Crete
Our Rhodes tour to Lindos had us up early. Our tour started at 8:15 so thank goodness for room service.
After breakfast we headed out with a small tour group in 4x4 vehicles up to the hills around Chania Crete through some crazy dirt “roads” accessible only to 4x4s with a very high clearance. We jostled over ruts and rocks next to some very steep cliffs and were really happy we had a very experienced driver. Our first stop was at the top of a large hill overlooking the Valsamioti Dam which fills in the winter and supports the surrounding grape and olive farmers from late spring until December when there is almost no rain. Crete’s climate supports a variety of crops including bananas, oranges, cherries, avocados, pomegranates and grapes. Pretty much every family in Crete owns a number of olive trees and makes their own olive oil. The area was much greener than any of the other areas wehave visited.
After hearing about some of the farming in the area we headed out on a much more traditional road to the large, family owned Manousakis Winery. The winery is beautiful and the wine was very good too. We had a wine tasting with some tasty charcuterie in a picture perfect setting surrounded by olive trees and flowers. One of the Olive trees is over 1000 years old. The winery’s processing is at this site but the grapes grow at a higher elevation where we first stopped to look at the views. The winery produces some of the same varieties we have back home but it is higher in alcohol (over 14%). The winery also produces excellent olive oil which we also got to taste. Before departing we purchased two bottle of wine to enjoy on the ship.
We had the option to go into Chania after the tour but we decided to just enjoy the beautiful afternoon on the ship.
We had dinner at Aqualina, the Italian specialty restaurant. We enjoyed everytthing we ordered.We have eaten breafast in this restaurant every day except for the 2 room service days. The servers are terrific and by now know us by name and what we like and don’t like.
Tonight the ship begins the journey up the west side of the Greek mainland to Argostoli, a town on the island of Kefalonia. Our port arrival isn’t until 1 PM so it will be rally great to just take it easy in the morning. I am not a very good morning person but for this trip I knew we’d be up early most days. It has been worth it.