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| View of Mirabello Bay |
The heat is on. Israeli summer this year went overboard. The sun is
scorching and temperature rises as everything here seems to come to a boiling
point. It is never easy nor peaceful in this corner of the world so a heat wave
doesn't have any cooling effect. This
year's family vacation was in perfect timing. We all needed to get away for a
little while and cool off. We spent 5 days in the lovely Greek island of
Crete. It is a short flight from here
and yet feels like a different world. Although it's the same Mediterranean Sea
we have at home, in Crete the views are different.
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| The Island of Spinalonga |
The Aegean Sea comes in shades of deep
blue and turquoise and the water is crystal clear. Only the tiniest part of the
Israeli coast line looks like this and it is under constant threat of
disappearing under hotels built by greedy contractors.
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| Tiny European cars |
After a couple of days of just lazing by the poolside we hired a car and
went to explore the island. Driving a ridiculously small automobile we went to
lovely places like the Mirabello Bay ("the beautiful bay" really deserves
its name), there we settled for a few hours in the picturesque village Plaka and
ate a wonderful fish dinner.
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| Great food in Plaka |
We took the boat to the former leper's colony
Spinalonga which is now a huge tourist attraction. We went to see the remains
of the amazing ancient Minoan Culture at The Palace of Malia. We even went to
the beach, the sea was calm, clean sand and no jellyfish were lurking in the
crystalline water. Perfect.
Although we had a wonderful time the effects of the economic calamity in
Greece couldn't be ignored. Many places were closed for business even in the
height of the season. It was sad. I hope
things will improve for the Greeks.
We spent 5 short days on Crete, a very short time that left us with a lot to see next time.
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