Day 11 From Chania to Heraklion

Crete

Chania harbor

We woke up and went down to breakfast. This time in addition to telling them not to bring the ham and cheese that we would leave anyway we told them to skip the kids' orange juice. The proprietor asked the kids if they'd like to have chocolate croissants instead. They didn't leave even a single bite for me.

Once packed up we drove the car into Old Town, which is allowed until 10AM. By the time we'd loaded the car or was 10:30 and we had to navigate the tiny streets and drove right along the harbor's edge, dodging numerous pedestrians only to find that the gate out was closed, so we turned around, went back along the water, all the way across the harbor to the far gate. By the time we were on three road to Heraklion it was 11AM.

In the car Andrea explained the new quest; it was a team effort. There were six categories eating utensils, places of worship, clothing, etc. and 6 periods Roman, Ottoman, Byzantine, etc. for a total of 36 points.

When we arrived in Heraklion we spent what seemed like hours navigating narrow one lane roads, several times getting to within a few blocks of the hotel only to be forced the other way. Our GPS was useless since we could not get data at all.  Finally we got to the hotel only to be told that we could park a few blocks away, just go the wrong way on the one way road that already had a line of cars backed up behind me, honking because I was blocking the entire road. I found a parking lot a block ahead and paid 8 euros to park instead of the hotel's 6 euro discount rate.

We went to lunch at a thoroughly forgettable local taverna, which has great rosemary octopus and reasonable grilled chicken and then explored the city. We visited the archaeological museum and saw  the disk of phaestos and other assorted relics. The kids picked up points for Byzantine and Ottoman places of worship,  among other things amassing 12 points which was redeemed for Chillbox frozen yogurt, a fro yo shop whose gimmick is to put the cup in a fancy box.

After some downtime at our hotel we went to dinner at tripadvisor's top rated restaurant in Heraklion, which lived up to it's billing. We dined on a large terrace shade with beautiful vines with large orange flowers, under the shade of a tree. Toward the end of dinner a lemon feel from the tree and landed about five feet from our table. Suddenly, we spotted dozens of lemons in the tree. The proprietor lifted Zachary up to pick one. We are spaghetti,  grilled Dorado, chicken with basil and cheese, grilled vegetables, M

After dinner we strolled back to the hotel and on the way we stopped for a free concert and art show in a church on Lion Square.

We never made it to Knosos, but we'll get there tomorrow. IMNSHO one of our better days in Greece.

altese salad, fried potatoes, and cute little olives that everyone loved, even Andrea who normally hates olives.