Crete, Kriti or Κρήτη, it’s bigger than you think. (May 2012)

The fact that it took 30 minute to drive from the airport, in Heraklion (Heraclion or Iraklion) to our hotel in Piskopiano, should have been an indication.

Crete is a large island, in fact the largest of the Greek islands measuring 8,336 square kilometers.

Although tourism plays an important part in the economy of Crete, it isn’t reliant on it and there’s evidence of industry and agriculture is everywhere.

There is also a very prominent mountain range, with the last of the Winter snow still clinging to the peaks.

It’s size was further confirmed when we hired a car and spent two days driving east and then southwest and didn’t seem to get anywhere.

We drove about 400km and barely went beyond the olive groves. As Crete is one of the largest producers of extra virgin olive oil, there may not be be much more to see in rural Crete.

We decided that getting a GPS would be a good investment in efficiency and our relationship, as we did get a little lost in both Jordan and Turkey.

Wrong.

To make it easy for the illiterate tourist, most road signs in Crete are written in the Greek and Roman alphabets.

The trouble comes when you have to type the destination into your GPS.

What spelling do you use?

Most towns seem to have at least two or more ways of spelling their name and that’s separate from the original Greek.

You often see one spelling going into a village and a different one on the way out.

Despite being such a large island, and the centre of the Minoans, one of the first high culture civilizations in Europe, I didn’t take a lot of snaps.

We were here to have rest from history, culture and photography.

 

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