[2022]
[Monday 16 May 2022]
Mediterraneo Hotel, Λιμένας Χερσόνησου, Crete
12:00 “Welcome Meeting”
“Reasonable sleep,” Janet wrote: “could really have done with a lot more! Mr. Blackbird was singing at
ca.4.30am, and it was light at ca.5.30am.” She got up a little after 7.30am. I started the “new”
Samsung computer. There was a Wi-Fi connection available for “Mediterraneo-Rooms”, but when I tried to connect to it, the browser opened and I was asked for user name and password.… We could hear crickets on the way to breakfast
(ca.9am). (These proved to be heard only occasionally, though, both here and elsewhere, not all the time as in some places we’ve visited.) “It was very busy in the Restaurant,”
Janet commented in her journal. The orange juice from a machine was somewhat too dilute, as it was most days except one, when it was somewhat too concentrated. I had what looked like
Rice Krispies — “rice crumpies” is what we call such things, after seeing them labelled thus, perhaps at the
Drago, Assenza di Brenzone — but they weren’t light and crispy: they were somewhat heavier and chewier than I expected — and almost tasteless. I didn’t have them again; subsequent mornings, I would have the
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes equivalent, somewhat thicker and paler than Kellogg’s, so not as crisp and crunchy, but acceptable. The bacon “rashers” were uniform rectangles with rounded corners, every morning except, I think, one. The “sausages” weren’t sausages as I know them — more like cocktail sausages — and I didn’t have them again. The sauce of the baked beans wasn’t quite as tomato-flavoured as
Heinz’ would be, and wasn’t as sweet, either; but the latter was perhaps no bad thing — anyway, I
did have these again. This is what I would eat every morning, except one when I chose more “continental” fare: cheese and salami-style meats, with bread. I enjoyed the very dark brown, seeded bread-rolls, which I had at almost every meal. We withdrew €300 from the ATM in the lobby. It was in €50 notes. Then, on the second of a couple of enquiries at reception, I purchased for €10 a week’s worth of Wi-Fi in the room, which enabled me to get rid of one of the €50 notes.
Creative use of English here: “Surfticket” — printed “09:48:01”
According to Janet, “We returned to our room. I wanted to update this [journal],
etc. I sat on the balcony: mostly in the shade; and I wore my hat.” In the room, I logged on to the “Rooms” Wi-Fi (09:59).… Then we went to the Pool Bar for a drink.…
Tuesday 17 May 2022 11:39:38
Mediterraneo Hotel: at the Pool Bar
Tuesday 17 May 2022 11:40:36
Mediterraneo Hotel: at the Pool Bar, looking north to the Sea of Crete
We went to reception in good time for our 12 o’clock “welcome meeting”, as specified on the front of our “Welcome Pack”,
i.e. to meet Mercury Holidays’ appointee Viki,[i] to look at and book excursions. She was several minutes late, having had a similar appointment at 11 o’clock elsewhere. After a short while she took us off to the “quiet room”, but the problem there was that she couldn’t get an adequate signal for her phone when making bookings.
- [i] “Viki Liokukudaki”, according to “Welcome to Crete”; “Vicky Liokoukoudaki”, according to the excursion vouchers: variant transliterations of perhaps “Βίκυ Λιοκουκουδάκη”.
We chose “West Crete” from the “Excursion Progamm”
[sic] and “Spinalonga BBQ”. Two of the excursions listed there explicitly included “Lasithi Plateau” (“Lasithi Plateau” and “Lasithi Plateau – Knossos Palace”); but she told us that there was now an excursion to the Knossos Palace archaeological site coupled with a visit to the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, so we opted for that. And when we expressed interest in the “Jeep Safari”, she told us that this included a visit to Lasithi Plateau, so we dropped the “Lasithi Plateau” trip in favour of that. She quite wisely and rightly pointed out that we would need some days off for relaxation between trips. By the end of the session, this is what I’d scribbled in my notepad:
(We had no interest in “Heraklio Market”, nor in a “Cretan Night” which we thought would just be an excuse for a “piss-up”.) Our session with her was already overrunning, but a further delay was caused by her not having with her a credit/debit card reader. She would have agreed to come back for payment, but we preferred to get it settled at once. However, when we went back to the ATM, it reported that the withdrawal would exceed the daily limit; and even trying to use my other debit card for the full amount produced the same result. However, with lesser withdrawals, together with some of the cash we already had, we managed to pay all that we owed. All this took time to accomplish, though, so she was very late for her 1 o’clock appointment somewhere else. I wrote my e-mail address for her to
copy… For she said that she would e-mail tickets and vouchers to us “to save paper”. The only exception to that was the trip to Knossos and to the Archaeological Museum, the details of which, I think, were faxed. If so, we must have had to hand the document over, on the day, because I no longer have it.…
Then we went to the restaurant, where — again, unusually when I’m on holiday faced with buffets — I found I had a very “healthy” appetite. Afterwards, as
Janet wrote, “Viki had mentioned ‘the village in the hills’, Hersonissos, so we set off for that. At first we thought we’d taken a wrong turning, but we suddenly found it.”
Reassured that there was something to find, we set out, initially retracing our route of yesterday. When we passed the bus shelter not far from the hotel, I took a photo of its timetable, thinking it might prove useful.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 14:30:34
Departures (eastbound) from “Hersonissos” bus stop
Again, just past the Spar shop, we took the left fork; but instead of going straight on, I decided that to take the first turn left might be more hopeful. As we proceeded, that again didn’t seem to be the case, but we kept going on. The lane ended in a
T-junction, with a sign. I can’t remember exactly, but it might have said “Βάρναλη”. That didn’t strike me as familiar from the place-names I’d seen on the map at the hotel, then
forgotten.[ii] I suggested that we turn right, for left was more or less the direction back to the hotel. And maybe half a mile further on, we found shops and cafés replacing holiday apartments
etc. We both thought this was “Hersonissos”: in fact, although it was in the Municipality of Hersonissos, Hersonissos itself was beyond the next village Piskopianó; and this village was “Koutouloufári”.
- [ii] If “Βάρναλη” it be, it’s the name of the road at the top of the “T”. It’s presumably named after Greek poet Κώστας Βάρναλης
(Kostas Varnalis) (1884–1974).
Our route is shown in yellow.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 15:05:24
Municipal building, Koutouloufári
My glance at the sign “Municipality of Hersonissos” convinced me that this was where we were. If I’d interpreted the word in smaller letters, “Koutouloufári”, aright, I’d have realised that that was where we, in fact, were.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 15:06:16
“Municipality of Hersonissos: Koutouloufári”
“I bought some Russian Opal stud earrings (very pretty),”
Janet wrote, “and we found a café/bar called The Half Note and settled there. A very friendly
waitress[iii] served us. [John] had a beer, then a carafe (that was a surprise!) of rakí, and finally an
Americano. I had two different scrumptious, cold and refreshing ‘smoothies’.” I was expecting a shot glass of τσικουδιά, not a carafe!
-
[iii] Her name, we would learn on Wednesday 25 May 2022, was
Janina.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 15:11:42
“Mariana”, where Janet bought blue opal earrings
As frequently happens in Greece, a snack was also provided, of mixed nuts, corn and other crunchy savouries. The cautionary note naturally arose, “Don’t eat too much: you don’t want it to spoil your dinner!” Well I did eat it all, and I ate a hearty dinner later too.
Bill from the first round, issued “15:19”: “smoothie” №2 and a Mythos beer
Final bill, issued "16:31:53”, with additional “smoothie” №4 (pineapple, blackberry, blueberry and
banana),[iv] rakí, and americano
- [iv] Pineapple, blackberry, blueberry and banana: cf. the photo “16:51:18” taken on
25
May.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 15:41:34
Drinks at The Half Note bar/café
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:00:24
The Half Note bar/café
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:00:24 (detail)
There were swallows flying around (there was a nest in an opening in the next-door building), and one perched on a nearby wire, singing and chattering to itself very loudly. I asked the “very friendly waitress” to tell me what it was in Greek, and to write it down. (I added the accent to help me remember which was the stressed syllable.)
“ΧΕΛΙΔΌΝΙ”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:19:24
“Χελιδόνι”, seen from The Half Note bar/café
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:29:20
Also seen from The Half Note bar/café
I don’t know why power-lines with four thick wires and one thin one puzzled me, when I’d already reasoned out the very similar configuration in Paphos
(Tuesday 22 November 2016):
Tuesday 22 November 2016 — 13:46:26 (detail)
Pole-mounted electrical supply lines
- In the UK, secondary power distribution usually occurs underground; but here [in Paphos] I noticed that the wires were carried on poles, five wires: three thick upper ones, a thin one below them, and a thick one blow that. I guessed that it must be a three-phase supply, therefore: three live, one earth, and one neutral. The only thing that made me doubt this (though it had been many years since I studied electrical engineering), was a notion that three-phase didn’t have a neutral. [A month later, I looked it up: there are two ways that three-phase supply can be configured: “Y” and “Δ”. “Y” has a neutral, but “Δ” doesn’t.]
“Then we set off back to the hotel, by a different route,”
Janet wrote. “First we looked at a 14th century Greek Orthodox church I’d spotted. Shame it was closed.”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:39:26
Church of St. Vasilios
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:40:44
Church of St. Vasilios
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:41:18
“Church of St. Vasilios, 14th Century”
“We wandered down towards the sea. Lots of olive trees and fruits: lemon, orange,
etc.”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:51:58
Going back to the hotel: view behind
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:56:54
Going back to the hotel: lemons
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:57:28
Going back to the hotel: oranges
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:58:14
Going back to the hotel: vines
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:59:02
Going back to the hotel: olive trees
Tuesday 17 May 2022 16:59:40
Going back to the hotel: huge “dandelion clocks”
“We found an orange tree further down,” Janet added, “and I picked an orange!” Not as naughty as the exclamation mark suggests: all the fruit trees we’d seen hitherto were on estates fenced off from the road, but this one was just off to the left in an unfenced area.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:01:42
Going back to the hotel: orange tree
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:01:56
Going back to the hotel: orange
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:03:58
Going back to the hotel: picking an orange
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:04:16
Going back to the hotel: sharing an orange
“It was a bit sharp, but fine.”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:07:06
Going back to the hotel: blowing a huge “dandelion clock”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:07:16
Going back to the hotel: blowing a huge “dandelion clock”
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:10:22
Going back to the hotel: view behind
Tuesday 17 May 2022 17:10:54
Going back to the hotel: purple flowers
The lane down which we walked ended at the main road, ca.¼-mile north-west of the fork from which we’d left it. It was along here that
Janet recalls, “We weren’t far from the hotel when I realised I badly needed a pee, so I went into a restaurant and offered a euro to use the loo. The kind ‘owner’ let me use the toilet for free, and I thanked him profusely. We were back at the hotel by
ca.5.30pm.[v] We’d had a really good afternoon. [John] had a shower and I updated this,
etc.”
- [v] Correction: the Ms. reads “4.30pm”.
Tuesday 17 May 2022 18:03:06
Updating the journal on the balcony of our room
It had been very hot, and the sweat on my T-shirt had left salty patches when it evaporated. So I showered and changed. I applied a new dressing to the right elbow.
“Then we went for dinner at ca.6.45pm,” Janet’s journal entry continued. “Afterwards we went to a bar” — the lounge-bar adjacent to the hotel’s restaurant. “I had a water and [John] a rakí. Back in our room, I had a shower and was in bed around 10pm. [John] was still up on his computer.”
I … [edited] yesterday’s six photos, also cropping and saving three details from them (nine resultant images, saved 20:45–21:04), then
[edited] today’s 27 photos (21:07–21:20, 22:14–22:46). The break (21:20–22:14) was when I studied the e-mails in my
Gmail inbox. At first sight, each of the five e-mails for our booked excursions looked identical, apart from the time sent, and the purpose of each was only clear when one read the titles of the “PDF” attachments…:
“Spinalonga Island”… “Land Rover Jeep Safari”… “Santorini Transfer”…
“Santorini from Heraklion Port”… “West Creta”…
I saved the five “PDF” attachments… (21:26–21:33). Although Viki had e-mailed the vouchers “to save paper”, each of the e-mails stated, “This voucher must be printed and handed to the tour guide or bus driver on the day of your excursion”, and on each voucher were the words, “It is required to present a printed voucher to the provider… at the beginning of the activity…” So I went down to reception asked the man on duty if they’d kindly print the voucher for tomorrow’s trip to Spinalonga. He gave me the reception e-mail address. I went back up to the room, forwarded the e-mail about the Spinalonga
booking… then went back down to collect the print.
This is a screen-capture from the e-mail attachment. The print was in fact a greyscale one.
With initial confusion I saw that the pick-up time stated on the print was “08:00:00”. I checked my notepad and yes, I’d written “9.00am” on it, two or three times in fact because there’d been changes of plan as we’d been discussing it: tomorrow, the next day, then back to tomorrow.
Janet was getting ready for bed, but wasn’t in bed yet, so she changed the alarm clock setting from the planned “7.00am” to “6.00am”. She did go to bed then; I carried on editing photos (to 22:46) before getting ready for bed myself.
[Wednesday 18 May 2022]
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