Our first stop in Greece is an AirBNB in Kolymvari. From here we go to a resort in Heraklion, then Naxos and finally Athens.
We picked Kolymvari as we wanted a place on the west side of Crete with a location good for exploring, and we didn't want to stay at a resort as we were trying to have a "Greek" experience (as we knew we would stay at a reort in Heraklion). I also needed very generous cancellation terms, and needed to hit a daily price point while finding ocean and pool access. The play in Kolyvari did everything for us.
Our place also gives us a side yard full of sheep (positive), and an electrical system that blows a fuse every time something is plugged in (negative). There is a Taverna about 500m down the beach, and two more within a 1km walk. The town is very quiet, and aside from some beach walkers we have the beach to ourselves.
Day 1: Friday July 1st
As we had no food, after waking up we headed to the Taverna down the beach. We learned that it, like almost everything else, opens at 9am. So we played in the water for a while, being careful not to get our only clothes soaked, until the Taveran opened.
After breakfast the necessity was to get some new clothes as we were starting to smell after travelling and sleeping in our clothes. We were told that the stores we needed were in Plantanias, abotu 20min drive east. We headed to the beach shops and valiantly tried to keep expenditures under the 30EUR/person the airline promised us for delayed luggage. While we massively missed the 30EUR/person target (and since the luggage showed up on day 3 we are pushing for 90EUR/person refund), we ended up with one bathing suit, one outfit, a beach towel and a pair of beach shoes each. We also acquired two floatie toys that Graham and Ruby spent an hour debating.
We wrapped up shopping around lunch so rather than heading back to Kolyvari we checked out the beach in Plantanias. There are a lot of smaller hotels, and the beach was full of umbrellas and deck chairs operated either by hotels or restaurants. We grabbed an open umbrella and quickly tried out our new beach gear. Everyone was so happy to be at the Sea and finally feel like we reached Greece. After many bumps and bruises from being thrashed by the waves, multiple sunscreen reapplications, a couple of Gyros, lots of Fanta and a few Mythos, we realized it was 4pm and probably time to head back to Kolyvari.
The waitress at breakfast told us about Friday live music at the Taverna (and all Taverna's apparently), so we headed back up the beach and ended up with a great sunset view while listening to the music and watching the middle-aged ladies dance around the restaurant.
Day 2: Surfing
I wish we had the water proof camera set up for Surfing. We took a lesson as a family. Ruby was a little freaked out by the idea and mostly just hung out on her board, I fell over a lot, and Graham and Emilie found something they are awesome at. They were both naturals. It's hard to explain how excited I was to see Graham stand up and ride waves, almost from the first one. The beach they took us to had a sandbar a bit off shore so the instructor was able to get everyone positioned well and pick good waves for us.
We went into Chania for lunch and decided we are happy we are staying in Kolymvari as it was very crowded. Seafood was tasty and we ate too much, but we also found out that our luggage had arrived and was waiting for us at one of the Taverna's in town.
Day 3: Hanging Around the House
We decided that we needed a chill day where we didn't need to drive, so we hung around the AirBNB and took advantage of the sea out the back door and pool across the street. We still managed to get in a couple meals at the Tavernas, and the kids discovered a new brand of pre-packed Ice Cream cone called "Grosso." I'm not sure what was intended in the naming, but it is certainly a "Grosso" amount of ice cream.
The wind started to pick up so we couldn't swim in the sea.
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