Category: Uncategorized

Here we go, the last day which is just exclusively a travel day. So we finished the last second packing of toiletries and such to depart the apartment for a 7:30 bus to Syntagama station to get the 8:18 train to the airport. This would put us to the airport an unheard of 3 hours early (I don’t think that I have ever arrived that early for a flight by choice in my life). But it definitely made sense given what we have seen of Greek airports in general and Liam’s experience the other day.

We did manage to squeeze in one last changing of the guards. Having revived Jordan’s camera after its unfortunate incident with the ground at the Minoan Palace, she was excited to capture one last Greek experience before we went. With the final funny walk viewed, we successfully got the (very busy) train to the airport. Kieran successfully helped us evade the fare checking people as Emily got waved through when she pointed at me holding the ticket.

As expected, the departures hall was absolutely insane. The Air Canada bag dropoff extended out of their area and down several spaces which created a very fun intersection with Turkish Airways who were experiencing a similar problem. Much confusion. Fortunately, thanks to the Stephen Wilkinson aura of his passed Aeroplan 35k, we were able to bypass this and go to the priority check in where there was only one family in front of us. Thank goodness, because that other line was moving very slowly and would easily have been over an hour.

Outgoing passport control (what a concept) had a similarly long queue for the All Passports line, but we were able to skate through on the strength of Emily’s Irish passport. We did have to stand in the security line, but eventually hat went pretty quickly as they had many lanes open and the families in front of us actually seemed like they had been to an airport before and managed to act like regular humans putting their things on the belt. Madness!

All told, we navigated through the triple gauntlet of bag drop, passport control and security in just 45 minutes. Wow! Very pleased with that result and I don’t know it could have gone any faster. This did leave us with an awkwardly large amount of time before boarding, but I’ll definitely take that over the alternative. Plus, plenty of time to weigh up the Duty Free Scotch options! The rest of the airport experience was pretty mundane, which is about all you can ask for. The little air Canada gate area did get very cramped though, with Emily and I both bashing our knees on Kieran’s stroller while we played Go Fish (Jordan taking both games with me in a distant third place).

We were lucky enough to all have bulkhead and exit row seats with oodles of leg room. However, this was probably the coldest or second coldest flight I have ever been on. There was a draft coming through the door, or we were right near the full-cabin fans or something. But even I spent the whole flight under the provided blanket. Once in the air, they did set up the bassinet for Kieran, though he mostly refused to use it. He kept getting distracted by Jordan and all of the comings and goings around, since our extra legroom seats also came with the space in front of the lavatory. This included the 2-ish year old Jeffrey who was very intrigued by Kieran while I had him. Ultimately, he got a couple of small naps and then a big one near the end of the flight (which Emily was able to join him in).

The stroller did take a long time to arrive to us in Montreal, but this was no issue for us because we have a staggering 4 hour and 45 minute layover before our 8pm flight to Ottawa. Ouch, but at least we weren’t feeling rushed about the stroller, unlike the other family of Jeffrey who had a 45 minute connection to Calgary to make. I wonder if they made that flight, especially since everything in Montreal airport is such a walk.

I write this final blog post from the Montreal Lounge (again, thank you to Stephen Wilkinson for the single greatest use of a guest pass ever) with two hours to go on the layover. Emily was thrilled to see vegetables for what seems like the first time in weeks and I clocked the hot sauce (and Scotch) right away. Barring some disaster, we should be back in Ottawa soon and praying to the Jet Lag Gods (Sam, Adam and Ben) that we can beat the worst of it. From my time in Belgium coming back for summers, I generally found it easier to adjust coming this way than going to Europe, so we will see if that still holds true.

While this is the last regular post, I have it in my mind to do some thematic roundups of things like our costs, apartment choosing strategy, public transit, travelling with kids and all sorts of other half-formed ideas. I will post them in the Eurotrip roundup post. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my crazy daily ramblings and felt like you were on the adventure with us. I will also find a way to share some select pictures and will maybe go back and edit them into the posts themselves to liven things up.

As they say, all good things must come to an end, and the same is true for our crazy European adventure. Liam left the apartment at 9:30 to head towards the airport for his 1pm flight. We left shortly after for an adventure to the Athenian Riviera.

After a 20 minute train ride and 30 minutes of the most cramped bus I have been on in a long time, we finally arrived. Aaaannndddd the beach was private access behind a €10 ticket each. Boo! Emily and I didn’t even have our bathing suits with us, so no way we were going to do that. So we did the next best thing and found a playground to plot our next step.

That was a bus back up towards the metro to beaches where we could paddle our feet free of charge (though without view of the yachts, which was a bit of a shame). The bus blew past our intended stop due to a faulty stop button, but it ended up being for the best as we found a nice rocky beach that was perfect for cooling our feet without getting sand all over them. Sand really is the worst part of the beach.

As we walked down the coast towards another playground we scoped out on the maps and noted a small change cabin near our rocky beach. Though Emily and I hadn’t brought our suits, Jordan had, so we tucked that knowledge away for later. We then came upon the restaurant and playground combo (excellent) just in time for 1pm lunch. Turns out this place does brunch. Great! Even better is that it had the best sea view I have ever seen at a restaurant, let alone sat at. Take that, expensive beach club (though we did only have a view of some sailing boats instead of mega yachts).

Kieran slept through this, which was good as I had little intention of sharing my smoked salmon eggs Benedict and Jordan wouldn’t share her french toast. Emily mean of a country omelette (chorizo, spinach, feta and french fries) was also good, but definitely the third of three. This was the most quintessentially European service experience, with difficulty getting the attention of the server to get the fork he forgot to being Emily, so she sat there for like 10 minutes swapping a fork with me to eat.

After lunch, Jordan got changed and fully swam in the rocky cove. It was rather hot, so we really regretted not bringing our suits, but we were still able to enjoy up to our knees. There was a naturalist beach just a 1km walk away, apparently, but we decided against that with the kids in tow. So it was back towards the metro on the bus which was much less crowded… At the start. It wasn’t quite to the heights of the outward journey, but was quite packed at the end.

Instead of following the big crowd down into the metro, we stopped at our last frozen treat of the trip. This time, it was frozen Greek yogurt and it was really quite good. We each got our own cup this time as we all got different toppings (strawberry yogurt with sour cherry sauce and banana really worked, somehow), so this ended up being our most expensive frozen treat of all of Europe! Still cheaper than anything similar we would get in Canada though.

Then it was metro and another bus back to the apartment. Even though it was now 6pm, we were all still full from our late brunch. So we just brought some bread, butter and chips up to the rooftop patio to enjoy a snacky final dinner in Europe.

The owners of the building also run a jewelery and sculpture shop on the ground floor and they invited us for a tour. Kieran got to play with Sofia again (which consisted of them just touching at each other’s hands and faces in a very cute exchange) and Emily finally got to meet the dog whose toys and leashes we have seen scattered about the building. He was a very cute Greek Shepherd who really wanted to go for his walk and not indulge in the tour much longer. The tour finished with them giving us gifts of small pieces of beautiful pearl jewelry for the girls, an evil eye for Kieran (though he did note that Kieran’s blue eyes meant he already had the luck from it) and a Greek necklace slash game thing for Liam and I. He also said that the family owns the building but rents out on Airbnb to keep up with the taxes on it and that if anyone we know is staying in Greece that he will give discounts versus Airbnb for contacting directly! Very kind family.

Given that it is the last night and despit the need to leave fairly early in the morning to deal with the crazy Athens metro system and airport for our flight at noon, we made a deal with Jordan to stay up for the sunset over the Acropolis. Lucky her! Hopefully that doesn’t bite us in the butt tomorrow, but it should be fine since the sun set is at about 8:15. She did manage to injure her foot nicely though, which should be fun for traipsing through public transportation and a couple of airports. Hopefully our homeward journey is smoother than our outbound one!

Nothing additional to report from yesterday evening other than the fact that Kieran partied hard between 2 and 5am. Yes, it took the combined efforts of Emily and I a full 3 hours to get Kieran back to sleep. Luckily, that didn’t affect his mood for the day, but it did put us a bit behind the 8-ball for getting going in the morning.

Our Acropolis tickets were for 8-9am entry, so we aimed to get there for 8:45. I took the metro with Kieran while the rest of the gang grabbed a taxi. This all would have been fine, but as I exited the metro, my phone would not reconnect. And of course, their taxi had dropped them off somewhere different than the metro deposits you. It was a struggle to get the stroller up the hill to their entrance alone, but it eventually worked and I (finally) connected with them. So we dropped the stroller at the building for that and strapped Kieran up in the carrier to head for the entrance.

It was 9:15 at this point (having arrived to the metro station at about 8:50) and the ticket checker denied our entry as the tickets were now expired. WTF?! She sent is to the ticket office, who then sent us back to the gate to plead with a supervisor. The initial response was negative, that expired tickets were strictly done for. Luckily, my story about us being separated and how they didn’t give me a slip at the other side to prove my timing because I didn’t have the ticket (which was slightly exaggerated as far as the truth was told) with Kieran just starting up a very upset scream session on my back swayed him and he waved us through. Very lucky, as we would have just needed to buy tickets again. Absolutely wild system.

The walk up the hill was much easier than the first part now that Kieran was relocated to being on the front carrier. Only difficulty is that the places where it is rock and marble are quite slippery, so definitely had to be careful. Our first pitstop was the Odeon (Theatre) that sat 6000 people for musical performances and philosophical debates in ancient Athens. Then it was up many more slopes and stairs to the entry gate of the upper area. This was spectacular in its own right.

The other side, though, is of course the star of the show. The Parthenon was there in all of its glory. Fun fact that much like the Minoan palace, they tried reconstructing an amount of it in the early 1900s and the techniques they used actually damaged the original material more than if they had just left it. Great success! Also, most of the plaques would say things like “The Persians destroyed it in 480 BC, so the Athenians built it back bigger than before. Then it got destroyed in 1200. And again in 1607 when the Venetian army hit an Ottoman gunpowder storage in the temple which destroyed the whole roof and both long sides.” But then the last paragraph was “And the worst damage ever done to the Parthenon was Lord Elgin taking a bunch of statues and marble and putting it in the British Museum.” Way to be, Britain.

After some more gazing around the great views and dealing with another weekend at Bernie’s situation with Kieran asleep on my chest, we headed back down to the entrance and collected the stroller. While Kieran woke up and got a snack, Jordan and I headed up the neighboring Ares Hill, which was apparently the first place Christianity was preached in Athens in 51AD. And down more hills we went, checking out a small church from the 11th century along the way.

We then decided we had earned a beer after that walk. And really, we did! So we got one at a taverna and then delved into the shopping streets once again. Now that we didn’t have a round trip carryon flight to Crete to do and a much better sense of the prices, this trip was pretty fruitful in the end. But the shopping in the heat caused us to get pretty hungry. So we went to a restaurant that our friend Hilary raved about as the best food they had on their honeymoon. And they were right! Our kebabs were amazing, and they seemed to use way more seasoning than the average place. Good job, Hilary!

By this point in the afternoon, we were all exhausted. So of course we did more shopping and stopped in another church! But there was a method to the madness, as we then ended up at a bus stop where a bus would drop is off right at our building. Very convenient.

We had some afternoon chill time, then looked at out options for dinner in the area. Pretty slim pickings, as it seemed many places were closed for the long weekend still. Google told us that a Mexican place was open, so we walked there. Aaaannndddd it was not open. Oh well, a bistro was open next door serving not-Greek food which was fine by us at this point. Jordan, Kieran and I checked out one last church for the day on the way home while Emily and Liam soldiered on towards home.

Jordan read us all the story of the fight on the Acropolis between Athena and Poseidon for patronage of the city as a bedtime story. It took Kieran a while to go down due to a late nap during our dinner adventure, but eventually succeeded while Liam and I watched the Liverpool pre-season game on the iPad in our terrible sitting room. That has just ended with a Liverpool victory against Como. Probably time for bed, as Liam leaves in the morning back to Canada. We may go explore the coastal area. Who knows? That’s a tomorrow problem.

So I can’t start the story of our last repositioning day without first regaling the experience Emily and I had going back into the village. As expected, the parking situation was insane, but we were lucky to find parking at the sister hotel of our place just 50m from the main square. Perfect!

The square itself was jam packed. They had closed off vehicle access to the streets entering the square (more on that later) and all of the restaurants emptied their inside tables into the street for more outside tables. Fabulous! Buuuttttt they were all reserved, so we couldn’t get one to save our life. Luckily, the Shisha Bar on the corner had a few spare seats in great position. This was an oddball place for sure. We found all of the youth of Archanes who all liked playing cards at the bar. You go, Gen Z!

For us, this was a prime people watching spot. Which is great because that’s a fun activity. Like seeing dozens of people just straight up ignore the tape blocking off the road and deciding it just doesn’t apply for them. Then they try to turn up the road where the tables are and have to sheepishly reverse. There as also the little girl who definitely didn’t like the fact that her mom’s dress was more sparkly than hers. And many young men all dressed the same like it was a glitch in the matrix (black tight t-shirt and jeans).

After another jaunt around the square at 11pm, we decided everyone was just going to keep having dinner and it wasn’t going to turn into a fun dance party or something any time soon. Live music had started only at like 10:30 and was a bit of a bummer. So we headed back to the car aaaannnnddddd the battery was dead. Huzzah.

So we wandered aimlessly on the street asking if anyone had jumper cables which confused the group of young men we asked first. Luckily, a family heading back from the festivities overheard our pleas (and translated for the young men) and realized they had a battery booster. Amazing! So they did successfully jump our car and were just generally so nice and kind.

On our way then. Only not so much. We were getting all sorts of warning signals on the dash and the car wouldn’t really go above 15km/h (and more like 5 or 10 up hills). No way it would make it back. So we drove around with our hazards on and had resolved to call a taxi to get us back when I did a hail Mary restart of the car which actually worked (instead of just getting stuck with a dead battery again). I guess the 30 minutes of driving around in limp mode while still putting solid revs in made the alternator do its job. Just to be safe, we drove around for another 20 minutes at full power before tackling our hill. And we succeeded! Phew. Hope it holds overnight.

With the packing all done in the morning, we headed out for breakfast. Last breakfast was pretty much the same as all of the other except that both Jordan and Kieran were ravenous. Like both are many rounds of breakfast buffet. Then, it was time to see if the car started. And it did! Woo! Though we did put all of the stuff in the trunk with the engine still running, as we didn’t want to take any chances.

Having seen everything within a reasonable distance, we parked downtown Heraklion again at the playground that we hadn’t gone to the other day due to heat. Goal here being to burn some energy off of Jordan before our flight. Then in the more shady park across the road was another playground. So we had to try that one too. Less good as a playground, but in the shade which was well worthwhile. Then we got a coffee in the park right next to it while Jordan played and lastly tried out the third playground right there. This one was way less good, but Kieran made a baby friend on the swings.

All playgrounded out (Jordan was not, but we were), we emabrked on the 4km, 15 minute drive to the airport. Had to fill up the car for the first time. 37 liters came to over €65 which is $107 Canadian. Luckily, the car rental return was good and we will get our huge deposit back as expected. Though they did get an earful from Emily about how they didn’t pick up the phone when we had the engine problem (it especially did not help that the guy at the desk dismissively said that she should ah e texted instead. Like how is that the way to do that?!).

We had picked up some food near the playground to eat in the airport, which was good because the line for the only food place at the airport was crazy. Much like the Athens airport, Heraklion departures is crazy busy with very little space available to manoeuver. But we made it work and the flight went off without a hitch, and Kieran even slept most of the way.

We even had an amazingly timed connection to get the every-36-minute train. And then the connection for the other train! Great success. Less great was the 1km walk with all the stuff to our last Airbnb. This place is a lot more “traditional” or “authentic” than the last one, but we got a cute tour from the owner and even met her daughter and 8-month old granddaughter.

Everyone was pretty exhausted, nearly everything is closed because of the holiday and we have an early day tomorrow, so we got some pies from a local bakery and ate them on the rooftop patio (with a giant bottle of wine of course). This was lovely, with a great view of the Acropolis. Emily put the kids to bed and made it back out in time for an incredible sunset. We head to the Acropolis first thing, and my phone is on 3% battery, so time to call it here. Good night!

Jumping right in after a standard breakfast, we endeavoured out into our local village of Archanes to see what we have missed as we traipsed about the island. There were several cute shops that avoided the standard tourist items and tilted towards handmade items. All very cute! We also went into the free Archanes Museum which had some nice exhibits about the Minoan presence in the area.

After wandering around, we immersed ourselves in the local culture and got coffee next to all of the old Greek men. Some of them were playing a game that looked like backgammon, but was different. Almost in reverse? Where all of the tokens started on one side and you had to get them to the others? Google could probably solve this, but we didn’t put that much thought into it.

We then tried to visit the little church at the top of the hill that lights up each night. However, our path was blocked by the road being closed due to wildfire danger. Alas. So we headed over the other hill to another town that had an olive oil factory tour. It was a whole 5km away, so of course it took 20 minutes to get there over the winding mountain passes and the road closure that forced us onto a dirt road through the olive groves.

It was very cool seeing the tools that they use to get the olives off the tree, which is a stick with a motorized spinner at the end that hits all of the olives into the net at the bottom that looks like a Christmas tree base. This is an upgrade from the original tool they used, which was jurt a stick they hit against the branches. The harvest is split into three seasons of early, middle and late. Early harvest is green olives that have the strongest, almost peppery flavour but require 10kg of olives to make 1L of oil. Middle harvest is when the olive is half-green and half-black which has a milder taste and needs 5kg to make 1L. Late harvest is all black and only needs 3kg for the same 1L and tastes the same as the olive oil we get in Canada.

They also mixed some different balsamic creams in for the tasting which was very pleasant. Especially the one with some orange, so we got a small tin if the middle harvest (100ml to fit within carryon limits) and balsamic and orange cream. The shopping done, it was home to the villa for frozen pizza, chill time and a swim.

We then went out for dinner at the regular time, aiming for 7pm in the village. But it was much more of a ghost town than usual. There was a live music setting up, but by the time our dinner was finished at 8, they hadn’t fully started playing. We hung out in the plaza until 8:30, when it started to fill up in earnest, but the kids weren’t going to last any longer. So up the hill we went to deposit them into bed. Emily and I are going to try to go back down for the festivities, but we will see if we can find parking, as it was a zoo down there as well left. Wish us luck!

Tomorrow, we head back up to Athens. We will try to hit up as much of the party as possible tonight and tomorrow before we go, though!

We did successfully get Jordan awake for some star gazing and meteor viewing. We probably pulled the trigger a little early for the best meteors, but Emily was threatening to fall asleep on the balcony lounger. This would have been fine except that the cats would have subsequently used Emily as a bed. So we got Jordan and climbed up the hill behind the villa a bit to get the best field of view and escape the lights from the buildings. And it paid off, as we saw a couple of big meteors and a handful of smaller ones. Even without the meteors, the stars themselves were very good, though Heraklion produced more light pollution than I would have expected. Oh well, at least Jordan got right back to sleep.

Morning followed the now-familiar pattern of grabbing breakfast with a view and then heading out for the day. Kieran fell asleep in the car on the way to the Minoan Palace, but the drive was only 19 minutes, so he only slept for about 15 minutes which is much shorter than his normal naps. Hopefully that doesn’t cause any problems. The parking situation at the Minoan Palace is crazy. Fortunately, I have “suburban dad at Costco on the weekend” training and we caught on to someone leaving and timed it perfectly. Who said car dependant suburban development never helped anyone? (So many people because walkable urban environments with non-car transportation options are great, as we have seen in this trip so far)

As might be expected based on the parking lot situation, the line to buy tickets was crazy. Luckily, we learned our lesson in Athens at the Agora and Emily jumped on her phone to buy tickets online and we jumped the whole queue. The palace was from 1900BC originally, though was destroyed and reconstructed in 1700BC then was used for many years after that. Unfortunately, when it was uncovered in the 1900s, the archaeologist in charge decided that he would fill in the missing pieces with concrete, so it is awkward to tell what is original and what is his hatchet job surgery. He also came up with names for all the rooms based on what he thought happened there. But then as they uncovered more, it turns out that he was just wrong. But because the only figured it out years later, the original name stuck, so all the signs are very fun to untangle (is it a theater or the royal road? It is the road, so obviously, but they still call it the theater because of Evans).

Unfortunately, both kids had some fun temper tantrums here. Jordan dropped her camera which is now malfunctioning and non-responsive. Hopefully draining the battery and recharging it will help. And to add fuel to the fire, her hand fan also broke (no one’s fault except for the €3 hand fan making it serval weeks longer than expected. Kieran got super angry about his nap ending early and was super warm. So we got him out of the stroller, but he wouldn’t eat then I had him in the barrier, but he screamed bloody murder every time a had came within 3 inches of his head, which only exacerbated the heat and sun problem. So we ended up a little rushed through the palace and missed out on several of the labyrinthine paths through the compound. At least what we saw was cool!

Both kids did calm down as we left the palace, which was helpful for everyone’s sanity. We were most of the way to Heraklion, so continued onwards towards the mostly pedestrianized old town. Much like at the palace, parking was a nightmare and we were turned away from the first two parking lots we tried. But third time as the charm and we got a great (and cheaper!) spot just near the Venetian Fort on the water.

Heraklion’s shopping streets were pretty similar to the ones in Athens, but that didn’t stop us from hitting up all of the stores. It is a bit tricky finding the gems through the garbage, but we certainly did find some gems (and near-gems, like the lava stone and pearl necklace for €12 that Emily didn’t get only because it was too tight). By now, it was about 1:30pm and we hadn’t had lunch, so we stopped in at a cafe for coffees and pastries. Kieran fell asleep here and was successfully transferred to the stroller to continue his noa. Great success.

Next stop was the Holy Temple of Sant Titus, Liam’s first Greek Orthodox church of the trip. It was as well-adorned as almost any of the others we have seem, so was a great introduction. Though as good Catholics, Emily and Liam did avoid venerating the icons, including the skull of Saint Titus which is on display (in an very ornate box such that you don’t actually see any skull) in the side chapel.

Just in the next plaza is the Venetian Loggio, which was basically City Hall. There are still some municipal functions there, including the traffic violations office, which seems like a very underutilized staff given the traffic violations we have witnessed (Stop signs? Never heard of ’em). The little courtyard we could go to was very beautiful though, with great carvings.

The final stop of the trio to hit in Heraklion was the Basilica of Saint Mark. Fortunately, this did not have Mark’s skull or any other body part, but had actually been decommissioned and turned into a free art gallery owned by the municipality with rotating displays. The one today was a local artist showing his development over 5 decades if painting. Spoiler alert, he had a very sexually active phase, but that seemed to die out early.

What was next? More shops of course! Liam found a new hat and we picked up a few new things. We got to the square where there is a headless statue of Poseidon which signaled the end of the shopping area. As we headed to go find a place to grab a beer and avoid the sun, it should be noted that Kieran was still asleep. His nap ended up being an hour and twenty minutes. Sleepy boy!

We stopped at a random taverna on a little pedestrian square. We almost ended up at a cool looking “Ethnic Restaurant” with very peculiar decorations, but more people than usual were smoking there and there didn’t seem to be any tables. But the place we ended up was perfectly fine and just like all of the other Greek restaurants we have been to. We got beers (7-up for Jordan) and a plate of fries. My beer was advertised as hoppy, which I can assure you it was not; Greece only seems to have Lagers, which is why I have mostly been drinking wine. Noting wrong with a lager, but the price difference between wine and beer is crazy, so couldn’t justify spending more to get a beer I only kinda like.

Just as Emily was investigating the best ice cream options, they brought out a free plate of chocolate cake and ice cream. Success! Definitely takes the sting out of a €5 beer. They also brought Raki. Great success! Emily definitely likes Raki more when she can chase it down with chocolate cake.

From there, we headed back towards the car. On the way, we stumbled upon the first Catholic Church that we had seen in Greece so popped in for a stop. It was still nice with a beautiful painting behind the altar, but was more simple than the Greek Orthodox chirches around. My theory as to its existence is that it was quite close to the Venetian port and Loggio, so was a holdover from the period of Venetian control.

Back at the villa, we took some time to cool down and then head for a pre-dinner swim. Jordan got to play with her Greek friend Irina again and she taught me some words in Greek. Though she needs to work on her delivery, since she was just saying Greek words at me and having me repeat them. Only when her dad yelled “twenty!” After the last one was it clear that she was teaching me to count. I did learn the word for shark, though, as I had turned Kieran into a shark with a fin and the Jaws theme. Though she probably knows the tune from baby shark (or at least I hope she hasn’t seen Jaws!).

Dinner was a simple matter of pasta Bolognese. It tasted pretty good given that my seasoning was “none” (not even salt and pepper here!) and the pasta sauce was the cheapest from Lidl and was tomato, onion and carrot. We then did a call with Laura to see my new niece, Amelia Rose (everyone is happy and healthy, though newborn sleep patterns are definitely fun). Jordan also gave me a rematch at cribbage, which I squeaked out a victory in, so all is now right in the world with her beginner’s luck out of the way.

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow. Saturday is some big religious festival, but it sounds like some of the festivities start Friday night, so maybe we get to crash a party that isn’t for a 3 year old.

Okay, not much of a bash, but I couldn’t pass up the alliteration. As is happening more and more frequently, we got a nice late start to the day. In fact, we barely made it to breakfast before it closed down at 10:30am because Kieran started napping at 9:15. But we did manage to avoid disaster and got there in time.

We then set out on a 45 minute drive to Analipsi, just east of Heraklion, where Emily’s cousin Lucy and her family are staying for two weeks at an all inclusive. But the guest passes are insanely expensive, so they went a block down the beach and secured us a great set of chairs on the beach. We arrived and miraculously found parking right where they had selected and enjoyed a reunion. As expected, Lucy managed all of 10 seconds before grabbing Kieran for a big snuggle.

Jordan got on very well with both Ethan (8 years old) and Arya (12 years old) as we caught up with Chris and Lucy about all of the goings on. Most notably, Arya was Maltilda in her school play where they did 7 performances! They all managed to escape the end stages of a renovation project on their house, so a Greek vacation is exactly what they all needed!

The beach itself was lovely, and the water was both very wavy and a fantastic temperature. Our chairs were technically associated with the beach bar restaurant, so we got some great drinks for Emily’s birthday (highlight was the drink Emily got which was a Mango Volcano, which had chili syrup to make the whole drunk spicy instead of just a spicy rim). Luckily for us, the chairs had umbrellas that provided some necessary shade (though also several bumps on the head for me).

We also did a late lunch at the same restaurant. It was alright, but probably the worst value meal we have had so far, with my €17.50 calamari and a €15 pizza for Jordan raising the bill higher than any other meal we have had. But you can’t argue with the view! Not that Kieran would know, as he fell asleep for hai third nap of the day, so no Kieran food report there.

After lunch, it was back to the beach chairs (a gruelling 15 whole steps from the table) for another round of “get boiling and cool off in the sea.” Unfortunately, Kieran was a little over the beach, so we had to say our goodbyes and head out. The beach sadly did not have showers, so we had to drive the whole 45 minutes back to Arhanes salty (both figuratively and literally). Then it was some time out of the sun to cool off, so Kieran had his fourth nap of the day to prepare for a late dinner.

And that dinner was back down at the puppy plaza, and the trip down the hill was quite eventful with passing a horse, tractor and a stray dog who took his sweet time moving out of the way. We continued our tradition of finding a new restaurant every night and chose one next to an unusual garden filled with rabbit statues. Though we should have heeded our own advice and stuck to the sharing plates, as our main courses were absolutely massive. Emily ordered the goat and pilaf rice, but didn’t like the look of it and requested to swap for my lamb in wine sauce. As it was her birthday, I agreed (though I would have agreed anyways). Kieran liked both however (shocker), but went especially Gaga for the pilaf rice.

This restaurant did do the free Raki at the end of the meal as well as a fruit plate, which was quite lovely. Emily and Liam didn’t have the Raki, and it would have been more for me because I think it is great, but I had to do the drive up the now-dark roads. Alas. And further, the peaceful vibes fot ruined by Kieran absolutely blowing out of his diaper and requiring dinner massive cleaning (huzzah for his shower earlier…). The plan was to walk around after dinner, but now the shops had closed and Kieran was on the verge of sleep, so we headed back home. No horse or tractor this time, but that dog was there again!

Kieran made it home and then fell asleep immediately. We passed the time to the meteor shower by watching the new Ted Lasso. Once it starts in earnest, we have agreed to wake Jordan up so she can see. We should get good views from the villa, so wish us luck!

So when I said we would figure something out for today, turns out I meant that we would stay in and have a well-deserved relaxing day. Our leisurely breakfast was followed by Kieran having a nearly two hour nap (including Emily having two smaller naps in there). After naps, it was time to swim (where Jordan got to play again with her Greek friend Irina) and then have lunch. Jordan and I facilitated the naps by wandering the grounds of the hotel and tromping through the olive groves.

After lunch was more nap time! And yes, that was for both Kieran and Emily (their second and third naps, respectively, lasting again for nearly two hours). And of course, then it was time to swim again before dinner. Emily managed to turn the meager supplies we had gotten into an amazing pork chops with an oregano potato chip crust cooked in a tomato and peach reduction with boiled potato on the side.

We then taught Jordan how to play cribbage. Somehow, beginners luck resulted in me getting skunked and narrowly avoiding a double skunk. Kieran was supposed to be in bed, but emerged to join the card party and has been stubborn going down. Jordan successfully has gone to sleep, but Kieran continues the party with us on the patio where we watched the cats fighting each other and climbing all over our stuff. As of 9pm at the time of writing, he is still partying hard. Maybe today was just too relaxing with his multiple nearly-two-hour-naps. Good thing too, as we just saw a weird thing fly across the sky and it may or may not be aliens.

Tomorrow is the beach and meeting up with Emily’s cousin Lucy and her family who happen to also be in Crete this week. It is also Emily’s birthday tomorrow and the Perseid meteor shower, which should be very visible from our villa. None of us here have gotten Emily a gift though, so wish us luck!

We all got a great sleep last night given that we had AC units that actually work to keep the rooms cool. Our hotel includes breakfast, so we headed down just after 8 for a great set up with pastries, fruits, eggs and Greek yogurt. Though the best part is definitely the view over the valley as you have your coffee.

Emily had booked a pottery class for herself, Jordan and Liam down in Heraklion with me on deck to look after Kieran. It was a bit early for us to leave, but Kieran was looking sleep, so we pulled in the car and drove down the windy roads nah to Heraklion. Because we were early, we parked up at a beach and watched some planes make the predators approach to the airport, whose runway starts right at the edge of the cliffs down to the sea. Jordan paddled her feet in the waves but got a little soaked by the shockingly powerful waves.

Next door to the pottery class place was a cute little coffee shop, so we all got some coffee before they left me alone for their class. Kieran and I stayed for another coffee while he made friends with the baristas (as he does everywhere). After a short hangout there, we got Kieran in the stroller and walked around the little Minoan Cultural Park where the class was. There was a cool theatre where they put on classical performances and an equestrian center that sent an athlete to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. They also have 500 year old olive trees that were rescued from a flooded town by helicopter. So cool! Their cafe had sheep’s milk ice cream, so we had to try that of course. I would prefer the gelato we have generally been having though.

On the way back to the villa, we hit up a grocery store for provisions. Wine here was €3, but for the 1.5L bottles. Great value! It was time for a late lunch when we got back and a short nap for me (which somehow turned into 90 minutes. Oops). When I woke up, they were all outside the breakfast place doing some art. After an hour more of hanging out, we went for quick swim ahead of dinner. Kieran was more himself today, so enjoyed his swim more than yesterday. Jordan made a friend from Athens and they enjoyed jumping into the pool together.

Dinner was down in the town square, where there are about a dozen restaurants that have covered the whole place in tables. Many were occupied by old Greek men having social hour. So we chose one basically at random and settled in for a relaxed Greek dinner.We decided on several small plates to share instead of our regular approach which was a good life choice. It was a full smorgasbord of Tzatziki, spicy feta, eggplant with caramelized onions and pomegranate sauce, pork slices with grape and fig reduction (dish of the day!), lamb tacos and potato slices. And of course, a complimentary dessert of sponge cake and ice cream. Sadly, no raki tonight, so marks down compared to last night!

But the best was saved to last. Not more food, but the fact that serval very friendly stray dogs wandering through the plaza. This was far preferable to the cats on our balcony. They didn’t even go crazy on begging. Just walked by and if you have them some pets, then all the better. They naturally also scrounged for any dropped food, but again weren’t pushy about it. I’m surprised they didn’t camp out around Kieran for the dropped food and Emily or Jordan for the pets!

Dinner finished at 8, and Kieran was very ready for bed, so we just headed back. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, but I’m sure we will find something to do!

We had chalked today up to just a travel day, but it ended up as quite a bit more than that. It started as we expected, finishing our packing and heading out the door at 10am towards the airport. And we did get to the airport without incident, though the Bag Drop was a bit of an adventure with one group ahead of us checking 10 *massive* bags. I hope they were moving or something because I cannot comprehend how many clothes would fit in that.

The flight was similarly uneventful, which is really all you can ask for oj a flight. Kieran slept nearly the whole 55 minute journey, as did Grandad. It was quite convenient that we had a row of 6 all to ourselves. The Heraklion airport is almost as chaotic as the Athens one, but we navigated our way through successfully and found our rental car place amongst the sea of them.

We have the pleasure of driving a Suzuki Vitara, which is about the size of a Mazda CX-3. It did fit all of our bags, but it seems to have less power than my 2011 Chevy Cruze and it definitely requires a light foot at the traffic light to ease it into the high speed. Oh well, it works and we made to to the place. The roads in Crete are reminiscent of England and Ireland, with *just* enough space for one car to squeeze through. What do you do when two cars are coming at each other then? Great question, answered on a case by case basis.

Our villa is pretty nice, with a whole three separate sleeping areas along with a living room and kitchen. No good spot to lie on my front, but there are oodles of air conditioning units which is a pleasant change. We made our way to the pool which overlooks the whole valley. Interestingly, somewhere in the valley was a house blasting party music so loud that we could hear it from the hilltops. Our patio also comes with not one, not two, not three, but 6 cats. Jordan is enthralled with the comings and goings of them while Emily and Liam, both of whom are mildly allergic are making sure none of them sneak into the villa.

We did have to drive back to town to find a restaurant for dinner. We settled on a random place that Emily found on the edge of town. Well it turns out that we ended up crashing a girl’s third birthday party. They had done all sorts of decorations and had a sweets table set up as well as a princess performer blasting loud music for the kids to dance to. It was quite the party! And people just kept arriving.

Undeterred, we got some great food. It was peppers with feta, Dolometes (grape leaves with rice) and fried zucchini with cheese to start which was all amazing. Emily and I split a portion of lamb from the wood fired oven with potatoes cooked with the lamb. Jordan got a massive pizza and Liam had a pasta with chicken and mushroom. The food was all amazing, though very rich and filling, necessitating a take out container.

While we were there, Jordan was invited to partake in the party shenanigans. So she danced around a bit and played in their parachute game. Then, the organizer came over and dropped enough sugary treats to last Jordan our whole week in Crete. Then came again with a little barbie-ish doll for Jordan and a toy car for Kieran (and then once again to bring another treat)! Kieran even made friends with another 6 month old baby there called Elina.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the restaurant also brought out a free desert and a small bottle of Raki (a strong liquor) with shot glasses. And some fruit! Then the whole dinner only came to €64! And I was right in my guess that the party organizer was related to the restaurant somehow. But I imagine they would have been gracious hosts anyways because everyone there was insanely kind.

Then it was back up the winding roads to get back for Kieran and Jordan to go to bed. Luckily, it wasn’t quite dark yet, as we got routed on an even steeper and narrower hill than last time. It was wonderful returning to a properly chilly place. What was supposed to be a boring repositioning day ended up being one of the most memorable days of the whole trip and a story we will be telling probably forever. Onwards to tomorrow where Kieran and I will explore Heraklion while everyone else does some pottery.