Fodele and Crete

Loving Crete, and our village here of Fodele.  

Saturday, almost a week ago now, we had our “Day of Six Modes of Transportation!”  That morning we left our Venice apartment at about 8:30, and walked with our bags about half a kilometer to our vaporetto bus-boat stop at S. Pietro, and took the boat for 40 minutes to the Venice train station.   We then took a 9:50 train to Milan, and after an hour or two at the open market adjacent to the train station, we took a bus from the train station to the Milan airport.   From Milan, we flew to Athens, and then on to Heraklion, the main city here on Crete, arriving Heraklion at about 11:30 pm.   We then rented a car, and drove 40 minutes, getting a little lost, from Heraklion to our little village of Fodele, population 600.   It was almost 1 in the morning when we parked our car in the center of the village, and I found a flashlight and wandered through the park-playground adjacent to the parking area and across a river, searching for the promised little path that would lead us to our townhouse, and finding it after about a 15 minute hunt.

Our townhouse is two stories with a roof-deck, in a little development called Mandarin Grove, all occupied by English residents and tourists.   It is not on any street, but surrounded by orange groves, you can only get here by walking up the path from the village.   Next to us are Helen and Ken, who manage things here, and they have been super friendly.  They share their DVDs with us, and it is great– Helen manages a little touristy shop in the village, and introduces us to people.   Here at Mandarin Grove there is also a small, pleasant but unheated, swimming pool, and we often eat our meals by the pool.

The village just has one main street, and another side street leading up to the El Greco birthplace and museum. Tuesday we walked up the road to the site, and were excited to learn even more about El Greco watching a video about his life.   It explained that he was born here in Fodele, then lived in Venice, then Rome, and finally most of his maturity in Toledo, Spain– and as they explained all this, Nate exclaimed– hey, we have been to all these places!   

The street is pedestrian friendly except for the occasional teenagers, who look like they are 14, who race through in pickup truck or ATV.   Lining the street are tourist shops, selling lace and macrame items, and cafes– we have settled into be regulars already at Cafe Domenico (picture left), run by Smoothy George.  It is a little place with tables over the river, and at least once a day we take a

 meal there at the same table, and enjoy wonderful homecooked greek food and wine or beer, never paying more than 30 euros a meal.   We have had Cretan salads and mousakka and gyros and omelettes and it is all wonderful.   Smoothy George always come over and kisses Carman twice, or more(!), on the cheek, and tells us about his years working for the US Air Force, and about his wife Eva whom he married out of high school and makes the food in the kitchen while he entertains in front.   He always gives us freebies and extras, and it is pretty fun.  

The village is in a little canyon, surrounded by beautiful hills, and there are nature paths and hikes up the river and out of the canyon.  Two or three kilometers down the road is the beach, which is a top Cretan beach, and is wonderful. We take some of the freely available umbrellas and lounge chairs, sometimes lunch at the adjacent restaurant, and swim, read, and sand castle build to our heart’s content.    One day I rented a little sunfish and sailed for an hour. 

So far, after six days here, we have only done one real outing, spending Wednesday morning at the famous ruins of Knossos, the Minoan capital that is so renowned for its high living in the second millennium BC, roughly 1800 to 1400 BC.    This is the palace of the legendary Labyrinth, and a place of luxury and grandeur previously unknown, including flush toilets. We toured for about two hours, and thought it was hot, we really enjoyed it.  

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