Day 17, Rethymno, crete, Greece

Day 17

Since we no longer have breakfast included, we skipped it.  I got up early and bought another Dorada, gilt head bream, for dinner tonight.  They remembered me and knew I wanted the head and tail removed.  I am still blown away by the price.  It came to EUR 3.28 and he asked for 3 Euros for a 420 gram fish, a bargain. We are living like pharaohs.

Today we walked a couple of kilometres to the bus station to head back to the south coast of Crete.  We went through the mountains to a small village called Plakias, a 50 minute bus ride.  We heard they had a nice beach and we were anxious to get back into that fabulous Libyan Sea again.  On our walk to the bus we noticed the water in Rethymno had calmed down so much, it was hard to imagine it raging just days ago.

The bus ride took us through the Kourtaliotis Gorge where the river of the same name empties into the sea at Preveli beach.  The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.  When we got to Plakias we were hungry and stopped at Sofias for lunch.  It was delicious and the views by the water a delight.  We changed into our bathing suits and burnt our feet on the hot sand getting to the water.  The beach was a mix of stone and sand, not ideal for our sensitive old feet, but once we got in, the water was magnificent.  We stayed in until we were waterlogged, but we were disappointed in our beach walk.  Not easy with so many stones to watch out for.  We walked as long as we could then endured the pain of getting back into the water and swam back to where we had our stuff.  No lounging for us, so we changed and stopped in for a glass of wine while we waited for the 3:15 bus back to Rethymno.  I took some nice high shots of Plakias from the bus and then as we drove through the gorge.

Rather than a taxi, we walked home via the road around the fort. The water on the beach was as calm as could be.  It was nice getting back to our place where we could relax and stretch out.  For a pre-dinner snack, I rolled some Cretan local cheese in egg and cornmeal and fried it.  A squeeze of lemon then yum, so good.  Our fish dinner followed.  Jill opted not to have my honey Metaxa figs, more for me.  Another great day as we countdown our re-entry back to reality.