RETYMNON CHANIA & KOURNAS LAKE
Every Wed & Sat price per adult 42 euro children 21euro
Chania the former capital of Crete until 1971 is unequivocally the most enjoyable of Crete’s larger towns. Venetian and Turkish buildings lining narrow alleys and stepped streets leading down to a scenic harbor.
Its shimmering waterfront, crumbling masonry and web of alleys, it is an extraordinarily attractive city, especially if you can catch it in spring when the Lefka Ori’s snowcapped peaks seem to hover above the roofs.
Chania has plenty to fill a good day, the Venetian harbor, and a quartet of museums, but the greatest pleasure of all, perhaps, is to be had wandering the narrow streets and stepped alleyways of the old quarters, filled with Venetian and Turkish architectural gems. Add plentiful accommodation and taverns, excellent markets and shopping.
Kournas lake, Crete’s only fresh water lake
Shelters in a bowl of hills 4km inland from Georgioupolis. The lake and the surroundings hills are a good place to seek out some of the more unusual island wildlife. On the lakeshore where you will arrive there are taverns popular with the locals, with lamb bbq on spits.
Rethymnon the 3rd largest town in Crete has an easy-going provincial air; it’s a place that moves slowly , the old town still preserves much of its Venetian and Turkish appearance.
Here the streets are fascinating mix of generations of architecture, the Venetian buildings largely indistinguishable from the Turkish and all of them adapted by later generations.
Ornate wooden doors and balconies and ancient stone work crop up everywhere and there are a number of elaborate Turkish fountains hidden in obscure corners.
In Rethymnon your will also stumble across curious old stores, and craftsmen- often manufacturing lyhras, the Cretan violin-working away in their traditional get –up of high boots, trousers (vrakes) and black headscarves (sarikia).
