Rain, Rain... Go away

Darn it, I missed a post yesterday... So much for my record of consecutive postings... As I'm sure you can guess, no change in weather yesterday. We did have a great dinner with friends last night at LAX (Can't beat the 2 for 1 pizza & mojito specials).

Well, its still raining here... and we are still inside!! Here is what our weather looks like now, yucky and rainy with more on the way.

I took advantage of our time inside and completed a couple more scrapbook pages from our trip this summer. I killed two birds with one stone and also completed my first template challenge at www.makeitscrappy.com.

Here is page one from our last day in Chania on the Greek island Crete. This beautiful harbor town is on the Northwest coast of Crete.

Credits:
Template by Tracy Drane for makeitscrappy.com template challenge (oct 14);
Papers; ribbons; alphabet; & brads from "Ides of March" collaborative kit from thedailyscrap.com;
Photo by Matt;
Font: Stencil STD;

Journaling reads:;
June 21; 2007 - Despite being heavily bombed during World War II Chania's Old Town is considered the most beautiful urban district on Crete; especially the crumbling Venetian harbour.; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chania

Here is the second page from the same day. The photos are showing the narrow cobbled streets, the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor and a very cool old door.

Credits:
Template by Tracy Drane for makeitscrappy.com template challenge (oct 14)
Papers, flowers, buttons, & alphabet from "Ides of March" collaborative kit from thedailyscrap.com
Photo by MPS & ARS
Font: Stencil STD

Journaling reads:
We met for breakfast at 9:00am at the hotel and then set out for the harbor area in Chania. We walked along the boardwalk and stopped for coffee & ice cream at one of the many sidewalk cafés. We explored the Venetian area with its narrow cobblestoned streets and cute shops. After lunch we got into the car for the drive back to Iraklion. Matt drove as Kim and Angela attempted to navigate. So are on this trip, we had been very surprised and happy to see both Greek and English signage everywhere (including the road signs). Our luck ran out in Iraklion where all the street signs were in Greek only and our maps were only in English. We had instructions from the hotel that we tried to follow, however, we were unsure of what the phrase “go above the bridge” meant so we didn’t take the bridge (i.e. overpass) and ended up circling the old town for quite some time before we finally found our way back to the original road. We then took the overpass and found the hotel easily. Now parking was another matter, we had found the hotel, but typical of Europe, there was NO parking anywhere around it and of course no large parking lot. Angela got out of the car and ran inside the Galaxy hotel to see where we should park. A fantastic hotel assistant came out and directed Matt to park on a corner and he would move the car later. We decided NO more driving until we left for the airport.

June 21 & 22 -- Chania & Iraklion Crete

We stayed for two days just outside of the old harbour area of Chania on the northwest side of Crete. On our last day in Chania, we toured around the old harbor area with its shops and narrow twisting cobbled streets.

We drove along the northern cost of Crete to the capital of the island, Iraklion or Heraclion depending on which spelling you prefer. Have I mentioned that almost every town has at least two different spellings of its name and can be quite confusing.

Matt and I visited Knossos Palace belong to the Minoan King. The ruins were fantastic upon a hillside just 5 km outside of city center.

We also toured around the Venetian fortress built at the entrance to the harbor in Iraklion. Both of these pictures were taken from the roof of the fortress overlooking the sea and another island off in the distance.


We have constantly been amazed at the mountainous nature of the greek islands.

June 20 - Crete - Samaria Gorge

On our first full day in Crete, we hiked the 16 km long Samaria Gorge. We were driven to the top of the Gorge on a bus and then we hiked to the sea (over 4000 feet in elevation loss).




The wooden staircase of the Gorge.


Bridge leading to the abandoned village of Samaria.


The narrowest part of the gorge, only 3 meters wide.


The beautiful (and cold) beach at the end of a very hot hike. The ferry's would take us back to another town to meet up with our tour bus and wind our way back to the North side of the island to Chania.

We made it!!

Greece is wonderful. A little warm (OK, hot), but very beautiful. We have spent a couple of days in Athens and then we took a flight to Crete. We are on the Northern coast in a town called Chania. Its a beautiful city with a wonderful harbor.

Yesterday, we hiked the Samaria Gorge. It was a 16km hike (4000 feet downhill to the ocean). Afterwards, we enjoyed a swim in the beautiful Eqyptian Ocean. It was very refreshing after the long hike. The water was so chilly that after about 30 minutes, Matt was shivering!!

We will leave this town today and drive the 2 hours back to Iraklion, the capital of Crete, for another couple of days until we fly back to Athens for a few days. Then we are off to the islands of Naxos & Santorini.