At Heraklion

It's still Sunday 25th but we have negotiated the drive from the south coast to Crete's capital city. The Avis car return depot was cunnngly concealed on the wrong side of a dual carriageway as we approached the airport. However, the WWN consulted a local and very soon we were in the right place. In spite of all of the shenanigans from Avis when we arrived in Crete, the charming man who checked in the car on return announced that there was zero to pay! A bit of a shame because I was all wound up to do battle over the threatened extra charges!

The Avis mini van shuttle took us to the airport where there was a long line of taxis waiting to take us  to the Kastro hotel in central Heraklion. As luck would have it, we were driven by the grumpiest taxi driver in Europe who seemed determined to demonstrate how much his Mercedes E class could exceed every speed limit on the way. At one particular corner, tyres squealed and smoked! By now the LLW was at her tether's end and said taxi driver was told in no uncertain terms to slow down. He did so but this seemed to make him even more grumpy and he even refused the tip I offered him. I've never seen that before!

We settled in to our hotel and after a brief rest walked through the centre of Heraklion to the harbour. There are some lovely buildings from the Venetian and Ottoman eras and Heraklion must have been a very elegant city in those days.

Time for a beer and something to eat. The city centre was buzzing and the mass of people increased as it became dark. The choice seemed to be souvlaki or souvlaki so we chose a restaurant were we could observe the street theatre (and keep an eye on West Ham vs Southampton). Actually the food was quite good.

Time to wend our way back to the hotel and prepare for the island hopping stage of our holiday.