Crete and Home Again

CHANIA (SOUDA), GREECE (CRETE)

Our final port of call was one the island of Crete - at the main port in Chania.  The first place that we went was up in the hills surrounding the port which made for some stunning pictures.  The ruins of the wall were from back in Roman times, although there were a lot of ruins from different periods since the port has been overrun by several different empires in its history, and near our first stop was a current excavation site and so some of the information about which ruins were from which time period got a little jumbled for me.  Crete engendered some good feelings for me because after several days in mid-90 degree temperatures the low 80s that we experienced on Crete were a relief!  However, retrospectively 3 straight days of bus tours was pushing Madelyn's limits.  The beaches (at which we were only able to stop for about 15 minutes) were amazing - the sand was soft, the water was clear...I could have easily spent a good long week vacationing there.  Maybe another time...

We stopped in a village where Mom, Becci, Micah, and I had some coffee at a local cafe.  Becky and Micah ordered Greek coffee, while Becci and I thought a Frappe sounded pretty safe (of course there weren't any descriptions so we really had no idea what we were ordering).  Becci and I got sweet iced coffees with some sort of foam that were really good.  Micah and Mom got very strong hot coffee that was sweetened as well...Becci and I were pretty happy with our choice. The tour ended with some shopping time in the main shopping area of Chania which our tour guide called the "Venice Without Water."  With the narrow crowded streets and stalls and shops on top of each other Justin and I both agreed that we could see some resemblance.  The port did undergo a period of rule under the Venetians, so it isn't surprising that some influence was evident.  We did manage to buy some local olive oil in while we were in Crete - it is one of the four largest olive oil producers in the world.  The others being Italy, Greece (mainland), and Turkey.  Becci and Micah actually got olive oil in both Turkey and Crete, so it will be interesting to hear from them if they noticed any difference.

ENDINGS

This trip had a good mix of busyness and relaxation.  We always were back on the ship for some relaxation time, and we had 2 at sea days that were a much more low key pace.  One of the things that was nice was that we had formal dinners every evening in the main dining room.  Although only two nights required actual formal attire, every night you "dressed" for dinner - something we don't really ever do at home.  2 hour formal dinners were a bit long for Madelyn, so Justin and I, but mostly my Dad, took turns walking around with Madelyn between courses.  Dad and Madelyn met a significant number of other people that way (other cruisers and the majority of the waiters in the resturant).  On the last night many of them stopped by to say goodbye to Madelyn.  I think she really enjoyed those times with her Grandpa and was pretty sad the last few days when Grandpa wasn't around to take her places and explain everything to her.  I think she misses everyone being together in general - she keeps asking me where everyone is :)

The last formal night I got a couple of pictures of my parents, dressed up to celebrate 30 fantastic years of marriage.  Congrats Mom and Dad and thank you!