Kate’s 40th birthday and our first holiday with just the two of us. First time we booked a holiday so late in the year. We went to Crete in October, we had no idea what to expect with the weather, we took a raincoat, couple of jumpers and jeans, you know, just in case. The temperature was consistently above 30 degrees and even in the evening the temperature was in the high twenties. We were glad of driving around as the hire car had air-con.
When we got to the airport and picked up the car, we checked for the directions to the apartments and it simply said – ‘turn right out of the airport, drive for 80km then turn left’ and that is exactly what we did. The apartments were just off the main road, on a raised area above the road so there were lovely sea views.
The other thing we hadn’t thought about was the fact that the ground and the beaches had spent months being heated up in the summer and were still radiating heat, so we couldn’t even walk on the sand barefoot. We visited the old city of Rethimno which was very serene and full of ruins and all the stuff we like. A lot of the shops were closing for the season so you could get bargains of the usual gift stuff. We went to one village that seemed more or less shut and found a tavern that only had chips left to serve and I think they even went somewhere else to get them as well.
During one excursion, we followed the signs saying ‘tourist route’ which was a bad idea as it took us through tiny villages and unfinished roads, but it did take us to another little tavern where the owner sat with us and a had a long chat about how things were going for him and on Crete in general. He then wouldn’t take any money for our food and drinks. The Cretans all seemed a very generous lot, in the village where our apartments were there were a few taverns and a bakery and on Kate’s birthday we wandered up to get a cake or something to celebrate with. As usual it was baking hot and we were passing a little shop that had a fridge selling drinks. So I stopped to get a couple of bottles of water and we ended up sat chatting in very bad Greek & broken English explaining that it was Kate’s birthday. So the owner got out a big tin of Quality Street which she offered to us, then got us to sit down with her outside and tell her and her friends about our holiday and that sort of thing, we did notice that no-one else was offered the special chocolates.
At the apartments we made friends with a couple, they were both air stewards from different companies, and if my memory is right, this was the holiday was the first time they’d got together. We gave them a lift to Chania airport when one of them was due to fly back to work and spent a nice day wondering around the town with them before we dropped him off. One of them passed away a few years ago, I don’t remember their names shamedly.
