Upon arrival, we had a few administrative things to take care of, including watching a security video that instructed “no photographs on base.” Oh well. I’ll use word pictures instead. It also advised against clothing that broadcast our native affiliation which was humorous considering that I was wearing my US Embassy in Iraq T-shirt, and 2 of the 4 kids were wearing sports jerseys — Lakers and Dodgers. If I can wear it in Bahrain, I figure it’s safe to wear in Crete.
Josh and I collected our luggage, looked at each other and said, “Now what?!” First priority was finding a place to sleep that night so we walked from the base airport down the main street toward the Navy Lodge (this base is long and narrow — it’s only one street wide, so no way to get lost). It was about a 10 minute walk and the train of us, plus several other families who got off at this stop, would have made a great photo. A line of people wearing backpacks or dragging wheeled suitcases, about 15 of us all together. The kids were skipping along having a great time with their friends (who if they weren’t before the trip, they were now!). The base had all the rooms held in reserve for possible military use, but said that after 6pm they would probably be released and have availability.
We made our way across the street to the base lounge/restaurant and ordered breakfast for everyone since it was about 9 am by then and everyone was ready to eat. Pancakes and a jug of self-serve syrup for the kids (I couldn’t figure out why Camille and Caleb kept going up to the counter every few minutes until I saw the syrup jug and put a stop to it) and omelets for us.
Since I hadn’t reserved our rental car until tomorrow (in case the rotator was delayed) we rented a car from base for 24 hours, asked the hotel to hold our luggage for the day and set out. We knew there were 2 monasteries nearby and had heard they were worth a visit. By this time we could tell that just driving around for the day would be fun because everything was so green, smelled like trees and life, and was completely different than anything we could see back home in Bahrain.
It wouldn’t be a Chartier travelogue without a bunch of cat pictures. We arrived at the monastery to find that it was inhabited by cats. And I mean that in the best way possible.
The kids didn’t care about the beautiful archways, the vine covered paths or the unique architecture. They just wanted to sit around and hold the kittens.
Blue skies, warm breezes. It felt like a Santa Barbara day.
They are living the good life
Through this door was a path that led to vineyards. They had a shop on site that sold wine, olive oil and raki (Cretan moonshine that is made from grape skins).
Ah, peace.
The buildings had exterior stairways and we could climb up for views of the valley below — the kids are up there with friends from Bahrain who also headed over here in there rental car.
We left the first monastery (with many hugs and kisses for the cats on the way out the door) and headed over to the second one that was a few kilometers up the road. A few twists, turns and bends later and we found a wooden gate and followed the path up the hill. If I had done some research I would have known what to expect, but in this case we just followed some tourists that were ahead of us.
The monastery itself is closed, but people walk through the gardens, past the building and out the gate on the far side and end up here, on the edge of a mountain. The adventurous ones hike down toward the water.
So of course, we did too.
There were goats on the hillside, salt in the air, and I kept breathing deeply to take it all in.
The ocean was deep blue, the sky was bright and the sun was warm on our faces.
Part way down there are some ruins and a huge cave. Church sanctuary sized big. Giant stalactites hanging from the ceiling that have been blackened over the years. In Turkey the black ceilings were soot-covered from cooking fires. Maybe the same is true here too.
If you continue on down the path, there are other ruins and eventually (in a few hours) you can get down to the water. Since we set out thinking we were going to look at a monastery and didn’t even bring our water bottles from the car, we decided to head back up and drive into town to see if we could find a lodging alternative for that night in case staying on base didn’t work out.
The mini rental car — Bahrain style in Crete.
It was only early afternoon, but it had been a long night and she hiked all over that mountain without ever needing to be carried. I told her she had won the Great Traveler Award for the day. And that’s either syrup or chocolate on her cheek. Either one is a solid guess.