology Department at the University Hospital. Sneekily, we parked in the hospital car park and hailed a taxi from outside the door to the centre of the city since the traffic is always so very busy and we were not sure where we were heading for.

The hotel turned out to be very comfortable, modern and reasonably close to the shopping centre and large Lions Fountain. The centre was full of tourists and students and the atmosphere was lively, however trying to get cash from an ATM was not straightforward and lots of the machines had run out of money. We hear news reports that national loan payments are being made with difficulty and that local authorities are being asked to donate their education budgets to help the national government pay their dues. This is all very confusing because everywhere hotels and businesses have been modernised and look very prosperous, every road on the island, however remote, seems to have been channelled out to receive fibre optic cables (even around the mountain tops), so we can't work out easily the true state of things.  It seems best to take it one day at a time.

Anyway, after this digression, and back in Heraklion we got up early on Thursday, took full advantage of a sumptuous buffet breakfast (!) and took a taxi to the port where all the security staff had been alerted about our arrival.   We were to visit our nephew Kieran who has recently started cadet training with merchant navy and is doing his first stint at sea on the Star Pride of the Windstar Cruises group. We had been reminding each other “not to forget the chocolate” for several days since he said that it was the only thing that he needed and we had bought a small cold bag, stocked up with a few lots of tuck to keep body and soul together! The ship was very smart, he looked happy and busy. We had a bit of a wait while the crew needed to do a fire drill and life boat drill as part of their port inspection. Bells were going, hooters sounding and all sorts of personnel were involved doing lots of different things. We sat in a plush lounge watching the sea, reading a wonderful collection of atlases and books and being plied with coffee and soft drinks while all this was going on. Yes, I could quite imagine myself enjoying a nice cruise (probably beyond our pockets, sadly) and K was happy talking about marine engines and other nautical things while I enjoyed looking about me. Eventually, Kieran appeared again and was given time off and we jumped in a taxi to the centre of town and found a good place to have a slap up Greek meal! The ship had come from Piraeus and the Pelopponese and would be off to Santorini, Rhodes and Istanbul after Crete. I did my usual trick of falling over (dodgy Greek steps) and disappeared out of the shop and on to the pavement – fortunately not breaking anything. We stocked up on souvenirs, and made sure that Kieran got back to his ship in good time – the taxi driver gave him an enormous fresh orange as he got out of the car. A souvenir shop lady had given him a free gift fridge magnet.  He was overcome by everyone's friendliness. I am horrified at how quickly I have begun to take the overwhelming hospitality for granted. And on Friday, we went to a lunchtime birthday party and ate more cake!!! Any suggestions for diet plans gratefully received since all our good resolutions are falling by the wayside.

We have two more cruise visitors due on Monday at our house. We have been trailing them on Facebook through Italy, the Aegean and Greece and will hear more about their adventures for the next blog.

A SPRING IN OUR STEP

K could not believe how much stuff was loaded into the back of the car for just three days away, but what with walking poles, crutches, a picnic bag full of tea bags and kettle for our morning cuppa plus swimming stuff and clothes, we were full to capacity. This was for the CIC Archaeological trip to Agia Triada. We had decided to stay at the resort of Matala where the beach side caves had been homes for hippies in the 1960s.

For the past two years, it has been me doing all the driving, but with luck, we hope this will not be for ever. Anyway, we had been warned that the roads were a little risky down to the South on the Spilli road, so we left masses of time and took it slowly. Spilli is our traditional place for filling up water bottles and eating very expensive ice cream, so we did the latter! I only ever eat ice creams out of choice at Spilli! I left K at the cafe and bought some Cretan herbs from the natural products shop and was amused to find a herb mix called “Resuscitation” and another for “Energy” and bought these along with lavender scented oil, which is always good to have. I will let you know whether they work or not!

Then we pressed on and negotiated the rock falls, road closures/deviations and after that a road slippage which took up the entire one side of the road on a blind bend. Slowing down and copious use of the hooter ensured that we passed through it without too much bother. Soon we were bowling down the roads to the coast circuiting around Phaestos, where the large archaeological remains of a palace are and admiring all the different colours of wild flowers in the kerbsides and fields. The weather was bright and sunny but there was a biting northerly wind and we were glad to have remembered woolly jumpers.

Matala was just opening for the season. We were on the third floor of the hotel and it took several trips to unpack the car! The hotel was 2*, so not luxurious, but clean, functional and with extremely nice and helpful staff. We had an evening to familiarise ourselves with the small resort before most people arrived on Saturday. Our archaeological friend, Don gave us a good and informative talk about Agia Triada on Saturday night with maps and explanations about the artefacts which had come from the site and thoughtful answers to our questions. So much imagination and theorising goes on in terms of ancient times and no one can know for sure exactly what happened in these aeons of history. It's all good fun though.

The site at Agia Triada has been excavated by various teams of Italian archaeologists. The following morning, we split into two groups and toured the site identifying the open courtyard areas, the work areas, store rooms, channels which seemed to take water away from the building, mini throne like benches with frescoes behind. Leaning over one level to peep into a lower level, we could see enormous pithoi decorated pots and it took us a while to work out ways that these could have been potted, fired or moved in view of their enormous size! The logistics of all that we see, keep us guessing all the time! Finally Don explained how the large and well preserved kiln would have worked. I couldn't even imagine how the huge ali ba ba type pots could have been moved from the area of the kiln to where they were now. Perhaps they made individual kilns for them or constructed conveyances a bit like a sedan chair? Intriguing isn't it?

The party had Sunday lunch together in a very small village taverna and for the most part travelled home after that, but we opted to stay an extra day to be fresh for the journey home on Monday. Therefore, I returned to Matala and had my first swim of the season. It was ARCTIC and took all of 45 seconds, but we enjoyed ourselves and walked back to the hotel for a hot shower.

Next morning, we set off for home but opted for another route via the Amari Valley. Lots of people have told us how lovely it is, so we were determined to pay a visit before much more time passed. The road was surprisingly good and the scenery spectacular. Best of all, I think we only passed half a dozen cars all told on the whole journey home, until we met the main road on the North Coast again at Stavromenos.

Since then, we have been doing 'Spring has Sprung' jobs at home; cleaning the dust from the terrace and outside furniture, topping up the flower pots, filling in plaster holes and a bit of painting. We need to do much, much more to prepare for a very busy May and June. I am reminded that the “Energy” tea might be beneficial. We will be having visitors from cruise ships into Heraklion who will be making very short stops and family and friends over the summer months. After two lost summers, there is a great deal of sorting out to get on with. Bring it on!

K's MRI results scans were ready to collect on Wednesday and they seem to be encouragingly good. It has put an extra spring in our step and we are looking forward to this summer to get fit again!