Driving Around Crete: Exploring Greece's Largest Island with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Driving Around Crete:  Exploring Greece’s Largest Island with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

We set out for Pirgos in southern Crete through the Psiloritis Mountains.  We took the wrong road, which turned out to be a mule path for about three kilometers.  The mountains were covered with olive trees and white houses.

We drove all around the eastern side of the island to get back to Heraklion, so we could avoid the mule path back.  Southern Crete was not tourist territory at the time.

One man saw our rental car and shook his fist at rich tourists.  Back in Heraklion, we spent 45-minutes looking for a parking spot, because there are so many tourists there.

We ate the first of many meals at the Ionia Restaurant.  What I liked about the Ionia Restaurant was that you could look at the food in the kitchen before ordering it.

Laurent said he wanted to be on a beach vacation without too many museum visits - like none.  So, we began our tour of bathing spots in Crete outside the town of Rethymno.

Driving was tough, because we had to work out the Greek alphabet.  I busied myself with reading art books at the beach until we could go to town.

Rethymno has many restaurants and a nice pedestrian walkway along the port we discovered.  We ate lunch outside at a spot that had a great view of waves crashing against rocks.  The schnitzel and beer were good and reasonably priced.

On the way back to Heraklion, we discovered a beach called Lythagoia, which seemed to have only Greeks on it.  We drove down the steep road that led to the beach and decided to stay.  The water was clear, clean, and crystalline blue.

The next day, we drove to the pretty beach called Agios Nikolaeus.  I loved this spot, but wanted to get away from tourists despite being one myself.

From Agios Nikolaeus, we went to Elouda where we enjoyed more scenery.  We ate at another restaurant by the sea and thought the schnitzel and beer were delicious and reasonably priced.  The Greeks like those German dishes, too, when they go out.

I bought a book of Greek recipes in English.  As I looked over the recipes, I thought of how tourism had had a negative impact on the culture of the area.  I could not believe that no one sought out more cultural things to do in this ancient place.

As the French would say, I was augmenting “my cultural baggage.”  I wanted to know more about ancient, medieval, and modern Greece to share with my little daughter Florence one day.

My griping about tourists prompted me to ask Laurent to take us to the Lasthiti Plateau in the hope of eating a real Greek meal.

As we drove into Lasthiti, people approached us with lace and raki – homemade anise-flavored liqueur like ouzo – for sale.  The women here wore black outfits.

There were some windmills about, but these were being replaced with electric generators.

We ate lunch on the Lasthiti Plateau – delicious stuffed grape leaves made with rice and lemon sauce followed by thick, Greek yogurt with honey drizzled over it.

Wineries are supposed to be self-sustaining, because you can stir-fry grape leaves to eat along with wild boar sausage and a reasonable amount of wine. 

Wild boars seem to breed in vineyards. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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