Days out between Christmas and New Year

28^th DECEMBER

After another day of heavy rain the sun was shining so we made a decision to go out and enjoy the weather. I still wanted to see the snow on top of the mountains but again low cloud, especially to the East, prevented us from seeing very much.  However by the time we left ‘Creta Spirit, it had begun to rain again but still with brilliant sunshine we saw a rainbow as we climbed up the back road to Sellia.  With all the heavy rain the winding road up the hillside was littered with pebbles and mud across the road in several places, not to mention the rocks that had also fallen down.  In Sellia, where it was busy with many cars parked in the village square including a large wagon, it made it difficult to see if there was any approaching traffic as we emerged into the square from a very narrow section of the road taking us past some of the houses. (Theo had told us about a couple that were out in their car, when they came to a junction the husband asked his wife if there was a car coming.  She replied “no” and so he pulled out into the road and got hit by a tractor. Naturally the husband was fuming and said “you said there was nothing coming”.  “You only asked if a car was coming, nothing else”).

We ended up in Chora Sfakion and had lunch in the harbour side taverna, that is open every day, enjoying pleasant sunshine and a temperatureof 17C. 

On our way home we encountered a couple of men just about to slaughter a sheep on the roadside in a village and in Rodakino a family had gathered for a barbeque.  They were stood dressed in their winter coats and hats in a storage area again by the roadside, the carcass hanging from a large hook and were slicing pieces of meat off and throwing it on to their homemade barbeque. We have also come across pedestrian crossings in two villages, one crossing only leading to a rock face! 

Black clouds still hung around the mountains and so we seemed to encounter the rainbow most of our way home.  It took us a while to come home as I wanted to stop for yet another photo shoot of the rainbow in various locations.  It’s a good job Keith has plenty of patience.   

MONDAY 29^th DECEMBER

As it is sunnier in the east, and raining in Plakias, we decided to return to Ag.Galini, another holiday destination further down the coast from Plakias.  Our journey of about 45 minutes took us through several inland villages, and on this occasion passing mountains with waterfalls and snow, and all in the sunshine.   

Arriving in Ag. Galini we parked on the harbour top as usual and went for a walk through the streets.  This meant climbing up many steps and narrow roads before crossing over the main road into the village to see what was on the other side. Amongst the holiday accommodationwe came across a house where the owner had chickens in a room on the street level.  The adjoining rooms appeared to be quite old too. 

Across the road we passed the school and reaching the end of the village had a wonderful view of the snow capped mountains now that the cloud was beginning to lift. As we returned we met an English couple who were renovating an old building close to the school.  This project had already been in progress for 2 years with what seemed like very little to show for it apparently due to paper work and Albanian builders, who always seemed to be working somewhere else, like today when they should have been working on their house!

Back on the harbour top we stopped at the only bar that was open being in no hurry to finish our drinks as we sat outside in the pleasant sunshine.