Hersonissos
Hello! It’s Lolly here. Stan asked me to write this part of his trip report. Everything that went wrong here were exclusively based on his decisions!
On Tuesday, May 18th we left Elounda after a romantic stay and drove to Hersonissos. Our friend Dimitris from Chania told us we were not going to like it there. But we are only staying three nights so how bad could it be? Besides, there is a really unique shoreline with the neatest small coves and nice beaches. We had visited a few years ago and wanted to return to that beach area.
We arrived after a hair-raising drive through tourist central. The place is packed with hotels, tavernas, bars, tattoo parlours, and strip clubs and tourists wandering around without shirts or shoes. Our hotel was right on the harbour in the middle of the action. It is an older hotel in the traditional style and we had a top floor room with a great view.
However, our cool beach was no where to be found. I was very suspicious that we were in the wrong place. I kept casting questioning glances at Stan who kept saying, “I’m sure this is the right town.” We walked a LONG time looking for our beach and finally stopped for a refreshment and did the return walk. When we got home – with sore feet - Stan discovered he had two identical Samsung cell phones, one in each pocket. We figured that the server must have put the phone down on the table and Stan must have picked it up by mistake! Oh dear! We’ll have to make the return walk the next day.
Dinner turned out to be delightful. We ate at Il Capino and were given free ouzo while we waited for a sea front table. Eggplant parmigiana, artichoke hearts in lemon sauce and mixed grill. We highly recommend this place. The main drag is very noisy but when we closed our patio door, we could almost not hear the music which turned off around 3 AM. The day ended on a happy note.
Up early and out for a beach day with chair rentals and the works. We are determined to find our special beach. At 10,000 steps we still hadn’t found it but had walked through several cool resorts with lots of facilities geared to families. The land forms on the beach further along were similar to what we were looking for and we found a nice spot. On the return hike we were able to return the cell phone. The server was so glad to get his phone back (he was going to buy a new one the next day) that we thought we might get free chairs and drinks on his beach the next day. So back we go again.
Dinner was a Zaeri. It is a beautifully appointed taverna and a wonderful dinner of a salad with fried flat cheese wedges, greens, walnuts, beets and figs. Moussakas in a little pot and Momma’s delicious custard baked in filo. Another winning taverna!
It was a dark and stormy morning! Our last day in Hersonissos turned out to be overcast and windy. Something like it was on Vancouver Island that day! I guess we really missed a wild one at home. What a change in weather! Dark clouds and wind howling. The sea was very active and we had fun watching crashing waves. We had a great walk up the main shopping street away from the tourist strip.
Hersonissos is not our style but the Greek people were just as friendly and warm as ever!
Oh. And by the way, the next day while studying a paper map we found the beach we were looking for and it was no where near Hersonissos.
Hersonissos https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720299848119