Saturday, 25-04-26

Morning, lovely people.

Day five begins.

It's an early start to the day as today is Knossos day and it takes three hours to get there (and three to get back again) so we're leaving at eight.

power failure, 

Yesterday started off with a bit of excitement - we had a short power failure around six this morning and learned later that there had been a 5.7 strength earthquake off the coast of eastern Crete, Heraklion way.  I didn't feel any aftershocks personally and I don't think there was any serious issues, but the power was off and on all day.  So that was an 'exciting' start!

Not quite so exciting was the fact that it poured with rain all day.  The farmer's market we were scheduled to visit doesn't happen when it is raining so we went off to Colymbari, to visit the Mother of God Monastery.  Nothing to do with food but it was something to do and the museum was very interesting.

I found a fridge magnet so I was happy with that!

The photo is the church in the middle of the grounds.

The view from the back wall.  Even in poor weather, it was lovely.

Then we piled back on the coach and went to Bee World where Dorothea talked to us about her bees before we tasted honey and went all spendy in the small shop.

I got some little olive wood bowls, some olive and orange soap and some beeswax hand balm.

Back on the coach again and off we headed, through some pretty heavy rain, up narrow roads with hairpin bends that made me hold my breath at times, to a winery, the name of which I can't recall.
The tour of the winery wasn't much to write home about but the wine tasting was!

After a brief talk, we were let loose.  There must have been around twenty five just opened bottles down a long table, with notes and glasses - proper glasses not shot glasses, and some finger nibbles to help us along.

With an awareness of luggage weight, I didn't buy any wine but I did buy a titchy bottle of honey raki.  Whether it gets as far as being packed remains to be seen.

Finally we got in the coach and headed home to the Mistral Hotel where Diane and I had coffee before I went to a fairly impromptu jewellery making session, making a bracelet that I wore in the evening.

Because of the poor weather, the Cretan party will happen another evening but that's OK, it was still a great evening.

A bit unexpected too.  We were expecting baklava for dessert but instead the lights dimmed, the music started and out came not only a birthday cake with an indoor firework, but all the staff, a cloak, a crown, a sceptre, a Happy Birthday banner and a birthday song.  Great fun but somewhat - er - well, not me usually!  But so kind and it was enjoyable.
I know someone else has a birthday today so now they know what to expect, don't they.

As mentioned at the start, today is Knossos day.  It is somewhere I have wanted to go for decades, ever since reading Mary Stewart's The Bull From The Sea.

It is going to be a long day.  Breakfast is early, we leave at eight and, probably, won't be back until around seven this evening.
So tomorrow's post will probably be later because I won't be processing any of the photos this evening.