Crete then and now

Crete by bus in October 1978

We visited Crete in 1978, when Greece hadn’t joined the EU and tourism to the island had yet to take off in a big way.  The colonels’ military junta had collapsed in 1974 so Greece was back on the acceptable tourism agenda.  At that time, you were only allowed into the country if you had accommodation arranged in advance and people got around this with dubious accommodation vouchers.

We returned to Crete in December 2018, but more on that later... 

We booked a cheap package holiday, with accommodation to be assigned on arrival, although we were not intending to use their accommodation, as we thought it would be in a package tourist resort like Agios Nikolaos.  We wanted to stay in the capital, Heraklion, to get buses around the island to see the main tourist sights.


The flight gave us good views of the Alps and followed the Adriatic to Corfu and over Greece. We were glad to leave rainy Britain and the sun came out as we landed in Heraklion, where a coach took us to the Pension Hotel Rea in the centre of Iraklion. This was a family run hotel.  The guide took us in and introduced us and the owner showed us to our room.  We could hear the owners having a discussion outside as we settled in and couldn’t understand what was being said, but we think they assumed we weren’t married as our passports had different surnames.  We were more than happy to stay there for the week, as Heraklion was our intended base. 

Hotel Pension Rea

The town was a warren of tiny streets, with lots of demolition and new ugly building using crudely shuttered reinforced concrete. We found a pizza place with pizza at 90 Dr and wine at 60 Dr, good value when you could get 72 Dr to the pound.

Friday 27 Oct

Knossos Palace

We walked the 4 miles to the Minoan Palace of Knossos set amongst vineyards: an impressive site excavated by Arthur Evans in 1900.  He uncovered flush toilets, an advanced drainage system and some wonderful frescos. 

Frescos at Knossos

Some of his assumptions and reconstructions were controversial, but without them much of the site could not have been preserved. We caught the bus back for 7 Dr (1.5p per Km).  In the afternoon we explored Heraklion, visiting the Chania Gate, which is the oldest preserved gate in the Venetian walls. We enquired about buses to Arvi on the south coast, but they only go in summer. After visiting the Byzantine Cathedral of Ayios Menas (the patron saint of Heraklion) we took a look at the harbour, Venetian castle and the Venetian arsenals and ate at a taverna in ‘Dirty Alley’, between the market and Evans Street.

Saturday 28 Oct

We caught the 8:30 am bus to Psychros, a dramatic journey up through mountains with good views over the Lasithi Plain, famous for its 10,000 white-sailed wind pumps. We stopped at Psychros on the southern edge and walked up to Dikteon Cave – the mantle of Zeus where, according to mythology, the infant Zeus was hidden from his father Kronos. Most of the houses near here were ramshackle with vines growing over the roofs.

Sunday 29 Oct

Matala

We took the 8 am bus to Matala for another spectacular journey to a south coast village. It was hot and sunny when we visited the graves cut into the cliff, where hippies escaping the Vietnam draft had holed up in the sixties.  

Phaestos Palace

We then walked 12 Km to the Minoan palace at Phaestos, but could only admire it from the outside due to a strike by the attendants.  Judy was feeling bad – probably from eating the fish in a Dirty Alley taverna the previous evening.  Back in Heraklion we visited the Basilica of St Mark to see the icons, but they were obscured by an exhibition of local embroidery and lace.

Monday 30 Oct

We visited a bank to change a £10 traveller’s cheque – 720 drachmas goes a long way – and splashed out 10 Dr on tiropita for breakfast (filo pastry stuffed with Feta cheese) before catching the 9 am bus to Archanes.  The 6 Km walk up to a chapel on top of Mt Iouktas, which is supposed to be the birthplace of Zeus, gave lovely views over Heraklion and the sea. From here we walked to Vathypetro to see the late Minoan manor house. 

Heraklion - Lion Square - Morozini Fountain

Back in Heraklion we visited the Historical and Ethnographical Museum, with its collections of art and artefacts from early Christian times, through to Venetian, Byzantine and Turkish eras.  After that we went to the Icon Museum in the church of St Katherine.

Our evening meal was at Porto Fino for stuffed peppers and moussaka. It wasn’t as good as we were hoping, as the peppers were stuffed only with rice and the moussaka was courgette and potato – serves us right for eating at a modern looking place.

Tuesday 31 Oct

Chania harbour

Up early for the 6:30 am bus to Chania on a scenic coastal road via Rethymnon. 

Judy in Chania

We found a good market and bought olive oil and 5 leather belts for £1 each, then explored 5 different quarters of the old town (if you can have 5 quarters) and followed the shore to the tanneries. 

Chania tanneries

The town had Minoan, Venetian, Byzantine and Turkish remains and the harbour taverna was excellent (stuffed aubergines, yoghurt and garlic, salad and feta, chips and stale bread). We saw a small zoo with Cretan mountain goats in the public gardens before catching the 6 pm bus back.

Wednesday 1 Nov

A breakfast of hot bread, yoghurt and oranges and we bought 6 bottles of wine to take home before catching the 10 am bus to Malia, a coastal town to the east.   

Malia Palace

We walked 4 Km out to the Minoan Palace, which was free to enter. This is the 3^rd palace after Knossos and Phaestos, but still impressive.  We walked down to the sea via the communal Royal Tomb and caught the bus back.   

Jon at the coast near Malia

This time our taverna was in Evans Street, where we had a good meal of meatballs in egg and lemon sauce, spaghetti Bolognese, fried potatoes, peasant salad and bread – all for 111 Dr.

Thursday 2 Nov

After hot bread, feta, grapes and yoghurt for breakfast we went to the ancient Priuli fountain and along to the Archaeological Museum (50 Dr entrance fee). 

Rooms were in chronological order displaying artefacts from Neolithic, Minoan and Dorian sites in Crete. We were there for 3 hours and interested by the stone vases, reconstructed frescos, seal stones and small bronze and clay figurines (votive offerings).

Heraklion Market

We went back through the market to spend our last drachmas on wine and feta to take home. After packing, we visited the church of Santa Maria dei crociferi and made our way to Venizelou Square, where we sat by a woman selling roasted chestnuts while we waited for the bus. We had no money left, but she generously gave us some chestnuts – a parting example of Cretan hospitality before our flight back to Heathrow.

Local bus at the Venetian Loggia

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - they were taken from 40 year old faded prints Photo album.

Our return in 2018

So, 40 years later we returned on a package holiday with RSD Travel. We prefer to do our own thing, as we did in 1978, but there are no direct flights to Crete in winter.

This photo album includes a list of what we did each day.

RSD Travel offered an excellent itinerary, visiting all of the places we had in mind, but also the inevitable jewellery, leather and carpet warehouses that subsidise their costs and give a nice bonus to the rep.  The visits were acceptable as it was a very cheap holiday and we were warned in advance.  You did not have go in the shops – though on occasion the time others spent shopping meant our visits to the archaeological sites were badly delayed and very rushed.

We deliberately did not pre-book the additional package for dinner, despite warnings that, at this time of year, most of the restaurants are closed and we would have nothing to eat.  Though many restaurants were closed out of season, we still found some excellent local restaurants within walking distance.

We had to admire the other dodges the rep. got away with.  He insisted on cash for the optional visits to Knossos and the Archaeological Museum (44 €) and to Agios Nikolaos (66 €).  The itinerary was also rearranged to make it more difficult for us to visit Knossos on our own.  The concession entrance fee for Knossos was half the usual 16 €, so he collected passports and pocketed all the OAP discounts.  We had done our research and made our own way to the entrance, where we found 4 others who had “opted out” of the visit.

Costas our expert guide

On the plus side, we also had Costas, an excellent archaeologist to guide us around the ancient sites.  He had studied at Liverpool University and had a PhD in Minoan civilisation, so knew his subject very well. He was a native Cretan and owned a small olive farm to supplement his income.

Conclusion - Crete is beautiful and has some fascinating archaeological sites. The people are friendly, even the business people, excluding the operators of carpet, jewellery and leather "manufactories". Little of what they sell is made in Crete.