The road from Iraklio to Rethymno is fantastic, there is sea on one side, mountains on the other, colourful oleanders on the both sides of the road… breathtaking.. On the way to Rethymno do not hesitate to stop in Sissi… You cannot go to Rethymno without passing it anyway.. Once you will see the Sissi sign, straight away you will notice local people selling oranges - 5kg/5 Euro, juicy and yummy :) once you are pumped up with vitamine C, stop at the beach in Bali. There are 4 little bays. First is the biggest one and you will see it as soon as you will enter Bali. My favourite is the fourth bay, a little more difficult to find, but worth the effort. Small sandy beach in a bay with crystal blue water.. When you will get hungry there is a great taverna in the shadow of the trees just few steps from the beach.
Next place to stop is 18 km from Rethymno. A scenic mountain road will lead you to Arcadi Monastery -Crete's eternal symbol of freedom. on this website you can find some history which will explain you why this place is so important for the Cretan freedom and what exactly happened there http://www.stigmes.gr/br/brpages/articles/arkadi.htm. At the moment there are still some nuns living in there… some cats as well:) The architecture is amazing, the yard inside the monastery is nicely decorated with flowers… you can never tell that it actually hides some of very painful historical moments for Cretan nation.
If you want to have a better look at the cretan life in the traditional villages further away from the sea, it’s worth visiting Anogia and closeby villages like Axos, Zoniana, Livadia. Anogia is known as a place of wealthy sheep breeders. But from locals we found out that their money has nothing to do with the sheep and in Crete I guess it’s a public secret what exactly they do, but we were very curious to actually go there and check it out by ourselves. As for an inland village they are building new big houses, on the road you will not see any old car… all huge pick-ups… we have seen only men wearing black trousers and boots and shirts… almost like in the postcards… on some of the houses we have seen painted guns and knives. Well every self respected cretan man actually owns at least one gun, so it didn’t surprise us. When we have seen a group of boys passing us by playing with lets hope toy guns, we got a little scared haha So decided not to intrude anymore their life and move to another village Zoniana.
Next to Zoniana there is the biggest cave in Crete called Sfendoni Cave. Impressive for those who enjoy seeing stalactites and stalagmites.. So as it was the biggest cave in Crete we of course had to go there and see. So we did. And then continued to Livadia and Axos. On the way to Livadia we have seen some road signs with bullet holes… It used to be a wedding tradition as we were told to shoot at the road signs.. Overall it was a very interesting journey just to see these villages of Crete where they keep their old traditions and are famous for their militancy.
Around 30km south from Rethymno there is another great place called Lappa. The road to Lappa goes through some traditional small villages among which we have lost our way a little. But I guess this is one thing you should never worry about as local people are always happy to help you out… in greek of course.. but the international body language will do as well:) Shortly once you will lose your way, do not hesitate to ask. In Lappa you will find the natural cosmetics shop Lappa Avocado. If you do not know where to go further, just ask in the shop which way to go, you will be provided with detailed information. After the sightseeing in Lappa you can relax a little by having a seat in one of few tavernas among the waterfalls… Extremely refreshing:)
I shouldn’t forget to mention the only freshwater nature lake in the island – Kournas lake. It is on the way from Rethymno to Chania, right before Georgioupolis. You will be able to enjoy an extraordinary landscape of the lake surrounded by the hills from one of the cafes near Kournas. If you will go down to the lake, make sure you will take a waterbike and have a tour around the lake. Most probably you will be told to look for the turtles that are supposed to live there… Not sure if there are any… but at least it gives you some sort of goal for the waterbike ride:) There live some water snakes though:)
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