Crete - Elounda

We’ve been in Greece now for just over a week and to our surprise we have not yet found loukoumades, the tasty little bite sized honey balls, anywhere. Perhaps it’s a good thing so we don’t eat too many, but these little Greek donut balls are elusive. We even asked one of the waitresses at our hotel and she had no idea either. This started mission loukoumades. As part of our transition to the eastern side of Crete, we figured  we wouldn’t take the direct 3 hour route but instead explore more of the island more along the way; enter mission loukoumades. Z found a place in a small town called Moires, just over 2 hours southeast of Chania which could be worked into our journey to Elounda on the eastern coast. But first we needed to find an activity that would make us feel we deserved those tasty little delights. What better way than heading to Skinaria beach for some snorkelling and swimming. This gem of a beach is on the southern side of Crete. It’s a small rocky beach nestled between two large black rock formations (perhaps volcanic) resulting in a fairly sheltered bay. This beach and area is known for its sea life and is a popular snorkelling and dive spot. We drove inland first through some impressive mountain ranges, lined of course with olive groves. Once in the small village by the beach it’s a bit tricky to reach as the road is again fairly windy and narrow, but by now Z has become an expert at navigating these roads. There are limited facilities here but include areas with sun loungers, showers, and privacy boxes for changing. This beach appears a popular locals spot. The deep blue water gets deep fairly quickly from the shore. This was the best spot by far for snorkelling on our trip and I came to finally realize that I needed to change my expectations of the fish varieties I would see; still a good amount of variety, but perhaps not as vibrantly colourful as other snorkelling places. We enjoyed a couple hours here bouncing between our sun loungers and cooling off in the water before heading on to our next destination: loukoumades… I mean Moires.

Crete not only has countless pristine beaches, but also has a lot of mountains with villages and towns scattered around. Olive tree groves appear to be planted wherever there is soil. On our journey we stopped in a little village for a quick bite. Having a quick bite and Greece don’t really go together but we found a take away restaurant and ordered a gyro and while we waited for it, we each enjoyed a fresh orange juice. Freshly squeezed orange can be found at almost any restaurant in Greece. Honestly I’m not certain where all there oranges are being grown because we’ve only really seen olive trees and lemon trees, must be another region in Greece. Something I’ve noticed is that Greeks are very proud to explain what region or area food or drink comes from with often the phrase “protected product” attached too, but no one has told us yet about oranges. The gyro in Greece come filled with fries and made it a bit messy to eat while driving so we stopped by the side of the road and took in the scenery while enjoying our snack. We made it to Moires all excited to finally have some loukoumades….Z had done his research, the store was supposed to be open until 11pm and we were there around 4pm, so within plenty of time. Except that when we arrived, all the anticipation for this moment was shattered by a closed store. We drove all this way and a bit out of the way for this…thankfully this town is not very large and within eyesight I spotted a bakery. After all we deserved a treat, right? This bakery didn’t disappoint and perhaps it was meant to be that we found a different gem of a place that made an amazing cappuccino and delectable bakery treats.  

For this leg of our adventure, we stayed at the Domes of Elounda. The resort is quite an expansive resort situated on the hillside in Elounda. As you enter the property it looks like the beach is across the street however, the way the property is built, you access the beach through a tunnel under the road making it feel like you’ve never “crossed” the road. The beach had very calm and shallow crystal clear waters. We stayed in the new area of the property in a one bedroom villa with a mountain and partial sea view. The room was modern and nicely decorated, with lots of space including a private terrace with kitchen area, not that we cooked there, but we utilized the outdoor fridge, table and chairs. The terrace was south facing and was sun facing for a good portion of the day which helped for us to make use of the two sun loungers and plunge pool. Being located on the hillside, there were a lot of steps to get from our room to the main lobby, restaurants, beaches, and pools, but it also afforded many great views of the sea. Because the resort property is so expansive, they actually have golf carts that they use to move guests around. We used this service on occasion, but tried for the most part to walk around. This resort had an expansive organic dedicated garden and we also noticed herbs and fruit trees (lemons and pomegranate) growing throughout the property. We had sage growing outside our door. There are several restaurants on the property and we tried all but one which was an Asian themed restaurant. Overall the food quality and variety was quite good, perhaps not as good as the other Domes resorts we stayed at on this trip, and the service was a bit hit and miss. 

Within view from our resort and just a short boat ride away is Spinalonga island. We caught the ferry from the neighbouring seaside fishing village, Plaka, after a relaxing, yet windy, wonderful waterfront lunch at Paliria later in the afternoon so we could miss the crowds visiting the island. The ferry from Plaka is a much shorter ride than taking it from Elounda and it gave us the chance to check out this quaint little village with no shortage of seaside restaurants. Spinalonga is now an uninhabited island that has a storied history, but is most famously known as housing a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. We read the story of Spinalonga prior to visiting and it was pretty sombre walking around the ruins and thinking about what life would have been like for those sent to live there particularly in the early years when conditions were quite inhuman without proper infrastructure including running water. Since we arrived towards the end of the day, our time on the island was rather short, but we did manage to climb our way to the top and got to enjoy the breathtaking 360 view the island has to offer. 

Having the car allowed us to explore different parts of this side of Crete as well. One interesting drive brought us once again down very narrow windy roads onto a peninsula off Elounda with our destination being Kolokitha beach. The road does not take you right to the beach and there is a short hike required to access. We didn't have our swim gear with us at the time, so we just enjoyed the scenery and spent some time just taking it all in. Along the cliffside of this beach, we found several fire pits with metal grates, which led us to believe this is a popular spot for locals to enjoy a later evening BBQ. 

We also spent some time also exploring the village of Elounda; also a fishing village like Plaka, but a fair bit larger. The centre of the village is lined with shops and restaurants and the marina houses countless fishing boats. We had some time before dinner for shopping and found some neat souvenirs here. Dinner was at Lotus Eaters, a seaside restaurant with a small, but beautiful outdoor terrace. The restaurant can accommodate maybe 12 tables at most, so we were lucky we got a reservation for when we did because when we were seated we heard the owner, Daniel, say numerous times to other people coming in that he had no more tables for the day and that the next available reservation was Sunday; it was Tuesday. The atmosphere was perfect for our dinner; on the water, warm evening weather, and great company in Z. Daniel was an entertaining and hospitable host. He runs the restaurant with his wife and his brother-in-law as the chef. 

A wind weather system moved in during our last couple days here which brought in much all day windy conditions with wind gusts ranging between 25-40km per hour at times. Despite the wind, it was still quite hot and the wind brought about some reprieve. We did have to watch out for our sun loungers though because the wind gusts moved and lifted the loungers so Z found a way to wedge them against a wall so they wouldn’t get blown away. 

On our travel day back to Athens, we stopped at the largest Bronze Age archeological site of Knossos Palace on Crete. The palace is understood to have been settled as early as the Neolithic period and became the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization. We took a guided tour which was helpful because our guide told us the expansive history and pointed out many things we would have otherwise missed just walking around the ruins, like the water management system that was found which included three separate water drain systems: one for water supply, one for run off, and one for waste water and the discovery of the first "flushing" toilet in the Queen's bathroom. Fresh water was brought to the palace via aqueducts from springs 10km away. Our guide made a point of saying that because of this discovery at this site, the Greeks invented aqueducts, not the Romans. While a lot of the ruins here have been restored, there are still many original pieces including portions of columns and some frescos. Because our visit was on our way to the airport, we didn't have a great deal of time, only 1.5 hours and the guided tour took up all that time. At the end, our guide pointed us to the throne room and said we could go take a look, but the line up to enter was very long and moving very slowly. Z was convinced we had enough time to wait it out; I on the other hand was becoming increasingly nervous and anxious that we didn't have enough time so after a bit of frustrated back and forth, we left the line and head to the airport. We made it with enough time for our original scheduled departure time, but of course our flight ended up being delayed so the thoughts became what if we stayed in the throne room line up.....

All in all, our time on Crete was incredible. The island has so much to explore and we only touched the surface. This is certainly a place to come back to.