Friday, September 6, 2019
STAVROS, Greece – True to our thoughts, Anna, the rental car lady, did not call nor text at the appointed 8:30 p.m. hour. Instead, we called and was told the exchange of cars would take place Saturday morning. Since we had no input into the matter, we confirmed the time and proceeded to plan for a beach day.
For our initial visit to a Crete beach, we selected Stavros, about a 15-20-minute drive just north of our apartment. While Waynette gathered some cheese sandwiches, fruit and water for the cooler, I checked out Stavros. Turned out the final scene of “Zorba the Greek,” with Anthony Quinn, Irene Pappas and Alan Bates was filmed on this beach. The beach is named “Zorba’s Beach,” and two posters from the film adorn both sides of a formal, signed entrance.
The beach, semi-circle in formation, seems carved out of an inlet, and a narrow waterway leads to the sea. Across the waterway is a rising mountain and the pink color, in spots, reminded us of parts of Sedona. We found a small cove off the main beach and set down our towels and cooler. Directly ahead, we faced ridges of jagged rock and waves from the sea dramatically crashed.
Navigating through rock formations and heavy sediments of salt, as the water contained a very high salt content, we walked to the edge of the rocks for a closer look at the sea. Along the way, we discovered steps and retaining walls made from slabs of rock and believe this are remains of a pre-ancient Minoan settlement. The Minoans settled in Crete from around 1900 B. C. to 1700 B. C. and were important in the development of pottery and construction of great palaces.
Along the beach, the water was a turquoise, Caribbean teal and the temp, we thought, was near 80. With the weather as a typical beach day, near 90 degrees, the water was delightful.
On the beach, we spread out two towels but agreed we need beach chairs. Once we left the beach, around 5 p.m., we went beach shopping. Waynette found an umbrella but we were told chairs were not available in any beach store in Stavros. “You can get those in Chania,” was the common refrain. After we settle with Anna and the car situation, we’ll seek out chairs.
After Waynette “face-timed” with Lindsay in Florida for about one hour, we showered and headed out to dinner. We settled on Pournaras Loannis Georgois, an outdoor restaurant on our way to Stavros. The setting was typical “beach environment,” with tables outside and teal-painted fence, stairs and tables. A fishing boat was suspended from the entrance and the menu was fish-oriented, an entre we both wanted.
Waynette ordered a fish in the bass family and I ordered bass. Both were grilled to perfection and we enjoyed cutting off the head and extracting the bones. Overall, the fish was excellent, and we agreed this could be one of the better dinners on the trip.
As is the custom in Europe, our dinner lingered for over two hours and we returned about 11:30. Our apartment is equipped with a combination washer-dryer, so we did laundry. Before bedtime, Waynette continued reading a novel on her iPad and wrote the daily blog.
WEATHER – sunny, 90 degrees
STEPS – 1,724
markstravelblog2019 