In the October of 2001 we holidayed in Crete. We stayed in the Mary Apartments, Lassitiu 1, Plantanes, Rythymon. The island of Crete is quite a beautiful place with plenty of breath taking views, especially when travelingg in the mountains. The people on the most part a friendly and the food in the various restaurants we tried was fantastic. We didn't go on any of the organized trips by Virgin as we thought they were grossly over priced. We did however rent a car, well two cars as it turned out, and saw a bit of the island.

The first week the weather was great and spent much of the time on the beach with the occasional trip in the car when we could drag the kids off. We drove into Rythymon and visited the Venetian Fortress (Foretetza). There are some spectacular views from the walls, but little information on what you are looking at. Rythymon town it's is well worth a walk round with some really nice old streets.

 

We also drove over to a small village called Sisi, not far from Malia. Our friends where staying here for a week, we got to swim in the harbor and saw some sea cucumbers. It was a really good day. The drive over was a bit scary to start with but after I got the hang of over taking into the on coming traffic, local style, it was ok!!

The Day we returned the car on the second week the weather turned bad! Just our luck. After a day of bad weather with nothing to do in the town apart from look at the same shops we hired another car. We travelled over to Plakias on the south side of the island. On route we got lost and took a short cut across the mountains, the villages we passed through were picture post card places, with locals still using donkeys to get around on. The roads or more to the point the big drops off them were scary! If you have a fear of heights then don't drive in the mountains.

On the way back the roads were quite wet so we adjusted our speed to suit the conditions, the local drivers didn't. We saw one car over the side of a hill, one over turned van and two motorcycles slide on their side!

On the 28th we went to Iraklio, the capital city, to see the calibrations for Ochi (No) Day commemorating the day the Greeks turned down Mussolini's ultimatum in World War II. The parade was quite good and the city was packed. There are lots of things to look at, so the city is well worth a visit. My wife say's the policemen dressed all in leather was the best bit!!?

The second week of the holiday was made more enjoyable by the company we had, Sue, Gemma, Joan, Fiona, Moran and Aaron (spellings?). We had dinner with them every night, which proved a challenged for some of the restaurants. The best was Kellari, one with a yellow sign. The food and service was suburb. You can email them at kellari@hotmail.com and tell them their on this page.

All in all, the Island is a beautiful one and the people really nice. Would I go back? No I don't think I would not to the same resort. If I go to another Greek island it will be one of the smaller ones, like Zante.

The one thing that ruined what would have been a good holiday was the service we received from the owners of the apartments and Virgin Sun Holidays. The following text is from a letter of complaint sent on 31st October 2001. Clic here to see the letter.

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