Dec. 24, 2012
I’d have to say that this was one of the highlights of our days on Crete.
this maps out the route we took. Highly recommend going through one of the gorges on the island! Well worth the trip.
It would surprise no one that knows us that we ‘happened’ up a brewery while on Crete. We literally were driving down a road and saw a sign for it. I immediately pulled over anxious to let Harry try a micro brew while in Greece. However to our disappointment this is what the sign read when we got to the front door:
so sad that we could not go on a tour!
Brewery tours are possible every first Saturday of the month between 10:00 and 12:00 in the morning. As you can imagine, that is now when we were there so no beer tasting for us!
we could see that there was sunshine on the south part of the island and we were excited to get to it!
hard for a picture to show the gorge but it was incredible.
We drove from our place in Almyrida towards Rethymno and then turned inland. We proceeded to the village of Alikianos and Aghia Irini. This was the Gorge of Kourtaliotiko
the river running out of the gorge
(or so we think that is the one, there were not a lot of maps, so this information comes from the sweet woman, Yarniss that helped us with our rental car). It possibly could have been the Selia Gorge, but regardless it was amazing!
rainbow!
looking back on Mirthianos Plakias
We even picked up a few hitch hikers along the way. They only rode about 5 miles with us, one of them was Greek the other from England. We took them to Mirthianos Plakias their final destination and we continued to Hora Sfakion a BEAUTIFUL coastal town.
looking towards the west
though we loved Crete it did rain many of the days we were there, so the sunshine made us smile!
It was Christmas Eve and our last day on Crete. We stopped for dinner at a delightful family owned restaurant where we were treated as special guests. We had fantastic meals, one lamb with yogurt and one lamb with onions. They also brought us the best garlic bread we’ve ever had and then Christmas cookies for dessert.
best garlic bread EVER
What a delightful experience. (see post on trip advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g2396903-d2362913-Reviews-Taverna_Nikos-Sfakia_Chania_Prefecture_Crete.html)
Hora Sfakion was a tourist town and for the most part closed down for the winter, but we had a nice time there and a great dinner!
We headed back through another gorge towards Almyrida and marveled at the drive once again. There were many, many winding roads and a beautiful sunset as we got near the top.
We would highly recommend this drive to anyone that has a car and is interested in seeing some beautiful scenery.
look at those cuts into the mountain
- up close view of the gorge
look at these winding roads, we did not think it was our road, but in the end it was!
amazing sun set
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