[June 2025] Next up on our tour of the inland eastern Crete, Greece, was lunch.
Expectations were high after the excellent lunch on our last tour, but this time was a disappointment.
We were asked to choose our main course, and we chose pork, but what was served was a thick bacon and it was tough and underwhelming.
We were also served the usual tzatziki and salad, but the quality and quantity were nowhere near what we had last time.
After lunch, we went to a pottery shop near the restaurant.
We watched a demonstration, tried a bit of making a small pot, received it, and bought a plate.
I remember being urged to buy something there.
Psichro seems to be the name of the area.
There’s apparently a cave where Zeus was born, but we didn’t go.
Instead, we went to see a plane tree that’s said to be 2,400 years old.
The 24-meter tree was only slightly impressive, but the village of Krasi, where it’s located, had a nice, run-down feel to it.
This village is less tourist-oriented than Kritsa, with nothing but an old laundry.
An old man was sleeping by the roadside.
Many of the houses were in ruins, exposing the reality of depopulation.
That was the tour’s final destination, but since some of our group members happened to be staying at a hotel in Elounda, our guide George took us down a side street to a great vantage point overlooking Spinalonga Island.
The view was much better than the spot we’d visited in Trenino a few days earlier.
Apparently, the hotel next door to the one the elderly couple were staying at is frequented by celebrities, including Moroccan princes.
The price per night is exorbitant (I forget the exact figure).
Apparently, these celebrities spend their entire holidays without ever leaving their hotels.
Oh, and another thing I learned on this tour was about carats.
The carab plant has sweet fruit that was once eaten as a substitute for chocolate.
The carat (1 carat = 0.2 grams), the unit of measurement for diamonds and other gemstones, apparently comes from carab.
That’s because each carab seed weighs a uniform 0.2 grams.
Well, it’s not exactly a useful fact to know, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
