I must praise the staff at the Hotel Galaxy Iraklio for its aid in arranging our car rental in Heraklion.  Never did we obtain the temporary use of a vehicle with such ease. 

            HL was willing to drive our foursome to Chania, a harbor town 150 kilometers west of Heraklion, so that we could see more of the island than its major urban center.  A study of the map made it seem a simple matter to take the National Road along Crete’s northern coast to get there.

            The National Road could more accurately be named the Only Road.  It had only one lane in either direction along most
of its length, which curved through mountains and forests. We passed through few villages in a landscape that was scenic at every turn.

    
Crete is in the southern part of the Aegean Sea, as dazzling today as it was when Homer sang of it.

Our first stop in Chania was a shop where Dafna bought a wide-brimmed hat.  We arrived in the heat of the day, and had to protect ourselves from the relentless sunlight.

         Chania’s past was a familiar one for a port in use since Minoan times.  In the Middle Ages, Crusaders wrested Crete from Muslim rule.  The Venetians controlled and fortified Chania until the 17th Century, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Crete and turned the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches into mosques.  In the 20th Century,  Chania became a town in an independent Greek nation that incorporated Crete.  Rinse, with seawater, and Repeat…

The Venetians knew Chania as the Port of Canea.

HL on the quayside, with the landmark Venetian Tower in the background

Boat tours of Chania's semicircular harbor were available, but I preferred to stroll along the well-maintained boardwalk. 

          That was our last full day in Crete.  I left with an understanding of its enduring popularity with travelers.   Next, our friends, HL and I were bound for Thessaloniki.