Just cruising the backroads

Sunday we decided to take the backroads southeast of Tsikalaria.  Just drive and see what we can find.  The weather is a bit cloudy so not really worth finding another beach to check out.

This shows some of the places we have gone and the roads we've travelled. Hania is Chania. And right below Souda I've circled Tsikalaria in red. We travelled to Paleochora when we had the first rental car.

We just drive along the winding roads and go thru many villages. I'm surprised how many villages there are and how close to each other.  Its 1:30 so we decide to start looking for a taverna to have lunch.  We go thru one village and I see a sign "Traditional Cretan Food" so figured that must be a good place to start.

Small village with the white church up on the hilltop

Even drive thru an area with lots of Juniper pine trees 

We go inside the taverna since there is no sun shining on the outside patio.  No one else is inside, other then an old man sitting near the wood stove.  I ask the owner if they are open for lunch - yes.  Ok, so we take a seat and his wife comes out. She is the cook and can speak some English.  So she chats for a bit and then I ask what is available for lunch today.  Choices are lamb in wine sauce and pork with roasted potatoes.  So that was easy!  One of each please :)  Both dishes were tasty.  Meat was very tender.  She also gave us little cabbage rolls with just a rice stuffing.  But also very tasty. She sat near us and we talked about Canada, prices of meat LOL!! Seems that lamb is still expensive here even with SO many sheep around! But cheaper then in AB - but I told her we have our lamb imported from New Zealand since most farmers raise beef not sheep.  Anyways, it was fun talking with her.  Her husband doesn't speak English at all.  After dinner she brought out a huge pan of cooked fruit - I think passion fruit, and served us a little on a saucer and also a ginger cookie.  She was sorry but the cookies were not complete - should still have a sugary syrup and nuts put on top but she is doing that tomorrow.  The cookies still tasted great and so did the fruit.  She must be getting all this prepared for Christmas lunch on Christmas day when I think a lot of Greeks go out for a meal.  I'll find that out when we join Vivien and Chris Christmas day for lunch.

Then to finish it off her husband brought out the raki and 3 shot glasses.  One for him LOL!!  One shot each was enough for us!!  We really enjoyed our time at this restaurant.

1/2 a litre of beer and 1/2 a litre of wine :)

We continued driving other roads knowing we cant get lost - I have my maps.me if we had any problems.  And it seems every village we go to there is a sign directing us to Chania :)

The Chania airport is on that peninsula - they land on the right where the rock is showing. We flew over the beach just before landing!

We are now on the other side of Souda Bay looking back at we are staying - X marks our place

We wake up to a sunny Christmas Eve so we are headed to the beach!  But first, 3 kids come to the door and started singing for us - this is at 10am! Two of them had triangles that they "played" and the third was a little girl holding a purse.  When they were finished I clapped (Dwayne missed it since he was in the shower!)  then pointed to my hand to indicate money? They all smiled and shook their heads and followed me right to the bedroom where I was hoping to find change in Dwayne's pants! And I did find enough to give them each 2E.  They were happy and said "bye bye" and left.  I think these are the kids of the hairdresser here in the village.  I had stopped there yesterday and spoke to her about getting my haircut (since I cant use my clippers here because of the different power)  and I remember seeing 2 of the kids on the balcony when I spoke to her.

I later googled it and found out that in Greece usually 3 boys go door to door singing Christmas carols for money or sweets.  So we stopped at a store and bought some small chocolate bars to give to any future carollers - since they also sing on New Years Eve :)

So once we had our breakfast we're off to Balos beach!  This is suppose to be another beautiful beach on the end of a peninsula that is difficult to get to unless you come by boat.  The road on google satellite map looked like it was paved so that should be good.

But once we got a ways on the road to Balos it turned to gravel! So pretty slow going - plus with all the goats and their babies we went really slow to watch the babies :)  We eventually get to the parking lot which is at the end of the 11 km gravel road.  But as we are driving the clouds are coming in again! When we get to the parking area and its another 2km walk down to the beach, so we grab the beach bag and start walking.  We get to the the top of the ridge and find that we have taken the wrong path! Standing on the ridge it is REALLY windy!  I see there are a few other people walking down towards the beach. We decided its to windy and cold to walk all the way down there just to turn around and come back because I don't think I'll be going into the water!!

Views along our drive to Balos- looking back at The White Mtns 

Road turned ugly!

And takes us up pretty high

Yes we had to drive AROUND the goats, because they didn't move!

Cool horns but weird creepy eyes!

I just love the baby goats!

At the top of the ridge Dwayne hanging on because its so windy

This shows how windy it was!

And there it is Balos Lagoon 

Interesting rock up on the ridge- you can see the correct path below us on the left

Different rocks at the top  

The drive back

Even saw a 2 headed goat!!

The clouds are taking over!

And what do you see??

Wooly boolies

Nice bell! Weird eyes!

When we drive back we find a nice little beach on the non-windy side of the peninsula.  I roll up my pants to test the water but its TO COLD for me to go in for a dip!! So we just sat for awhile, had a beer and then headed home :)

Well at least I was prepared today!

Time for a beer on the beach and we have a Fix for that problem :) 

As you can see - not as windy at this beach :) 

Lava rocks on the beach

City of Kissamos in the background

Across the bay from Kissamos you can see the road we were on to get to Balos

Think we found Jack Sparrow's ship!! The Black Pearl!

We drive along the coast highway thru all the little villages - all is pretty quiet.  Cafes and grocery stores are still open. When we get to Chania its really busy!! But we get thru and head home.

When we get home we have a few snacks and wine/beer.  Then the neighbour comes over with a plate of cookies! My favourite icing sugar covered ones and the ginger cookies with nuts.  So nice!

Well guess we will relax at home, watch a Christmas movie and watch for Santa flying by in the sky!!

After we were in bed for an hour it was nice to hear the Church bells ringing - must have been 11pm :) 

Are you SURE we can't have any??

Playing with a windup mouse

Playing with empty boxes :)

Geez if only it was that easy to get rid of Christmas cheer and snacks!!  LOL!!!!