Saturday, July 3--Crete, Day 2

Di & Bri showed up after lunch and we decided to head towards Agios Nikolaos eastward along the coast. The maps and directions turned out to be incredibly confusing so we did a fair amount of backtracking. Brian was an absolute brick about going where we directed, even when it meant we went through the same town several times trying to find our way. We did eventually get to the monastery of Agios Giorgios in the Selinari Gorge. We didn't go in, but did spend some time in the courtyard soaking up the relative peace and nice view of the sea.

The cliffs of the gorge are home to the Lammergeyer falcon, the largest birds of prey on the island with a wingspan of 7-9 feet. We actually got to see several soaring, although you can imagine that it was tricky getting a decent shot.

We did finally make it to Agios Nikolaos after a detour to do a hike into the hills--how Di ever covered the ground she did in her fashionable little shoes is beyond me! The town is right on the coast with a lake in center, connected to the harbor and sea by a narrow channel.

We wandered around, admired the windows of the jewelry stores, perused the menus of the restaurants along the lake, had some ice cream and found a pharmacy to get Brian some allergy tablets. We had a nice fish dinner, complete with begging cats, and then headed home.