Crete - Rethymno, fortress

 

Morning coffee on the balcony and I can see the fortress

to the East of us. After breakfast we set off to walk to it.

There's a couple of derelict factories, with chimneys, along the shore in front of us. I will have to find out what I can about them.

Looking back up at our place, we are not the top floor but the next one down with the big balcony.

We walked down to the shore then along towards the fortress.

The Venetians tended to put these at the corners of their fortresses. Over the years I have sketched, or painted,  so many of them.

Hooded crow foraging in the rocks, just beyond the surf.

A shrine where they feed the cats.

We were walking around the seaward side of the fortress. I am sure that restaurant does a bustling trade in the summer, closed now. Little chapel above.

Its a huge fortress, seems to go on

forever.

We finally made it all the way around to the entrance, which faces the old town.

No one was there to charge us, just a sign on the big door that it was closed at 16.00.

Views of the town.

Used for concerts and events.

It's a huge fort, these little lookouts at each corner.

Most of the area inside the walls was rubble

with a few buildings remaining (this was a church then a mosque)

One area had some excavated storage and guard houses.

Out of the fortress and down into the "old town".

The narrow streets were pretty empty

apart from the season, it was also Monday, so most of the shops were closed.

It is the main tourist area but it is also a vital community itself with produce stores, bakeries

butchers and fishmongers, all catering to the locals.

We wandered the narrow streets

until we got hungry

and stopped at a little restaurant that just had a few tables and chairs out in the street. Half a carafe of red wine (I love it when its served in a pottery jug)

and a mixed platter of Cretan specialties, to share. The sausages were delicious and very flavourful, the little red pepper was stuffed with 3 different kinds of cheeses, chicken and leek stew, pickled onion, dolmades, tomato salad, goat cheese and Graviera cheese, boiled potatoes, olives.

Then, as is often done in traditional Greek restaurants, she bought out a complimentary dessert - yogurt with watermelon rind in a honey syrup.

The picture says it all.

This is a big bag of greens at a produce stand. On that lunch platter there had been some greens. They tasted quite strong and a bit bitter and when I asked the waitress she just called them "greens" and said they were a mixture of plants usually picked wild.

Wes topped for some groceries on the way home and then clambered back up to our place. Over 10,000 steps and slept like a log!