Crete - Sitia to Agios Nikolaos

The visitor can see everywhere the holy tree of Athena with the silver -green leaves standing there playing with the wind and receiving in rest the hot sun rays, transforming its juice to the magical elixir of life and health, the olive oil. From cretesitia.gr

 We had driven past Agios Nikolaos (Saint Nickolas) on our way to Sitia and drove back today to take a look.

First we followed signs we had seen to an archaeological site just east of Sitia. A narrow road, of course, and we found it in a location that allowed visual communication with the fortress at Sitia.

 

Unfortunately the gates were locked and it had a sign saying the site was closed. What a pity, as I could see there were information boards in there!

Just one board out by the tower entrance.

The road west gave us views of the coast and, frequently, views of the snow capped mountains of the interior.

This little roadside church, snugged into the side of the hill,

advertised outdoor cooking courses.

This might be considered a "seaview", but it was a "peeview" (when you gotta go....)

We took the "old road" in, rather than the new highway, and it took us directly in to the harbour area. Hungry, we stopped for lunch. Ever adventurous we had a club sandwich and a greek salad (guess who had which). The guy serving, in his 70s at least, was also cooking, with his brother, similar age. We were in no hurry, luckily, and I sketched. I made the mistake of asking for a white wine and got half a carafe. Sad but I couldn't finish it .... driving.

Had to walk the docks.

Lots of pleasure yachts and a smattering of working fishing boats.

So colourful and covered in buoys and nets.

Some big boats that obviously need some work and

some, traditional, wooden boats getting the work they needed.

Makes me think more of a marmalade sandwich than of a sailboat.

From the harbour (left of the map) we walked across to the "lake" and then along the sea front (right/top of the map). Then around the bottom and back to the marina.

Tug on the opposite side of the pier where the cruise boats come in.

"The lake", it is actually open to the sea through a narrow passage under a bridge.

Looking back at one point I noticed this sculpture.

Zeus, the chief god in Greek mythology, spent his infancy on the island of Crete. He was nourished by milk from a goat called Amalthea. Zeus accidentally broke off one of his nurse's horns. He blessed the horn so that it would always be full of what its owner desired. So came into being the concept of Amalthea's horn, the Cornucopia or in English the 'horn of plenty' - a symbol of abundance.
Speculation: The Minoan diet included octopus which was plentiful in the surrounding waters, and images of those creatures appear often in their art work. Is this why the sculptors, Nikos and Pandelis Sotiriadi, have made the horn of plenty resemble a tentacle? From ipernity.com

Driving, we kept seeing this sign. An exclamation point denotes a dangerous situation not otherwise indicated by a road sign.

Sitia - living in an olive orchard.

After the day of driving and touring places we decided to have a restful day at home. The house we are staying in is just outside of Sitia, about a 5 minute drive down farm roads and finally a dirt track.

We park between rows of olive trees and then walk down to the house which is surrounded by them.

There is a patio and a balcony, so we can see more olive trees

and long rows of bee hives (lots of local honey available in the stores)

After breakfast we walked out our laneway and turned up through the orchards, dirt track all the way with occasional houses and/or farm buildings.

These olive trees are obviously in production, they are taken care of, harvested and irrigated. There are old channels that used to be used for irrigation

There are also old concrete pipes but now all the trees are fed with black pipe irrigation.

Its pretty complicated getting all the different areas irrigated

you also can't drive over the pipes!

We walked up hill for about half an hour and there was a water tank at the top. Irrigation is probably gravity fed from there.

 The olive's fruit, also called an "olive", is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil; it is one of the core ingredients in Middle Eastern cuisine and Mediterranean cuisine. Thousands of cultivars of the olive tree are known. Olive cultivars may be used primarily for oil, eating, or both. Olives cultivated for consumption are generally referred to as "table olives".^[4] About 80% of all harvested olives are turned into oil, while about 20% are used as table olives. from Wikipedia

As far as the eye can see.

The olive plant was first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean regions.^[25][35]

 Olives are thought to have been domesticated in the third millennium BC at the latest, at which point they, along with grain and grapes, became part of Colin Renfrew's Mediterranean triad of staple crops that fueled the emergence of more complex societies.^[51] Olives, and especially (perfumed) olive oil, became a major export product during the Minoan and Mycenaean periods.

Spain accounts for almost half of global olive oil production; other major producers are Portugal, Italy, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey.^[102] Per capita consumption is highest in Greece, followed by Italy and Spain.^{[103] from Wikipedia}

^{Further internet research indicates that picked unripe olives are yellow to green and when ripe they are brown to purple. All the table olives have to be fermented to make them palatable and then pickled. Olives are harvested in the fall and early winter (which explains why there are none on the trees now) by shaking the tree and using nets on the ground to collect them.}

The olive trees here are all in the process of being pruned. All are pretty well the same height and lower branches and "suckers" are being cut of. The trimmings are then left to dry out in between the rows or we have seen pick-up trucks full, maybe to feed to goats.

In one area where the olive trees were still young, lavender and rosemary was being grown in between the rows. I picked some of the lavender, loving having the smell in the house.

A guard cat

We were lucky enough to see a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth. Their wing are so fast, like a hummingbird, that they just are a blur in the photo.

The hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of hawk moth found across temperate regions of Eurasia. The species is named for its similarity to hummingbirds, as they feed on the nectar of tube-shaped flowers using their long proboscis while hovering in the air. from Wikipedia.

Collecting nectar, just like a hummingbird.

View from the top, looking down over the olives to Sitia and the bay.

Coming back down to the house we could just see the top floor.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and painting on the patio and Rick walked into town and back (had a beer at the harbour to refuel)

Crete - east of Sitia continued, Toplou Monastery.

 We drove back towards Sitia in a tour bus sandwich,( buses to left of us, buses to right of us ....) and when we got to the monastery..

we were greeted by about 15 buses, parked in the lot designated for them and all along the road too. The car parking lot was nearly empty.

The crowds (all those buses must have been full) were streaming into the main church so we could look at this little chapel,

the windmill (there is a spring on site)

 

the pretty gardens

and courtyards, in peace.

The monastery is dedicated to Panagia (Virgin Mary) and St. John the Theologian. The monastery, especially the main building, is a composite of structures resulting from its frequent destruction and consequent rebuilding. from Wikipedia

The monastery owns a huge amount of land out towards the Eastern cape and sells olive oil and wine from its own agricultural area. On investigating, on line, why it was so busy I found that the day was a festival for Saint Isadore who appeared at the eastern end of Crete. His pilgrims bring wild greens and we saw some picking dandelion leaves and other greens along the sides of the roads.

The monastery itself looks more like a fortress. Once we got through the door it was wall to wall people and we turned around and decided we would maybe come back another day to see the actual cloister and chapel.

Bit of a step down for the "hero-monks" to now sell olive oil and wine to the tourists.

Crete - east of Sitia continued, Itanos

 We left Vai and continued east looking for an archaeological site that was indicated on the road map.

This was about it for the signage. No info boards, piles of rubble, outlines of walls and buildings - just a hint of what had been a large and vital settlement.

Image and text from Crete-today.com

Itanos flourished in the historic Greek and Roman period. It was established in the Prehellenic period. Itanos became powerful and wealthy from conducting trade with Syria, Palestine and Libya. The city had its own coins and buildings covered with marble.

This was the most complete building.

So many different colours in the stones.

Situated between 2 protected coves and with a good view of the coast. There was also a small patch of arable land in the valley behind. It answered Rick's question "Why here?"

This had a sign that said "Basilica" but the web sites call it an Acropolis. We were amazed at the marble - where did it come from, how was it transported here? The shape was definitely of a Christian church, a cross.

We could see Rick's "nudist beach" from here but not Vai, it was tucked into a cove.

 We could see tour buses on the road that continued east but there was nothing indicated there on the map so we didn't go any further and turned back to look at the monastery we had passed on the way out.

Simon Paul Joynes - May 25, 1958 - February 4, 2024

 

My brother, Simon died yesterday. That's him in the picture above, in the blue cap, either at the start or end of a race. He loved sailing, especially helming, said that the focus needed drove all other thoughts or stresses from his mind. He loved his wife, Daniele (she's also in the photo above), his daughter, Fiona, his dogs. He loved to read and to drive his convertible. He loved the view from his new home on the lake.

Crete - East of Sitia. Vai

We set out today to explore the area east of Sitia. This photo is looking back at the bay and the town of Sitia. We drove through olive groves and small villages and then up into high hills on switch back roads.

 

The hills are rocky and covered with low scrub. We saw sheep and goats grazing but didn't think there was much nourishment to be had. Then down into some small valleys with crops and vineyards and then turned off towards Vai beach and we were in the "famous" palm forest.

There were 3 huge tour busses there when we arrived, spewing their Greek passengers into the road to walk down to the beach. We turned around and drove back up the road to find a place to park. They didn't stay for long but were replaced regularly. Sunday must be bus tour day for Eastern Crete.

Vai is a lovely, secluded beach with just one restaurant (closed for the winter). Most of the bus passengers walked to the edge, some among the palms, and then back to the bus. We walked on the beach (2 people swimming) and then up to the start of a trail.

The rock formations here were fascinating, some shale like, some veins of white quartz, various colours.

Rick said he knocked a couple of things off his (non existent) bucket list today .... the first was seeing a vertical isocline fold and

the second was going to a nudist beach.

I walked the trail for a way and then sat and enjoyed the view while Rick continued down to the beach.

Goats on the opposite hill.

He waved from down there

and I waved from up here.