Day 8 Sat Heading South

So today we have rented a car from the owner of our apartments friend.  For 20 Euro per day, for 2 drivers including full insurance it is a good deal for us.  The guy renting us the car manages a hotel about 1.5 km away from our apartment, we just pick up our car there as there is no parking on our street, I don't even think we can drive on it.  A good walk to wake us up in the morning.  We told him we would be there at 9AM, we walked to where the hotel was a couple of days ago, and still missed it this AM.  Poor Andre, we had brought a little duffle bag in case we wanted to sleep over somewhere, and we added quite a bit more to our walk than what was needed.  Then when we get there he realized he had forgotten his camera, how does he forget his camera???

Nice surprise, the man renting us the car has a huge bag of lemons for us, we will not need to buy any more lemons this entire trip I am sure.  We go over a few places we plan to visit with him and we are off.  Another nice surprise is he has given us an automatic car, he said since we are Canadians he thought we would like that.

So looking forward to our day out, I have been reading so much about this virus, too much, a day away from the computer is going to do me a lot of good.

First stop, back we go to the apartment for Andre to get his camera bag,  no driving on our street, but I found a close place to park for him to run get it and we are off.

We are off on our windy road tour through the mountains

We also found out that museums and archeological sites are now closed, so we will see how our day goes.  Our first stop is at Arkadiou Monestary from the 16 century.  There is normally a charge to get in but today they told us no charge.  Not sure if we were even supposed to go in, but they didn't stop us.

Arkadiou Monestary, only 3 monks left here, used to have around 100 

From 1866 siege, bullet hole left in tree 

Some of the room were not open as we did not pay to get in.

Busy parking lot. Our car is on the left.

View from Monastery Cemetery

After our visit at the monastery we drove through the mountains. We are so off season here, so few tourists, and I doubt very many if any at all more will come.  It is extremely quiet.  People ask us why we are visiting Greece at this time of year, it should be in the summer, I can't imagine being here in the summer, we have seen pictures of how busy the beaches and roads are.

Absolutely beautiful yellow spring flowers out, we have seen a lot of purple ones too.  Against the snow in the mountains it is fantastic.

A wide angle view of the valley with the mountains in the back.

Olive trees, yellow spring flowers, and grape vines

Stop at a tiny village that had an old church but it was not open to visit.

Not many of these old places, most of the houses have people living in them.

Almond tree in bloom

Next we came across this tiny church off all on its own.  We parked a little down the road from it, and when I turned around this man had come out of the church with this ladder, there were not any houses too close to here, wonder how far he had to go

Next stop was a town where Andre read there was a bell tower, I know what that means we need to climb a bell tower.  Good news it is a short tower, bad news it sits above town so you need to walk up

Up the bell tower we go, but first we had to climb uphill to the Church from where I parked the car 

Wild sage everywhere

Church with the belltower that we climbed 

Somebodies backyard.

Along our drive we come across a sign to Minoan site from  around 2000BC.  We went down a tiny little road through town to find this site.  A woman followed us down when we parked the car, not sure we were supposed to go in, but she gave us our tickets after we paid our 2Euro entry fee.  Definitely no problem with crowds here, Andre signed the guest book, he wasn't sure when the last time someone was here.  There still seemed to be some digging going on, some has been excavated, but we were not allowed to take pictures.  Andre managed to get a couple through the gates.  Got to use a bathroom, stretch our legs for a bit, and we got a candy, so it was a nice break.  Absolutely no English spoken here, so didn't get an awful lot of education from the tour.  

On the drive to the Minoan site

Minoan site

Minoan Ruins

As we drive today we see many of these along the side of the road, at home we put up crosses as memorials along the side of the road, here it is much more elaborate 

We see a sign for a church and decide to stop. A very tiny church. Space for 1 pew.
Can't tell you more about it and can't find anything on the web either.

Tiniest church we have ever been in

Hungry for some lunch and we are having a hard time finding something open.  The car rental guy warned us we were headed off into the country and not much is open this time of year.  We tried a couple of spots but all closed.  Then we found a bakery and she had ham and cheese sandwiches, perfect.  But she would not let us sit on her chairs outside that were all in a pile.  Finally I clued in, take out only.  Even if every tourist stopped and ate here there might have been 5 of us, there are rules that should be able to be broken.  So off we go with our sandwiches to find a nice spot with a view.  I am seeing a trend in these pictures, I always seem to be eating.

Island in the background, we are getting closer to the water.

These guys are all over the place, goats and sheep, have to keep your eyes open they are often on the road as well with their shepherds moving them around 

Drive by shooting, no time to stop at all the churches we see.

We had thought of a couple of places we might like to stay tonight, the car rental guy suggest this place called Matala, a hippie town.  The caves along the beach were once occupied by hippies in the 60's and unfortunately we couldn't visit because of the virus, the sign said they were opening again April 1st, I doubt that very much.  Joni Mitchell spent time living in one of these caves.

Here a link about Joni and Matala.

https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/04/21/the-hippie-caves-of-matala-that-housed-joni-mitchell/

and one of her song about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR7AZVsOEYk

The restaurants are closed but people are using the table with stuff from the grocery store

The only hippy I saw.

We are now headed back towards home after deciding not to spend the night in Matala, maybe if the caves would have been open for us to sleep in.... This farmer was parked on the side of the road so picked up a bag of oranges from him

Our next stop is Agia Galini, a place that Andre was thinking we might spend the night but with everything shut down, a 20 minute visit was good enough.

More scenic drive home with no stop. Parked the car at the rental place and walked home. Some people milling around on the waterfront boardwalk and on the beach as it is around 20 degrees and sunny. Dropped off our stuff at the apartment Went for a walk around town but all the restaurants are closed unless they are doing takeout.

Saw 3 people on horseback. The ferry is also back in town.

Take out only.

As we walked by 1 restaurant advertising Creatan food we decided to order something. We got 2 stuffed peppers and a piece of eggplant with melted cheese on top. It came with French fries for about 10 Euros. It was delicious.