We booked this trip in October last year and I have been looking forward to it ever since.
We've been to Greece before like I said in my previous post, but never stayed at this hotel before. It was called Castle Suites and was located 45 minutes from Chania Airport in the village Platanias.
The villages along the northern coast seem to flow into one another and in places it's hard to tell where one ends and another begins.
Traffic is crazy compared to ours. The streets are narrow and scooters whiz by left and right. Another thing that makes it difficult to adjust to is that cars don't have the head lights on during the day like we do in Sweden. It can sometimes be hard to tell if a car is moving or not. And just as you think you're safe it shoots by with a honk of the horn.
When we travelled alone in Greece before it wasn't such a big deal, but with the girls in tow it felt a bit scary at times.
We spent the Friday (Midsummer's Eve) at the hotel all day as well as Saturday and Sunday. The girls enjoyed the slow pace a lot and I got lots of time to finish my book (A Dance with Dragons - but that is DEFINITELY for another post - Gah!).
We didn't want to spend all the time at the hotel though, and Isabel got pretty bad sunburn during the weekend and had proper sores on her shoulders and was pretty uncomfortable so we rented a car and drove to Knossos on the Monday. It took almost 2 hours to drive there and once we arrived the temperatures were climbing reaching almost 36C in the afternoon heat.
Isabel was very intrigued with Knossos and soaked it all up. She even made plans for a show and tell session in school this fall and asked us to take lots of pictures. It was fun to walk around the palace grounds talking to her about what it could have been like there 4000 years ago.
We had rented the car for two days so on Tuesday we drove to Elafonissi Beach which is a paradise beach with fine sand and clear blue waters. Both Rickard and I have been there before. One by ourselves and once with Isabel.
We managed to take a wrong left turn and drove over the mountains to Elafonissi via the scenic route. Prolonging the journey by at least an hour and forcing us to drive along very narrow mountain roads. It was very scary.
Here we've stopped along the way at almost 1000 m (3000 feet) and once out of the car it didn't feel so scary. The air was nice and cool so high up too.
The beach was as lovely as we remembered and both girls liked it. Sofia is very scared of seaweed so it was perfect for her.
Unfortunately there was a very strong wind on the beach so lying on a sun bed wasn't very enjoyable so we ended up leaving pretty early. Isabel's shoulders were starting to go redder again so that added to our early departure.
The last two days we decided to spend at the hotel again. Soaking up the sun and bathing. Isabel preferred to stay in doors playing at being a vampire. We even bought her a t-shirt so she could swim but she decided not to.
We flew home yesterday evening at 10:50 pm Greece time and landed in Denmark 40 minutes ahead of schedule, but it still meant we weren't home until after 2 am.
We can't wait to go back again. Maybe next year.
