TRAVELSCAPES

Ma Crozier has been on a brief trip to the homeland to catch up with Master Crozier and his other half before they set off on an eight month adventure to Canada and New Zealand. There was a lot of catching up to do, notes to write, keys to deliver and teabags to pack before waving them off to Gatwick early on Wednesday morning and trying to finish off at home before my flight from Manchester on Thursday. All went well; the weather in England had been reasonably fair without a lot of rain and I had managed to catch the first performance of a Tribute to Dinner Ladies by the Stone Revellers which was a treat. What an amazing amount of work goes into their productions … the scenery was so realistic that one of the audience wondered when we would be leaving the canteen and sitting down in the theatre! I, for one, will really miss Victoria Wood's comic genius and observation but full marks for the set builders and performers on the night!  

Back to Crete! I landed at sunset on Thursday and was delivered by wonderful Grigoris – the best taxi driver - who is almost like a member of the family these days! The journey from Heraklion went smoothly into the night, round the dark mountain bends along the national road so that we arrived in our village shortly after 11 pm. A few souls were waiting at the little kafeneon and the lovely Angeliki stirred herself to fetch welcoming drinks for everyone. We observed that the swallow families were still guarding their nests and that the weather was about 10 degrees warmer than when I had left a week before.

Today is 16 June and I deduce from the sound of Greek music coming from the big square of the village that it is the last day of school term and they will be having a party to celebrate! Sadly, K and I are too pooped to attend, but we know that they will have fun with Greek dancing,  popcorn sellers, balloons and a few tasty treats cooked on the barbecue.

We had a splendid week with visitors just before the journey to England when our friends Sally and Paul made their first visit to Crete. Paul had done a bit of swotting with his guide book and definitely wanted to go to Knossos – so we spent a lovely day looking at the archaeological remains and decided that paying for the guide was a good investment.

A few days later, we jumped in the car and made a trip to the Amari Valley. I was so pleased to have done this as I seem to have missed this treat and only skirted through it quickly on various journeys from North to South Crete and not taken any time in the lovely villages. We visited a magical mountain retreat in the village of Thronos with panoramic views. Paul had been reading a great book by Christopher Somerville called 'The Golden Step' about his three month journey on foot from the Eastern to the Western edges of Crete about 15 years ago and we were all enthralled to find some vistas we had never seen before. We deduced that the tucked-away inn must have been the place where the exhausted rambler from this book had stayed.

After a refreshing cup of mountain tea and/or fortifying frappe, we progressed on our journey to Amari village, where we trekked up to the peak where a Venetian bell tower lauded it over the surrounding countryside. Feeling in need of sustenance, we stopped at Fourfouras for a meal and had an interesting time searching for somewhere to eat and fastened upon the nearest thing to a Taverna that we could find. It was deserted (never a good sign) but the man of the house jumped on the phone to his wife who turned up (noticeably puffed) a few minutes later and we had a very nice meal made even better by dividing up our plates and having a taste of everything! The daughter of the house spoke very good English, the bill was modest and we went on our way to find the best road home.

The coasts of Crete are wonderful, but so our the mountains and the inland spaces, if you can get to them.  It was a wonderful peaceful day whilst all the tourists stampeded for the beaches.  I have earmarked the leaflets and cards for a trip during August, when the weather gets too hot to deal with!

Enjoy your Summer (or Winter) wherever you are!