The best laid plans... - Those truckers!!

By now we should have been in France!

We are - in fact - still in Fuerteventura!

We spent ten days as planned here:- quite a bit of business, several very pleasant sessions with old friends and very little sunbathing! The weather was very disappointing for a week:- in fact on many days it was better in UK! Amongst the more interesting events was discovering the theft of a saddle etc from one of our bikes stored in the communal garage. We then saw it under a pile of bike parts in another parking space. Thus we embarked on our first engagement with the Spanish practice of "denouncing"! We confronted the neighbour with that parking spot, e-mailed the administrator (Ruth's denouncing Spanish coming on a treat!) and contacted our community's president.

In the last few days the weather improved, but news did not! Yesterday we realised we were going to have a problem or two if we went as planned to Girona to pick up a car with only a third of a tank of diesel and drive to Perpignan. Catalunya was being cited as one of the worst-hit areas for diesel shortage, and the crossings to France had horrendous tailbacks. This is all related to the lorry drivers' strike over fuel. There is talk of a general strike and food shortage. Nonetheless we packed, cleared foodstuff and had a farewell meal. This morning we checked the situation and decided an hour before the planned departure that we couldn't risk it!

So here we are, sitting it out in rather comfortable conditions with no particular place to go! Watch this space!

Swan Lake!

After picking up the car at Marseille on 21st May we had just 10 minutes' drive to the pre-booked hotel, but en route we passed a very long queue at a petrol station and then sat for half an hour on a slip road. At the hotel the reason became clear:- the fishermen's blockade of fuel depots! A bit of a panic! Not enough diesel to get far the next day - but if we stayed, probably no room for the next night!
As it happened we found diesel the next morning and got to Canet Plage, near Perpignan. We chose the lavish 4* site of Le Brasilia and just managed to erect the tent before some light rain started. The next few days were very wet and windy - but we did get a reasonably pleasant half-day in the hillside town of Ceret (Picasso & Dali connections) and the servicing of the bikes. On the Sunday - with constant downpours and a terrible forecast - we booked into one of the site's bungalows. The price had gone down for that week and it was a good deal. Ours was named Le Cygne (The Swan) and from the relative comfort we could watch the lake develop outside.

It was Mothers' Day in France and we celebrated our salvation with a cake!

The foul weather went on for several days! At 3am on morning we were woken by a storm of huge hailstones on the metal roof!

Anyway! Canet Plage is a pleasant resort with a very long beach, lake and marina. We did a cycle ride to Perpignan and back, discovering that the cycle path is only partially complete leaving very hazardous patches which we reported to the Tourism Office!

The city has an ancient centre and a magnificent Palace of the Kings of Majorca.

Towards the end of the week the rain stopped andwe managed some time round (but not in!) the pool. On Saturday we decamped and drove to Girona by a scenic (i.e. scary!) route. There we parked up the car and stayed overnight in a hotel very close to the airport. Just as well! Next morning it was pelting with rain for our walk to the terminal - and again to get on the plane we waded through ankle deep water as the rain continued!

May flies!

Paleochora gradually awkened during mid-May. The ranks of sunbeds were put in place everywhere except in the naturist area. Stavros opened his grill house on a frightful wet and cold evening when no-one wanted to be on the stony side, but was very busy from the next night on. Notable arrivals were Jim and Susan from Wales, and Sam the poet, who couldn't come last year but was very chirpy and just about coping with his total smoking ban! The sea even became bearable in temperature!

We went twice to the taverna at Gramenon with Alain and Pascale - first for their special pilafi, and second for an octopus that we had seen caught.

We needed to get back to Marseille, so found a very cheap charter single flight from Chania to Gatwick. We went by train and bus to Clapham Common, stayed in a cheap hotel, had a couple of pints of Youngs at The Windmill, went to get post from the Balham house, visited the estate agent who had just found us new very keen tenants, took a train to Victoria, a coach to Stansted and a Ryanair flight to Marseille. There we found the car, which strted first time!! So smooth! Nineteen hours on UK soil!

Kandanos :- Cyber- & Eco-village

We were invited by Alain & Pascale to eat at their favourite taverna in their home village of Kandanos.
It is the "capital" of the district of Selino - our own - and lies inland on the main Chania road. The road is being heavily modernised with straightening measures such as huge bridges and cuttings. The project is running over by several years and meanwhile the drive can be described as hairy and bumpy!

Most tourists pass through Kandanos without stopping. If they are German this is probably a good thing! The whole village was destroyed in 1941 as a reprisal. There is more on this war crime on http://www.explorecrete.com/history/battle-crete-chronicle.htm

These days it is remarkable for its progressive (Pasok) mayor - one of whose skills is getting rich people to donate for good causes. In the last week we have seen the whole village become a Wifi hotspot, and each schoolchild plant a tree by the side of the Chania road - which they will tend over the years!

The village is demographically challenged - having a disproportionate number of elderly bachelors! Soula at the taverna - herself over 70 - cooks for them, and she is a fine cook and affable hostess!

Gathering the May

On May 1st it is traditional to collect wild flowers and decorate your home and car to bring luck. This is our modest little posy!



We were stunned by the number of people in town yesterday. We deduced that there were mostly day-trippers down from Chania for this Bank Holiday, coming so soon after Easter and with no religious and family requirements. It was also a lovely sunny day!




Several places opened for the first time on either Wednesday or yesterday. Notable examples are Zygos, The Crocodile, and The Oriental Bay.



On the beach new set of sunbeds appeared at the Castello end, and the exposed plates of rock at the edge of the sea are very slowly getting a sand covering.

The sea is still pretty cold, but some intrepid folk do go in!

The evenings are also chilly and fleeces were needed last night at Skala for the live rock band event!

"Kalo Pascha!"

That's "Happy Easter"!


Today is Easter Sunday, which is the most significant day - for both religion and culture - in Greece! There is an excellent account of the reason why its date differs from that in Western Europe, and the various customs on


http://www.sfakia-crete.com/sfakia-crete/greekeaster.html


As "born-again atheists" we have a spot of bother with the Orthodox Church, but can handle "quaint community customs" so went out on the evening of Good Friday to see the procession!

We couldn't get a straight answer as to when it might happen, so we sat at Coconuts near the Church and waited. After some bells we saw a good crowd of locals (women in black!) come down from the church and thought we must have missed it. At about this time Judith turned up. She nannies in Athens for grandchildren of John Humphreys (Radio 4) and used to live and work here. Chatting to her took us through to the point when suddeny two police officers in smart winter uniform turned up to ensure appropriate respect for the procession which then arrived!
It must have gone out through the back exit, but was now ready to go up the main street to the church. The focus is the "epitaph" - the symbolic bier of Christ (as in this archive shot) - covered in petals - and a couple of hundred village people follow it on its journey round town. Plenty of chanting and incense..!
Women continue to wear black and the fasting continues until midnight on Saturday. At this point everyone goes to the Church again to await the arrival of the "holy fire". This really does involve the whole village - most in the street outside! We took down the little lantern found in the apartment so that we might have a chance of keeping a candle alight in the appalling cold and strong wind we have had for a couple of days! At the point when the priest knocks on the door and starts the fire thing there is a firework display from the fortezza, and "Judas" is burned on a bonfire as the bells ring out! Quite moving stuff - whatever you do or don't believe - and we received our fire from Stephanie - and got a wedding invitation from Katerina! The candle went out in the kafenion an hour later!
There is then a certain amount of "kafenion-life" including festive bread for those who have just broken their Lent fast and the infedils who have had a few already! As we went home we felt the first of the predicted rain.
We awoke to bad weather again!
Lamb is the thing everywhere on Easter Sunday. We marinated a modest leg that turned out to be exquisite, whilst families spit-roast a whole animal outside filling the air with a great smell; and Barry & Jenny serve lamb dishes for the waifs and strays. We had starters with them and saw the weather improve before returning to have our own roast.
Greek TV - which had done several days of biblical epics - delivers"Pirates of the Caribbean"- and all is well with the World!

Calypso - Collapso!

The sainted Mick conveyed a message that Barry & Jenny at the Calypso had their Friday out-of-season social that evening, so we went! The great and the good and some of the rest of Paleochora's anglophone residents were there and we got our first sighting of the brand new Calypso! - It is two doors away from the old one in the former Spanish restaurant and rather swish!

The old one has been being demolished since the next day!

We were invited to B&J's twins' 6th birthday party on the Monday at the end of the sandy beach.

Again- great company and some serious sun for the afternoon! Fun for the kids - no photos - and for the adults:- here is Mick doing his Gumby impression!

"It's... it's...."