All of the visitors, 99% of whom are gay or lesbian, to Villa Ralfa are independent travellers, that is, they have not booked a package with a travel agent.
During the course of the 'booking season', I get many enquiries from prospective guests asking for much general information, much of which can be found on the web site, and some of which cannot. Being very efficient here at Villa Ralfa, I usually follow up on these after a while to see what is going on.
Usually I find that the guests have booked a 'package' through a travel agent.
I don't know why this should be, but many gay and lesbian travellers seem to be less than confident about using the Internet, and so they will not get the holiday they want, they will get the one that the travel agent wants them to have. Usually the one that pays the agent the highest commission. Of course the travel agents will deny this, but I am sorry it is true.
At this stage you may wonder why I am writing this....Well I have just been looking at the web site belonging to 'The Leading Organisation for LGBT Tourism Industry' which has a whole section devoted on why you should use a travel agent and not do it yourself.
Having a look through the web site I find that, apparantly, none of the people listed on it are actually nitty-gritty suppliers like me. Yea sure, they have all the airlines listed as being partners, and they have the big chain hotels listed, although Radisson Edwardian would never occur to me as the place to stay as a gay venue, and neither would any of The Hilton chain.
A quick look at their search results for 'Accommodations' (why do these people insist in putting the spurious 's' on the end?) for the UK reveals that three of the entries are for accommodation agencies letting a number of properties, admittedly they do list themselves as 'Exclusively G/L' and the rest are all hotel chains.
Not one single actual gay/lesbian hotel is listed, and there dozens in the UK!
Searching for 'everything' in the UK produces 40 results, some of which do not have anything to do with travel it appears, but we get the same chain hotels, and what is this? Behold a lot of the entries are travel agents.
Now call me an old cynic if you want, and you can see where this is going.....It now becomes obvious why this web site promotes using travel agents instead of doing it yourself. Some of these travel agents listed have paid a lot of money to be on the site, so the site is hardly going to even suggest that you can do it yourself, is it?
Now why do you suppose the listings have all these travel agents and no actual accommodation providers?
Money.....The travel agents get commission, so they can afford to pay the fees to be on the site, the traveller pays this commission, and wouldn't it be nice if when the agent gives you the invoice, the commission you are paying to him was listed as a separate item?
And it is YOU, the traveller, who is paying it. Paying it in higher prices and with less choice than if you booked it all yourself.
So be independent, spend some time surfing and finding a place that you want to go, not the place that the travel or accommodation agent has on his/her books.
Of course you if you want to come to Crete you can book direct with me, and you can even find a flight through my web site, and I will gaily admit that if you do book a flight through my web site from the UK, I actually get up to £1 in commission. Wow!
And with my accommodation from €20 per night, with no booking fee, and no card fee, (because I pay it!), you can have yourself a real nice stay!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Some Reflection on Gay Travel in 2009 and Some Good Reasons to Book Early for 2010
As the autumn crocuses come into bloom in the garden here at Villa Ralfa, they act as a reminder that it is time to start a review of the past year, and what needs to be done in time for next year’s tourist season.
This year has seen some difficulties in the tourist industry, not just here on Crete, Greece, but in other parts of the Europe also. The tour companies and airlines, expecting lower demand, reacted by reducing the availability of holidays and flights, with the result that prices were not actually as low as some expected. Certainly there were reasonable price packages available in very limited supplies, but many of those taking them found that they were housed in ‘all-inclusive’ resorts which cater for thousands of guests rather than a score or so of apartments.
This is fine if you do not mind going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner when the gong goes, and if you do not really want to sample some real Greek food, or experience real Greek hospitality in family run apartments, but we are gay or lesbian and fiercely independent and because we don’t have children (well most of us don’t!), we are not tied to school holidays. And we don’t need to follow the flock!
Surprisingly for a sector of the population that likes to think itself ‘avant-garde’ and adventurous, many gay and lesbian people still follow the crowd and book package holidays and continue to perpetuate the myth that some destinations are ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. Two examples in Greece are Mykonos and Lesbos, both of which appear in ordinary package holidays brochures and at peak times are overrun with families and children. Another is Sitges in Spain which back in the late 70’s was the place for gay people to go in Spain.
Back then we were trailblazers in so many ways, but sadly the days when these destinations were exciting and distinctly gay has gone, and they have become just another destination, and in many resorts the sight of same sex couples holding hands by the pool would be distinctly unwelcome ‘in front of the children’. Sorry guys, but in the end there were just not enough of us to run and entire Greek island!
Naturally these destinations do have all gay resorts and entertainment, but as is quite common these days they tend to be expensive, presumably because they are working on the value of the ‘Pink Dollar’. Visitors to Villa Ralfa are, of course, independent travellers ‘doing the islands’ and when I get reports that a bottle of beer in a club in Mykonos costs €8 and accommodation cost €150 per night, then I start to wonder for which sector of the gay and lesbian population they cater. I personally think that estimates of the amount of ‘pink’ money are wildly over-estimated (as I have said elsewhere!). And that many think that if they open a gay resort or accommodation they will have a captive audience.
A good example of this is here on Crete, where I opened Villa Ralfa as gay lodgings in Summer 2004. At that time if you ‘Googled’ ‘gay’ and ‘Crete’ together nothing that made any sense came up in the results. Of course the Villa Ralfa web site changed that because Google loves things that are new, and it was a matter of about 3 weeks before searching for the same terms produced Villa Ralfa in the first ten places! Almost immediately someone else decided to do the same as me, and three years later a German couple took an entire apartment block and tried letting it out as a gay resort. Since then I have had English people staying with me who were planning to actually build a small gay resort way out in the back of beyond.
The German couple stayed open for one season, and the planned resort as far as I know never got off the ground, if it did then their web site designer needs a kick in the arse as none other than me ever appears in search results!
So why did they fail? Because they didn’t do their homework and were trying to cater to the wrong people, that’s why. Gay and lesbian visitors who come to Crete don’t come expecting gay nightlife although there is quite a definite scene here, they come for the history, the archaeology, the scenery on this beautiful island, the food, and perhaps a few days on the famous Hersonissos nudist beach!
Here at Villa Ralfa we understand this as all of our guests are independent travellers, people who have got up off their butts and done a few minutes work on the Internet and discovered just how easy it is to do it yourself! Which is why we are here to help! Our web site, which is about as consistent and eccentric as ‘Craigslist’, contains a wealth of information to help the independent traveller and because we know the island we can tell you how long it will take you to get to somewhere and what time the buses run, and how to get from the airport for €3 rather than €35 in a cab.
But in spite of all this, we still get prospective guests who ask for the information and availability but get no further because they don’t book flights soon enough! I forget how many times I have said this now, but I am saying it again, book your flight as early as possible, in fact for next summer now is a good time because once it is booked the price is fixed. Gone is the time when you could get a standby flight cheap at the airport, gone are the days when prices went down as the flight date approached. The carriers realised a long time ago with the advent of Internet booking that passengers tended to search for flights but not book them until later, so of course they increase the prices as time goes on!
And naturally there are still many living in the past and conveniently forget that oil and aviation fuel prices have risen dramatically over the last few years.
Even as I write this in October, the majority of the budget and charter airlines across Europe already have the flights for next summer up for sale on their web sites, and it will come as no surprise to anyone I am sure to find that the number of seats on an aircraft is actually limited! Our links page is possibly one of the most underused on our web site, possibly because many links pages are totally irrelevant, but ours actually contains a wealth of USEFUL links, including one to Attitude Travel which collates all the budget airlines in one place.
An additional facet is that Villa Ralfa only takes a maximum of 6 guests, a fact which is quite clear from the web site, and prospective guests often try and book a room in July for an August arrival date when all the August dates have been booked since January! You would be surprised how often guests ask me about availability in January but do nothing more and are disappointed to find that it is taken when they try and book 4 or 5 months later.
All this amounts to one thing, book early! Doing so guarantees your flights are available and at a reasonable price, and once you have booked and paid all your costs are fixed and final,and you get to go where you want to go not the leftovers that the travel agents have on offer.
Hey Presto, holidays done in a flash all through the power of the Internet!
This year has seen some difficulties in the tourist industry, not just here on Crete, Greece, but in other parts of the Europe also. The tour companies and airlines, expecting lower demand, reacted by reducing the availability of holidays and flights, with the result that prices were not actually as low as some expected. Certainly there were reasonable price packages available in very limited supplies, but many of those taking them found that they were housed in ‘all-inclusive’ resorts which cater for thousands of guests rather than a score or so of apartments.
This is fine if you do not mind going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner when the gong goes, and if you do not really want to sample some real Greek food, or experience real Greek hospitality in family run apartments, but we are gay or lesbian and fiercely independent and because we don’t have children (well most of us don’t!), we are not tied to school holidays. And we don’t need to follow the flock!
Surprisingly for a sector of the population that likes to think itself ‘avant-garde’ and adventurous, many gay and lesbian people still follow the crowd and book package holidays and continue to perpetuate the myth that some destinations are ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. Two examples in Greece are Mykonos and Lesbos, both of which appear in ordinary package holidays brochures and at peak times are overrun with families and children. Another is Sitges in Spain which back in the late 70’s was the place for gay people to go in Spain.
Back then we were trailblazers in so many ways, but sadly the days when these destinations were exciting and distinctly gay has gone, and they have become just another destination, and in many resorts the sight of same sex couples holding hands by the pool would be distinctly unwelcome ‘in front of the children’. Sorry guys, but in the end there were just not enough of us to run and entire Greek island!
Naturally these destinations do have all gay resorts and entertainment, but as is quite common these days they tend to be expensive, presumably because they are working on the value of the ‘Pink Dollar’. Visitors to Villa Ralfa are, of course, independent travellers ‘doing the islands’ and when I get reports that a bottle of beer in a club in Mykonos costs €8 and accommodation cost €150 per night, then I start to wonder for which sector of the gay and lesbian population they cater. I personally think that estimates of the amount of ‘pink’ money are wildly over-estimated (as I have said elsewhere!). And that many think that if they open a gay resort or accommodation they will have a captive audience.
A good example of this is here on Crete, where I opened Villa Ralfa as gay lodgings in Summer 2004. At that time if you ‘Googled’ ‘gay’ and ‘Crete’ together nothing that made any sense came up in the results. Of course the Villa Ralfa web site changed that because Google loves things that are new, and it was a matter of about 3 weeks before searching for the same terms produced Villa Ralfa in the first ten places! Almost immediately someone else decided to do the same as me, and three years later a German couple took an entire apartment block and tried letting it out as a gay resort. Since then I have had English people staying with me who were planning to actually build a small gay resort way out in the back of beyond.
The German couple stayed open for one season, and the planned resort as far as I know never got off the ground, if it did then their web site designer needs a kick in the arse as none other than me ever appears in search results!
So why did they fail? Because they didn’t do their homework and were trying to cater to the wrong people, that’s why. Gay and lesbian visitors who come to Crete don’t come expecting gay nightlife although there is quite a definite scene here, they come for the history, the archaeology, the scenery on this beautiful island, the food, and perhaps a few days on the famous Hersonissos nudist beach!
Here at Villa Ralfa we understand this as all of our guests are independent travellers, people who have got up off their butts and done a few minutes work on the Internet and discovered just how easy it is to do it yourself! Which is why we are here to help! Our web site, which is about as consistent and eccentric as ‘Craigslist’, contains a wealth of information to help the independent traveller and because we know the island we can tell you how long it will take you to get to somewhere and what time the buses run, and how to get from the airport for €3 rather than €35 in a cab.
But in spite of all this, we still get prospective guests who ask for the information and availability but get no further because they don’t book flights soon enough! I forget how many times I have said this now, but I am saying it again, book your flight as early as possible, in fact for next summer now is a good time because once it is booked the price is fixed. Gone is the time when you could get a standby flight cheap at the airport, gone are the days when prices went down as the flight date approached. The carriers realised a long time ago with the advent of Internet booking that passengers tended to search for flights but not book them until later, so of course they increase the prices as time goes on!
And naturally there are still many living in the past and conveniently forget that oil and aviation fuel prices have risen dramatically over the last few years.
Even as I write this in October, the majority of the budget and charter airlines across Europe already have the flights for next summer up for sale on their web sites, and it will come as no surprise to anyone I am sure to find that the number of seats on an aircraft is actually limited! Our links page is possibly one of the most underused on our web site, possibly because many links pages are totally irrelevant, but ours actually contains a wealth of USEFUL links, including one to Attitude Travel which collates all the budget airlines in one place.
An additional facet is that Villa Ralfa only takes a maximum of 6 guests, a fact which is quite clear from the web site, and prospective guests often try and book a room in July for an August arrival date when all the August dates have been booked since January! You would be surprised how often guests ask me about availability in January but do nothing more and are disappointed to find that it is taken when they try and book 4 or 5 months later.
All this amounts to one thing, book early! Doing so guarantees your flights are available and at a reasonable price, and once you have booked and paid all your costs are fixed and final,and you get to go where you want to go not the leftovers that the travel agents have on offer.
Hey Presto, holidays done in a flash all through the power of the Internet!
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Want to be Adventurous and Surprise Your Friends? Consider Athens and Crete, Greece for that Winter Break!
Mention Greece and the Greek Islands and most will think of hot summer days basking on a sun bed by the pool or on a beach by a sparkling turquoise sea, few would imagine such a destination for the winter traveller who would think Canary Islands or North Africa at least! So how many people do you know who can say they have been to Crete in the middle of winter?
Crete, however, is one of the Greek Islands that still receives visitors during the winter months, from cruise ships that stop for the day in Heraklion, and from visitors arriving by air or ferry to stay at one of the time-share hotels, or who just like to come to Crete during the winter months. And with a permanent population in excess of 500,000 people, (and several million olive trees!), Crete has more places open to eat, drink, and be merry, than other Greek island during the winter months.
So what does Crete have to offer during this off peak period particularly for the gay or lesbian traveller?
As you will have read elsewhere no doubt, there is not a large gay scene on Crete, but of course there are some of us that live here all year round, both Greek and foreign, but for many gay travellers their visit to Crete is not centred around gay nightlife, but around visiting the island itself and to explore the archaeology on the island. Yes, Eros Bar in Malia is open during the winter at weekends and also Villa Ralfa, the only proclaimed gay accommodation on Crete, is open for most of the winter (we do like to go on holidays ourselves sometimes!).
One ‘barrier’ to visitors during the winter months is getting here, but this is not as difficult as it sounds as transport links with Athens are available all year round not only by air, but by ferry as well, and Athens is well served by air links around Europe and indeed, worldwide, all year round, so why not a winter break in Athens with a side trip to Crete for a weekend. Time enough to see Knossos, the museums, (which stay open all year round), drive around the island at leisure, view some of the sights, enjoy some famous Cretan hospitality, and some Cretan food!
So where to start?
A good place to start is at the Athens International Airport web site. From here you can see which destinations/air lines fly in and out of Greece. Then you can visit the relevant air line web site and book your ticket on line. Yes, it really is that simple! No more queuing in travel agents and being sent somewhere that THEY want you to go rather than where YOU want to go, no more fruitless searching on travel web sites looking for dates that don’t exist!
On the link at the end of this article you will find the links to some of the relevant web sites.
But for instance, did you know that there are three Greek airlines that fly in and out of the UK everyday with scheduled flights from various airports? And then there is Easyjet as well from Luton and Gatwick. As an example Aegean Airlines are offering flights from London Heathrow through to Crete via Athens from €120 plus taxes, and Easyjet have return flights to Athens in December and January for around €120 return including taxes. Even Birmingham and Manchester are served with flights to Athens in winter and one thing is virtually guaranteed – Even if it rains, Athens and Crete will be warmer than Northern Europe!
Even if you are not in the UK you can find airlines that fly to Athens during the winter months!
And if you fancy a bit of cruising, fly to Athens, and then take the overnight ferry from Piraeus to Heraklion, about €70 return plus a cabin if you want one.
So what will the weather be like? Well from experience as I live on Crete, I can tell you that very often up until Christmas you can get day time temperatures up in the mid 20’s. After then it can be cooler and often in February we can have three or four days when it is only 8C day and night. Yes, we get rain and very heavy rain at that, but in return you get to see Crete when it is green, and even on the shortest days the clarity of light is a delight for photographers and painters, none of the grey overcast light when at 3pm it cannot decide if it is day or night! You can check the weather for yourself through the link at the end of the article. And it is not an unusual sight to see snow on the mountains a few kilometres from the beach, a source of wonder for many winter visitors who thought we bathed in eternal sunshine. To put this into a little more perspective Crete is slightly south of the state of Colorado in the USA! Even in Athens which is to the north can be gloriously sunny in mid-January; I stay there for a few days every year and have only experienced heavy rain for half a day two years ago.
So what can we do when it rains? Summer visitors will know that activities on Crete revolve around the beach and the pool, but of course, at Villa Ralfa we are here all year round so we have books, games, and other indoor entertainment, TV and DVD players, and you are welcome to sit in front of the big log fire that we have most days and sip a glass of sherry before you head off out for something to eat.
And what can you do on Crete? Well we are talking a relatively short stay, although we do get visitors who come for all of the winter. So you can visit the main archaeological site at Knossos, the museums are also open (ideal for the rainy days), and with the aid of a rental car you can get away from it all up into the hills and watch for the vultures, and stop for lunch (sometimes only €14 for two) at many of the small tavernas that are open for us locals. If you are here at the right time you can watch the olives being picked, but forget romantic notions as this is highly mechanised process these days. Evenings you can find bars and restaurants that are open, mostly serving good Greek food, but forget about moussaka, you rarely see it on the menu in a ‘meze house’! Above all you can RELAX.
So be the intrepid traveller and think about Athens and Crete as a winter destination, you friends will be surprised when you tell them where you have been.
For more information and links to relevant web sites visit http://www.villaralfa.com/winter.html where you will also find details of our winter special weekend which includes breakfast and one evening meal.
Crete, however, is one of the Greek Islands that still receives visitors during the winter months, from cruise ships that stop for the day in Heraklion, and from visitors arriving by air or ferry to stay at one of the time-share hotels, or who just like to come to Crete during the winter months. And with a permanent population in excess of 500,000 people, (and several million olive trees!), Crete has more places open to eat, drink, and be merry, than other Greek island during the winter months.
So what does Crete have to offer during this off peak period particularly for the gay or lesbian traveller?
As you will have read elsewhere no doubt, there is not a large gay scene on Crete, but of course there are some of us that live here all year round, both Greek and foreign, but for many gay travellers their visit to Crete is not centred around gay nightlife, but around visiting the island itself and to explore the archaeology on the island. Yes, Eros Bar in Malia is open during the winter at weekends and also Villa Ralfa, the only proclaimed gay accommodation on Crete, is open for most of the winter (we do like to go on holidays ourselves sometimes!).
One ‘barrier’ to visitors during the winter months is getting here, but this is not as difficult as it sounds as transport links with Athens are available all year round not only by air, but by ferry as well, and Athens is well served by air links around Europe and indeed, worldwide, all year round, so why not a winter break in Athens with a side trip to Crete for a weekend. Time enough to see Knossos, the museums, (which stay open all year round), drive around the island at leisure, view some of the sights, enjoy some famous Cretan hospitality, and some Cretan food!
So where to start?
A good place to start is at the Athens International Airport web site. From here you can see which destinations/air lines fly in and out of Greece. Then you can visit the relevant air line web site and book your ticket on line. Yes, it really is that simple! No more queuing in travel agents and being sent somewhere that THEY want you to go rather than where YOU want to go, no more fruitless searching on travel web sites looking for dates that don’t exist!
On the link at the end of this article you will find the links to some of the relevant web sites.
But for instance, did you know that there are three Greek airlines that fly in and out of the UK everyday with scheduled flights from various airports? And then there is Easyjet as well from Luton and Gatwick. As an example Aegean Airlines are offering flights from London Heathrow through to Crete via Athens from €120 plus taxes, and Easyjet have return flights to Athens in December and January for around €120 return including taxes. Even Birmingham and Manchester are served with flights to Athens in winter and one thing is virtually guaranteed – Even if it rains, Athens and Crete will be warmer than Northern Europe!
Even if you are not in the UK you can find airlines that fly to Athens during the winter months!
And if you fancy a bit of cruising, fly to Athens, and then take the overnight ferry from Piraeus to Heraklion, about €70 return plus a cabin if you want one.
So what will the weather be like? Well from experience as I live on Crete, I can tell you that very often up until Christmas you can get day time temperatures up in the mid 20’s. After then it can be cooler and often in February we can have three or four days when it is only 8C day and night. Yes, we get rain and very heavy rain at that, but in return you get to see Crete when it is green, and even on the shortest days the clarity of light is a delight for photographers and painters, none of the grey overcast light when at 3pm it cannot decide if it is day or night! You can check the weather for yourself through the link at the end of the article. And it is not an unusual sight to see snow on the mountains a few kilometres from the beach, a source of wonder for many winter visitors who thought we bathed in eternal sunshine. To put this into a little more perspective Crete is slightly south of the state of Colorado in the USA! Even in Athens which is to the north can be gloriously sunny in mid-January; I stay there for a few days every year and have only experienced heavy rain for half a day two years ago.
So what can we do when it rains? Summer visitors will know that activities on Crete revolve around the beach and the pool, but of course, at Villa Ralfa we are here all year round so we have books, games, and other indoor entertainment, TV and DVD players, and you are welcome to sit in front of the big log fire that we have most days and sip a glass of sherry before you head off out for something to eat.
And what can you do on Crete? Well we are talking a relatively short stay, although we do get visitors who come for all of the winter. So you can visit the main archaeological site at Knossos, the museums are also open (ideal for the rainy days), and with the aid of a rental car you can get away from it all up into the hills and watch for the vultures, and stop for lunch (sometimes only €14 for two) at many of the small tavernas that are open for us locals. If you are here at the right time you can watch the olives being picked, but forget romantic notions as this is highly mechanised process these days. Evenings you can find bars and restaurants that are open, mostly serving good Greek food, but forget about moussaka, you rarely see it on the menu in a ‘meze house’! Above all you can RELAX.
So be the intrepid traveller and think about Athens and Crete as a winter destination, you friends will be surprised when you tell them where you have been.
For more information and links to relevant web sites visit http://www.villaralfa.com/winter.html where you will also find details of our winter special weekend which includes breakfast and one evening meal.
Thursday, 13 December 2007
The Final Episode, The Arrival on Crete
We have got as far as Bologna, on the night of the biggest football match in Italy!
The drive from Bologna to Ancona really is not that exciting and you soon leave the heavy traffic for a 'country drive'.
After the ordiliness of Dover and Calais, the port at Ancona is an experience! After checking in for the ferry with our Internet printed vouchers, you get a proper ticket and a banner to hang off the rear view mirror and get directed to an unorderly 'group' of vehicles all clustered around the back of a ferry which is still unloading. And trucks still being searched, and illegal immigrants being arrested......As the time for departure looms closer and we are still waiting to be loaded, we begin to worry, and I set off across the tarmac to the loaders and point at the car, it looks distinctly lonely surrounded by 40 tonne trucks, there are few cars at this time of year.
'Yes, yes, we know you are there', but somehow I don't feel convinced, but finally we are loaded.
I can recommend this ferry trip, it takes 24 hours, which means you can party until the early hours and still have a lie in! A disco on board with Greek Techno music, fascinating!
The sea was so calm our wake stretched for miles behind us, without so much as a ripple to disturb it, and the following dawn we saw the coast of Greece, with mountains and snow, appear on the horizon as we made the brief stop at Igoumentsou.
It is now February 6th 2004, and later that day we dock at Patras, which is much the same as any port town, they always seem to be slightly jaded and disorganised places, just like Newhaven and Dieppe!
Disembarkation takes no time at all, and we try to get Customs to register our presence mainly because we want to re-register the car....They don't even want to look at our passports!
Petrol is 60 cents a litre......
The drive from Patras to Piraeus is easy, well fairly, the road is good, but what is missing is a sign actually directing you to the ferry port! We follow the signs for Piraeus and end up in the town (seedy again!). Finally we find the customs house and are directed along a 'track' that follows the water. Of course we have come off the main road at the wrong exit, but how are we to know that!
Chaos rains as I cue to get our boarding passes.....We get loaded on to the ferry quite early on, short on cash because we couldn't find a cash machine, once on the ferry and up high we can see the main road and at least four banks, but too late now of course!
Another pleasant voyage...these ferries are fun! The ferry from Ancona was nearly new, this one is older. but still the sheets are clean and crisp and the cabin staff are pleasant. The bar was good fun too!
We arrive at our destination, a chilly February morning soon after sunrise and as we arrive at Heraklion the sun catches Mount Ida, and the sun glints from the cap of snow it wears from November to June....Kazantzakis country at last!
Straight away my favourite quotation comes to mind.......
‘‘To my mind, this Cretan countryside resembled good prose, carefully ordered,
sober, free from superfluous ornament, powerful and restrained. It expressed all
that was necessary with the greatest economy. It had no flippancy, nor artifice
about it. It said what it had to say with a manly authority. But between the severe
lines one could discern an unexpected sensitiveness and tenderness; in the
sheltered hollows the lemon and orange trees perfumed the air, and from the
vastness of the sea emanated an inexhaustible poetry.
‘Crete.‘ I murmured. ’Crete...‘ and my heart beat fast.’‘ ’
Yes of course it comes from Zorba The Greek by the man himself.
And now nearly four years later, my heart does still beat fast, for like many who come to live here, Crete is in my heart.
On the way from Heraklion to Koutouloufari it poured with rain as only it can on Crete in February.
Having nowhere else to go we had arranged to stay with friends, for a little while, well about six seeks actually!
Now I had been to Crete before in February, but this was no preparation for what was to come, it was cold, it was wet, and then one morning I woke early and the first thing that struck me was the quality of the light coming through the gaps in the curtains.
Half awake I though to myself, that is just the sort of light you get in England when it has snowed......well of course it had! For the first time in many years Koutouloufari was wearing a comforter of snow, you couldn't call it a blanket, you certainly couldn't cal it a sprinkling either!
Snow balls in the street on Crete, snowmen in front yards? Yes we had them all, the amazing thing was the speed with which the snow was cleared so the roads were driveable. In Brighton our car used to get snowed in every year without fail, and there snow is expected!
As soon as possible we drove to Mochos, where people were digging their cars out of snowdrifts where the plough had thrown it over them, and finding a nearby olive grove we stopped to take a picture of the car and us surrounded by snow nearly a metre deep.....
But we were here and this is where we wanted to be......at last....home!
And what is the next thing we start to do??
Yes, start house hunting again!
The drive from Bologna to Ancona really is not that exciting and you soon leave the heavy traffic for a 'country drive'.
After the ordiliness of Dover and Calais, the port at Ancona is an experience! After checking in for the ferry with our Internet printed vouchers, you get a proper ticket and a banner to hang off the rear view mirror and get directed to an unorderly 'group' of vehicles all clustered around the back of a ferry which is still unloading. And trucks still being searched, and illegal immigrants being arrested......As the time for departure looms closer and we are still waiting to be loaded, we begin to worry, and I set off across the tarmac to the loaders and point at the car, it looks distinctly lonely surrounded by 40 tonne trucks, there are few cars at this time of year.
'Yes, yes, we know you are there', but somehow I don't feel convinced, but finally we are loaded.
I can recommend this ferry trip, it takes 24 hours, which means you can party until the early hours and still have a lie in! A disco on board with Greek Techno music, fascinating!
The sea was so calm our wake stretched for miles behind us, without so much as a ripple to disturb it, and the following dawn we saw the coast of Greece, with mountains and snow, appear on the horizon as we made the brief stop at Igoumentsou.
It is now February 6th 2004, and later that day we dock at Patras, which is much the same as any port town, they always seem to be slightly jaded and disorganised places, just like Newhaven and Dieppe!
Disembarkation takes no time at all, and we try to get Customs to register our presence mainly because we want to re-register the car....They don't even want to look at our passports!
Petrol is 60 cents a litre......
The drive from Patras to Piraeus is easy, well fairly, the road is good, but what is missing is a sign actually directing you to the ferry port! We follow the signs for Piraeus and end up in the town (seedy again!). Finally we find the customs house and are directed along a 'track' that follows the water. Of course we have come off the main road at the wrong exit, but how are we to know that!
Chaos rains as I cue to get our boarding passes.....We get loaded on to the ferry quite early on, short on cash because we couldn't find a cash machine, once on the ferry and up high we can see the main road and at least four banks, but too late now of course!
Another pleasant voyage...these ferries are fun! The ferry from Ancona was nearly new, this one is older. but still the sheets are clean and crisp and the cabin staff are pleasant. The bar was good fun too!
We arrive at our destination, a chilly February morning soon after sunrise and as we arrive at Heraklion the sun catches Mount Ida, and the sun glints from the cap of snow it wears from November to June....Kazantzakis country at last!
Straight away my favourite quotation comes to mind.......
‘‘To my mind, this Cretan countryside resembled good prose, carefully ordered,
sober, free from superfluous ornament, powerful and restrained. It expressed all
that was necessary with the greatest economy. It had no flippancy, nor artifice
about it. It said what it had to say with a manly authority. But between the severe
lines one could discern an unexpected sensitiveness and tenderness; in the
sheltered hollows the lemon and orange trees perfumed the air, and from the
vastness of the sea emanated an inexhaustible poetry.
‘Crete.‘ I murmured. ’Crete...‘ and my heart beat fast.’‘ ’
Yes of course it comes from Zorba The Greek by the man himself.
And now nearly four years later, my heart does still beat fast, for like many who come to live here, Crete is in my heart.
On the way from Heraklion to Koutouloufari it poured with rain as only it can on Crete in February.
Having nowhere else to go we had arranged to stay with friends, for a little while, well about six seeks actually!
Now I had been to Crete before in February, but this was no preparation for what was to come, it was cold, it was wet, and then one morning I woke early and the first thing that struck me was the quality of the light coming through the gaps in the curtains.
Half awake I though to myself, that is just the sort of light you get in England when it has snowed......well of course it had! For the first time in many years Koutouloufari was wearing a comforter of snow, you couldn't call it a blanket, you certainly couldn't cal it a sprinkling either!
Snow balls in the street on Crete, snowmen in front yards? Yes we had them all, the amazing thing was the speed with which the snow was cleared so the roads were driveable. In Brighton our car used to get snowed in every year without fail, and there snow is expected!
As soon as possible we drove to Mochos, where people were digging their cars out of snowdrifts where the plough had thrown it over them, and finding a nearby olive grove we stopped to take a picture of the car and us surrounded by snow nearly a metre deep.....
But we were here and this is where we wanted to be......at last....home!
And what is the next thing we start to do??
Yes, start house hunting again!
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Moving to Crete - Nearly The Final Episode.
I promise this will be the final part.......At least of the moving saga.........
OK, we have a buyer, we have a moving date, and we have a leaving date for Crete. We even have started the process of buying somewhere on Crete.
What can possibly go wrong?
Nothing so far...As the day approaches for leaving the house in Brighton we continue to de-clutter, at least we now know what is in the boxes that came from my mother's house 9 years before, Ebay and car boot sales have done us well, we gradually pack boxes until our existence becomes a pile of cardboard boxes in the lounge. Removals and storage are arranged, and so is transit of our stuff to Crete, by Phil, The White Van Man, yes, we were his first trip out, his trial run, it's all our fault!
We leave the house, and I go back to work in the afternoon. No regrets about leaving the house, we had some difficult times while we lived there and good ones of course.
The removers take everything except the brand new stainless steel pedal bin, which just happened to have somehting packed in it, which I didn't miss until three years later!
We go to stay with friends.........
December 2003 arrives, and we get a message to phone the lawyer on Crete, the house we want to buy is illegal, not just a question of it being the wrong shape or a bit too big, it just shouldn't be there at all. To legalise it will take €6000, and we ain't paying it and neither is the man who owns it! Lawyer says "Don't touch it", so we don't. Heigh Ho, back to the drawing board.
It really is much easier to buy somewhere when you are on the spot anyway, and have the cash in the Bank!
Christmas comes and goes and our departure date looms large on the horizon, we organise a leaving party for two days before we are due to go, we go and see relations and distant friends who can't get to the party.
Two weeks to go and the company I am working for on a temp basis, hands me a permanent contract, can you believe it? Sorry boys I decline your offer, why couldn't this happen 10 months earlier?
The last day, 30th January 2004, a quiet day packing the car. I do something that I have always said I wouldn't. I pack socks and underwear in a bin liner because that is the only way I can fit them in the car. Everything is in except the clothes we need for today and tomorrow morning, the pc is in the boot, there are two suitcases on the back seat, and everything we are likely to need on the way
Last night, dinner with our best friends, a rather subdued occasion, they think we are mad, we think they might be right.
February 1st 2004, the storm which raged last night has blown itself out. We leave earlier than we expected and arrive in Dover nearly two hours early, that's fine, we get an earlier ferry.
Our route is planned to take a week, because it's February and there will almost certainly be snow on the way, which is why we both have two great big Tog24 winter coats with us taking up so much space inside the car.
I have run off the itinerary from the Michelin web site, we are going via Calais, then Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy to Ancona for the ferry to Greece. The first stop is Cologne for the night and the plan is that we only travel by daylight so we arrive in the city in daylight.
The plan doesn't work of course, the itinerary is so detailed that it gives us every single exit we pass which confuses the issue, I throw away the itinerary and use the atlas.
We arrive in Cologne...after dark. Now British cities are bad enough in the dark. German ones are even worse, you can't see the signs, and even if you can they are in German. We find the railway station as our first landmark, and all of a sudden we are taking the bridge over the Rhine. Wrong. Negotiate one way system and cross back again, spot street sign with our hotel in it. Ask German hotel doorman how to get to it. Down that street, but you cannot drive that way, do this and this and turn left there.
We do as told, end up in wrong street, and then we cross the river again, by the same bridge. OK we are good at this now because we know where to turn.
Head back across different bridge, aim for hotel again, wrong again, back across the river, different bridge this time. Negotiate one way system and cross river again. Stop and ask doorman again, he laughs, who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour.
Pass end of street where hotel stands, screech to a halt and reverse over traffic island and reverse the wrong way down one way street to reach hotel. Remove bags that we need for the night, get directions to secure parking, leave hotel foyer, return 45 minutes later having crossed the bridge again. We are now experts on the Cologne one way system and have actually found the way that we must go to leave the city in the morning.
Tired and stressed we find a place to eat, full of foreign businessmen in town for an exhibition. Good German food though, excellent soup, made from sorrel, it turns out when we ask what's in it. Have couple of drinks and so to bed.
Day 2, we leave Cologne heading for Stuttgart. Nice easy drive, we have two nights stay booked, and Stuttgart is a pleasant place. Weather like spring, heater off and windows down on the car. The Germans drive like maniacs and there really aren't any speed limits you know.
Arrive in Stuttgart, now I don't know whether you know Stuttgart, but if you do then you will know that there is a tunnel through the hill. Our hotel is near the tunnel, we end up going through it. OK no problem turn round and go back except we still cannot spot the street into the hotel and anyway there is a tram stop in the way.
Proceed back out of Stuttgart from whence we came, and try again. Once again we miss the turning and view the inside of the tunnel again. Finally we turn wherever we can, lo and behold end up outside front door of hotel. I pretend that I knew this would happen, I don't think I was believed!
Ask hotel owner for a good place to get German food, looks mystified and directs us to a Chinese!
We don't want Chinese, we want German. 'What you want all that pork and potatoes and cabbage?' 'Yes', we do. 'OK. Go there then'. Points across street.
We go to eat....Lots of beer, lots of pork and those wonderful potaotes that they do in the oven with onions and bacon, and of course cabbage. The family that run the place do not speak a word of English, but we gather they are having a party for some reason. We end up included and are pleased that we do not have to drive the next day.
Relaxing sitting in the sunshine drinking coffee and large slabs of low calorie cake (I don't think).
Find nice bar, tell Steve not to mention the War, he didn't have to, the man next to him did it anyway. An hour listening to him apologise, I don't know why as he is only about 25. Go to Chinese to eat, the man that runs it is from Manchester. Absolutely excellent Chinese food though, and free drinks because we are English.
Day 4 leave Stuttgart en route for Bologna, Italy. Get lost, Michelin itinerary is completely wrong, the road has moved, we can see it but can't work out how to get to it. Have to take 45 minute detour to get to it. Finally spot the temporary road sign that we missed lying by exit. (Ever noticed in Germany how many roads leave the autobahn for a place called 'Ausfarht'?)
Beautiful sunny day, a little snow on the side of the roads as we head for Austria, but still no need for the two new coats which are taking up so much space.
Buy vignette for the car and also the ticket for Switzerland as we decide to drive through it as well. Stop for lunch at Swiss roadhouse, undoubtedly the worst food I have ever had in my life. Even THF is better than that. The bill comes to about £30! Buy fuel, look at price and only put in half a tank, get stopped by Swiss police who want us to unpack the car. Drop the lid and open boot. Policeman see amount of gear and changes his mind and sends us on our way.
Switzerland was pretty, white snow and pine trees spotlessly clean in the sparkling sunshine. Arrive in Innsbruck, get lost, do a tour of the town......
Find way out and enter Italy, Lake Como was gorgeous, can understand why people go there. Italian drivers are downright rude, they can see we are sitting on the wrong side of the car. At least the Germans gave us plenty of room. The Italians overtake and then cut in about 6 inches in front of you.
Road tolls horrendous.......windscreen wiper falls apart when we use the washers, buy new one, cost €25!
Arrive on outskirts of Bologna with time to spare before dark. Traffic everywhere, stuck in it for hours, try to change route to get into city another way, plenty of time to read the map. One hour to go one mile!
Finally get into city centre, stop to get directions from a policeman, of whihc there seems to be hundreds everywhere. Local youths spot car and shout out 'Hello Dell boy' Obviously they do not appreciate that a 1983 Ford Escort Cabriolet XR3i is a classic car.
None of the policeman speak English, finally find one that speaks French. Ask for hotel by name, he points to sign above my head. How clever, the Italians actually put up signs for all the hotels. He points out the way across the road and then tells us we cannot drive that way but must go round the block.
OK fine we are good at this now, so reverse the wrong way up a one way street, it's the easiest way. Realise we have started a trend as three Italians do the same thing.
Check in, ask desk clerk about the traffic, it seems we have arrived on the night of one of the biggest football matches in Italy, like their Cup Final, and Bologna are playing at home. Mental note to self, allow for this when next planning a trip.
Find excellent pizza house, full of Italians, all enjoying themselves. Our table is suddenly pushed up next to another one to make room for one on the end, obviously we will be unable to leave until the people that cam in after us have finished. Oh well we didn't want an early night really.
Day 5 Bologna to Ancona, but you are going to have to wait for the next bit and the final arrival on Crete one dark February morning.....
OK, we have a buyer, we have a moving date, and we have a leaving date for Crete. We even have started the process of buying somewhere on Crete.
What can possibly go wrong?
Nothing so far...As the day approaches for leaving the house in Brighton we continue to de-clutter, at least we now know what is in the boxes that came from my mother's house 9 years before, Ebay and car boot sales have done us well, we gradually pack boxes until our existence becomes a pile of cardboard boxes in the lounge. Removals and storage are arranged, and so is transit of our stuff to Crete, by Phil, The White Van Man, yes, we were his first trip out, his trial run, it's all our fault!
We leave the house, and I go back to work in the afternoon. No regrets about leaving the house, we had some difficult times while we lived there and good ones of course.
The removers take everything except the brand new stainless steel pedal bin, which just happened to have somehting packed in it, which I didn't miss until three years later!
We go to stay with friends.........
December 2003 arrives, and we get a message to phone the lawyer on Crete, the house we want to buy is illegal, not just a question of it being the wrong shape or a bit too big, it just shouldn't be there at all. To legalise it will take €6000, and we ain't paying it and neither is the man who owns it! Lawyer says "Don't touch it", so we don't. Heigh Ho, back to the drawing board.
It really is much easier to buy somewhere when you are on the spot anyway, and have the cash in the Bank!
Christmas comes and goes and our departure date looms large on the horizon, we organise a leaving party for two days before we are due to go, we go and see relations and distant friends who can't get to the party.
Two weeks to go and the company I am working for on a temp basis, hands me a permanent contract, can you believe it? Sorry boys I decline your offer, why couldn't this happen 10 months earlier?
The last day, 30th January 2004, a quiet day packing the car. I do something that I have always said I wouldn't. I pack socks and underwear in a bin liner because that is the only way I can fit them in the car. Everything is in except the clothes we need for today and tomorrow morning, the pc is in the boot, there are two suitcases on the back seat, and everything we are likely to need on the way
Last night, dinner with our best friends, a rather subdued occasion, they think we are mad, we think they might be right.
February 1st 2004, the storm which raged last night has blown itself out. We leave earlier than we expected and arrive in Dover nearly two hours early, that's fine, we get an earlier ferry.
Our route is planned to take a week, because it's February and there will almost certainly be snow on the way, which is why we both have two great big Tog24 winter coats with us taking up so much space inside the car.
I have run off the itinerary from the Michelin web site, we are going via Calais, then Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy to Ancona for the ferry to Greece. The first stop is Cologne for the night and the plan is that we only travel by daylight so we arrive in the city in daylight.
The plan doesn't work of course, the itinerary is so detailed that it gives us every single exit we pass which confuses the issue, I throw away the itinerary and use the atlas.
We arrive in Cologne...after dark. Now British cities are bad enough in the dark. German ones are even worse, you can't see the signs, and even if you can they are in German. We find the railway station as our first landmark, and all of a sudden we are taking the bridge over the Rhine. Wrong. Negotiate one way system and cross back again, spot street sign with our hotel in it. Ask German hotel doorman how to get to it. Down that street, but you cannot drive that way, do this and this and turn left there.
We do as told, end up in wrong street, and then we cross the river again, by the same bridge. OK we are good at this now because we know where to turn.
Head back across different bridge, aim for hotel again, wrong again, back across the river, different bridge this time. Negotiate one way system and cross river again. Stop and ask doorman again, he laughs, who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour.
Pass end of street where hotel stands, screech to a halt and reverse over traffic island and reverse the wrong way down one way street to reach hotel. Remove bags that we need for the night, get directions to secure parking, leave hotel foyer, return 45 minutes later having crossed the bridge again. We are now experts on the Cologne one way system and have actually found the way that we must go to leave the city in the morning.
Tired and stressed we find a place to eat, full of foreign businessmen in town for an exhibition. Good German food though, excellent soup, made from sorrel, it turns out when we ask what's in it. Have couple of drinks and so to bed.
Day 2, we leave Cologne heading for Stuttgart. Nice easy drive, we have two nights stay booked, and Stuttgart is a pleasant place. Weather like spring, heater off and windows down on the car. The Germans drive like maniacs and there really aren't any speed limits you know.
Arrive in Stuttgart, now I don't know whether you know Stuttgart, but if you do then you will know that there is a tunnel through the hill. Our hotel is near the tunnel, we end up going through it. OK no problem turn round and go back except we still cannot spot the street into the hotel and anyway there is a tram stop in the way.
Proceed back out of Stuttgart from whence we came, and try again. Once again we miss the turning and view the inside of the tunnel again. Finally we turn wherever we can, lo and behold end up outside front door of hotel. I pretend that I knew this would happen, I don't think I was believed!
Ask hotel owner for a good place to get German food, looks mystified and directs us to a Chinese!
We don't want Chinese, we want German. 'What you want all that pork and potatoes and cabbage?' 'Yes', we do. 'OK. Go there then'. Points across street.
We go to eat....Lots of beer, lots of pork and those wonderful potaotes that they do in the oven with onions and bacon, and of course cabbage. The family that run the place do not speak a word of English, but we gather they are having a party for some reason. We end up included and are pleased that we do not have to drive the next day.
Relaxing sitting in the sunshine drinking coffee and large slabs of low calorie cake (I don't think).
Find nice bar, tell Steve not to mention the War, he didn't have to, the man next to him did it anyway. An hour listening to him apologise, I don't know why as he is only about 25. Go to Chinese to eat, the man that runs it is from Manchester. Absolutely excellent Chinese food though, and free drinks because we are English.
Day 4 leave Stuttgart en route for Bologna, Italy. Get lost, Michelin itinerary is completely wrong, the road has moved, we can see it but can't work out how to get to it. Have to take 45 minute detour to get to it. Finally spot the temporary road sign that we missed lying by exit. (Ever noticed in Germany how many roads leave the autobahn for a place called 'Ausfarht'?)
Beautiful sunny day, a little snow on the side of the roads as we head for Austria, but still no need for the two new coats which are taking up so much space.
Buy vignette for the car and also the ticket for Switzerland as we decide to drive through it as well. Stop for lunch at Swiss roadhouse, undoubtedly the worst food I have ever had in my life. Even THF is better than that. The bill comes to about £30! Buy fuel, look at price and only put in half a tank, get stopped by Swiss police who want us to unpack the car. Drop the lid and open boot. Policeman see amount of gear and changes his mind and sends us on our way.
Switzerland was pretty, white snow and pine trees spotlessly clean in the sparkling sunshine. Arrive in Innsbruck, get lost, do a tour of the town......
Find way out and enter Italy, Lake Como was gorgeous, can understand why people go there. Italian drivers are downright rude, they can see we are sitting on the wrong side of the car. At least the Germans gave us plenty of room. The Italians overtake and then cut in about 6 inches in front of you.
Road tolls horrendous.......windscreen wiper falls apart when we use the washers, buy new one, cost €25!
Arrive on outskirts of Bologna with time to spare before dark. Traffic everywhere, stuck in it for hours, try to change route to get into city another way, plenty of time to read the map. One hour to go one mile!
Finally get into city centre, stop to get directions from a policeman, of whihc there seems to be hundreds everywhere. Local youths spot car and shout out 'Hello Dell boy' Obviously they do not appreciate that a 1983 Ford Escort Cabriolet XR3i is a classic car.
None of the policeman speak English, finally find one that speaks French. Ask for hotel by name, he points to sign above my head. How clever, the Italians actually put up signs for all the hotels. He points out the way across the road and then tells us we cannot drive that way but must go round the block.
OK fine we are good at this now, so reverse the wrong way up a one way street, it's the easiest way. Realise we have started a trend as three Italians do the same thing.
Check in, ask desk clerk about the traffic, it seems we have arrived on the night of one of the biggest football matches in Italy, like their Cup Final, and Bologna are playing at home. Mental note to self, allow for this when next planning a trip.
Find excellent pizza house, full of Italians, all enjoying themselves. Our table is suddenly pushed up next to another one to make room for one on the end, obviously we will be unable to leave until the people that cam in after us have finished. Oh well we didn't want an early night really.
Day 5 Bologna to Ancona, but you are going to have to wait for the next bit and the final arrival on Crete one dark February morning.....
Saturday, 1 December 2007
One Good Reason for Moving to CRete
There are many good reasons for moving to Crete, and this is only one of them!
It is 1st. December 2007, it's 20C with light winds and the air is so clear you can see from my house to way the other side of Heraklion, the sea is blue and the clouds look like they were 'painted by numbers'.
Of course it is not always like this, sometimes the sky is as black as your hat and it pours with rain ("It's raining chairlegs' is what the Greeks say!) But always after a time we come back to days like this, and there is nothing like sunshine to lift the spirit when all around you is falling apart.
And a short drive away are the mountains where you can go and scream when you want to!
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Why Blog when I am only moving to Crete
This is the place where I can write things down and be sure that I can find them again.
But maybe if you are reading this you might be wondering who I am.....Well I am an English guy that now lives on Crete, the largest and possibly the most beautiful Greek island.
I first visited Greece in 1969 on an 'educational' cruise on the British India ship SS Uganda with 1500 or so other schoolchildren (that's what they mean by Murder on the High Seas, I think). All of us were from Sussex, and my group of course were from the Lewes County Grammar School for Boys, which later became the Priory School Lewes and is now some awful College of some sort.
All that aside, I fell in love with Greece from the moment I first set foot on it. Not just the archaeology, but everything else about it. It was like the land had a spirit all its own..........A feeling that was reinforced still further by a visit to Delphi, where I am sure the oracle still resides if you will only let it talk to you.
I spent years promising myself that I would return, and eventually I did, on a £79 package holiday to Crete in 2001. Six months later I was back again for another week. The next visit was to be one year later which was quite deliberate because during the second visit I really did not want to go, and strangely enough, neither did my partner!
Driving back from the Gatwick airport to Brighton we were stuck in a traffic jam, and casually I said to my partner 'Why don't we move to Crete?' By 10am the following morning the house was up for sale.
There followed 12 months of frustration as we dealt with a selection of useless estate agents and what seemed like an endless stream of time-wasting non-buyers! We put the price down, we changed the agents and changed the price again, until finally we changed the agent again and put the price up and found a buyer three days later!
The plan had been to leave the UK mid 2003, and knowing that we now had a buyer we decided on the 1st February 2004 as our departure date.
We were lucky enough to be able to stay with friends for 4 months before we left, surprisingly they are still friends, and as we didn't pay any rent, we agreed that they had about 8 months of free accommodation with us on Crete!
More to come soon, these old eyes are tired of sitting in front of the pc for many hours already today!
But maybe if you are reading this you might be wondering who I am.....Well I am an English guy that now lives on Crete, the largest and possibly the most beautiful Greek island.
I first visited Greece in 1969 on an 'educational' cruise on the British India ship SS Uganda with 1500 or so other schoolchildren (that's what they mean by Murder on the High Seas, I think). All of us were from Sussex, and my group of course were from the Lewes County Grammar School for Boys, which later became the Priory School Lewes and is now some awful College of some sort.
All that aside, I fell in love with Greece from the moment I first set foot on it. Not just the archaeology, but everything else about it. It was like the land had a spirit all its own..........A feeling that was reinforced still further by a visit to Delphi, where I am sure the oracle still resides if you will only let it talk to you.
I spent years promising myself that I would return, and eventually I did, on a £79 package holiday to Crete in 2001. Six months later I was back again for another week. The next visit was to be one year later which was quite deliberate because during the second visit I really did not want to go, and strangely enough, neither did my partner!
Driving back from the Gatwick airport to Brighton we were stuck in a traffic jam, and casually I said to my partner 'Why don't we move to Crete?' By 10am the following morning the house was up for sale.
There followed 12 months of frustration as we dealt with a selection of useless estate agents and what seemed like an endless stream of time-wasting non-buyers! We put the price down, we changed the agents and changed the price again, until finally we changed the agent again and put the price up and found a buyer three days later!
The plan had been to leave the UK mid 2003, and knowing that we now had a buyer we decided on the 1st February 2004 as our departure date.
We were lucky enough to be able to stay with friends for 4 months before we left, surprisingly they are still friends, and as we didn't pay any rent, we agreed that they had about 8 months of free accommodation with us on Crete!
More to come soon, these old eyes are tired of sitting in front of the pc for many hours already today!
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