We travelled up to Newcastle the evening before our early morning flight staying at the Brittania hotel by the airport and where we could leave our car for the week. Up at 5am walked over to the airport for a 3.5-hour flight to Chania took 1.5 hours to clear customs and then picked up our hire car and set off to drive to the seaside village of Bali 10 minutes in to the drive and we saw what looked like a serious crash with a pick up on its side and had been on fire. arrived at Bali nearly 2 hours later and eventually found our self-catering apartment, a really nice place with a huge balcony overlooking the small port. After unpacking we went for a walk, had something to eat then bought some shopping at a local supermarket, lots of cats about all seemed very friendly.

Had a good night's sleep then we had breakfast on the balcony before driving to the Monastery of Arkadhi one of the most famous in Crete where in 1866 Monks and some lay people blew themselves up along with Turkish invaders when they breached the walls of the Monastery. We had a very interesting conversation with two other visitors from mainland Greece about our life in England and theirs in Greece and that one of their sons lives in London and they have visited a couple of times but want to spend time visiting other areas of the country.

Later we drove to Rethimon and parked down by the port and had a few hours wandering the streets of the old quarter had a meal and tried Goats milk ice cream which was delicious.

The next day we set off to travel over to the south coast first stopping off at Marion Botanical gardens which was beautiful and the shop itself contained every tea,herb,oils,ointments that you could think of, Jun bought a few Aromatherapy oils, teas and herbs we also had something to eat in there cafe with all home grown food and the food was delivered to our table by a robot that spoke to you and you almost caught yourself about to talk back. We then drove up to the cliffs on the coast to the Monastery of Plevia with wonderful views the Monks did a lot to save allied soldiers to evacuate Crete during the second world war and received medals and written commendations from allied countries. We then drove to Plakias by way of extremely narrow winding roads had lunch then left and drove back by way of Kotsifou Gorge and visited the chapel in the rock face, very impressive then we stopped off at the bottom of the hills and had a nice walk before heading back to Bali.

The next day we set off in the other direction East towards the capital Heraklion firstly taking a road south to the 13^th Century Convent Paliani, it was one of the most tranquil serene places we have visited and it was difficult to leave it had a Myrtle tree in the center supposedly famous for healing and over a 1,000 years old, we were made very welcome by the sisters and some lay people. We then carried on to the village named Zaros stopping for something to eat at a local taverna after Jun observed them cooking over an open fire on waste ground opposite. We then drove to the outskirts of Heraklion to see the 3,500 year old palace/temples of Knossos. It was very interesting but a lot of it had been rebuilt on how they think it was, and it was expensive E15 each, mine should have been E8 but when I asked for the elderly concession she asked where I was from and when I said the UK she said the concession doesn't apply for those outside the European market, I jokingly said I never wanted to leave but it fell on deaf ears.

Woke up the next day to grey skies and some rain so decided to drive up in to the hills to do some walking, we made our way to the ancient Greco-Roman village of Argiroupolis had a lovely coffee then walked around the village before picking up the trail from a map one of the locals gave us that led down to The Place of the 5 Holy Virgins ( the sign said The Place of the 5 Holly Virgins ) with its 11^th century chapel and 5 caves where the young women were interred after being executed by the Romans for practicing Christianity. Alongside it is the oldest tree in Crete reckoned to be at least 2,000 years old. We stopped at a restaurant on the way back and the guy said you had better eat now as it is going to get very busy soon, he wasn't kidding within half hour it was packed apparently 1^st of May is a big holiday there everyone goes out and people also collect wild flowers. We also passed the remains of an ancient villa that bore the inscription above the portal "Omnia Mundi Fumus et Umbra" All things in this world are smoke and shadows. It relates to a massacre of 300 rebels who were invited to a wedding and plied with drink by the hosts and later set upon by his army. We then drove further up into the mountains visiting a place that has hardly changed in centuries called Asigonia the men still dress in black with long hair and mustaches looking like Greek brigands. 

After breakfast we drove to the village of Margaritas which is famous for its pottery while walking around, we found a small monastery there so went in and the gardens were beautifully maintained with a lovely courtyard I spoke with a monk and asked him how many of them lived there and he said only me I complimented him on the gardens and church which really pleased him and he offered us homemade biscuits which were delicious. We bought a couple of things from one of the potteries then drove on to Arhea Eleftharna and visited a church which was being renovated by one local man and a small acropolis close by. after this we drove further up the mountain and felt it becoming much cooler arriving at the small town called Axos where we stopped for a late lunch at a local taverna owned by a very friendly man and his wife who after we had a meal gave us free desserts and Raki.

We decided this day to visit some villages and Monasteries over the other side of one of the mountains, it was quite a climb on very steep narrow roads with spectacular views but not for the fainthearted. One of the places was the coastal village of Panormos and we walked down the pier looking at the fishing boats, Jun asked one fisherman if he had a fish to sell her for a few euros and he took one from the net and gave it to her saying" no euros free,free" Jun said " Thank you and God bless you" which seemed to please him very much. When we arrived back at the apartment it became very,very windy a real storm got up but standing on the balcony watching it was great.

Up at 6am on our last day set off early to drive to Chania before taking the car back, parked up and spent 2 hours around the old town and port area a very lovely place. took car back and everything was ok then to the airport arriving nice and early but with very dark clouds appearing. Check in went fine we were all in the departure lounge when the thunder and lightning hit with torrential rain. We saw our plane landing and everything seemed to be ok as the passengers disembarked then we were told there was a delay with an electrical problem and we could see engineers around the nose of the aircraft, eventually they towed it away and we were told another plane was coming for us which arrived after a 5 hour delay. Talking to the cabin crew when we boarded one of them said it was the worst experience of her life bad weather encountered after leaving the UK then approaching Crete, there was a really loud bang they were struck by lightning which knocked out some electrics, all the oxygen masks dropped down and there was a hole in the nose of the aircraft. Thankfully our flight back was very smooth and we arrived back at Newcastle very late but safe.