It’s early summer (OK, late spring) so it must be time for my holiday in Crete. As usual I’m there for a week, with the first four nights in Palaiochora and the remaining three nights in Chania. Bearing in mind last year’s long wait for the flight home at 9pm (and the consequent very late arrival ay East Midlands airport) I looked for more convenient flight times and booked with BA out of Heathrow. Outbound flight would be at 7:05 am and the return flight would be at 13:45, Chania time. Of course, the very early outbound flight necessitated an overnight stay near Heathrow the day before, and indeed flying our of Heathrow meant I would have to do the Totley to Heathrow drive twice. The flights were on successive Wednesdays
The drive down to Heathrow was easy – 165 miles straight down the M1 and onto the M25, it took three and a half hours with a couple of shortish stops, and I achieved a magnificent 54mpg! I got to the Premier Inn on Bath Road at just about 2pm, checked in, and decided to go into central London. This required a bus from outside the hotel to Hounslow bus station followed by a Piccadilly line tube, and the whole experience took about an hour; so a bit of a faff.
While I was wandering around St James/Piccadilly I received a text from BA – my flight would now depart at 9:05 the following morning, i.e. two hours later. In and of itself this didn’t bother me too much – I would still have needed to get to Heathrow the day before. But it could have an impact on my plans for the following day. With the flight originally planned to arrive at Chania at 1pm I would have had plenty of time to get the last bus from Chania bus station to Palaiochora at 4pm. But an arrival at 3pm would put the operation in considerable jeopardy – getting through immigration, retrieving luggage and getting into Chania by 4pm would be tight, and any further delay would rule it out. And a later taxi wouldn’t be an option – it’s 75 kilometres from Chania to Palaiochora, over the mountains, and this would cost £££ (or €€€ actually). So I decided to book an emergency room in Chania for the first night and was able to get space in the Casa Veneto in the old town, for €51. I also contacted the Hotel Glarios in Palaiochora to tell them I wouldn’t be there the first night.
Booking the emergency room turned out to be a good decision as in the event the flight didn’t take off until 10:20 and we didn’t landing at Chania until after 4 o’clock. A regular bus from the airport at 5 o’clock (€2.50) got me to Chania bus station from where it was 15 minute or so walk to the Casa Veneto on Theotokopoulou street – maybe a bit longer as I would have all my luggage.
It was raining a bit when I left the bus station, but when I turned into Pireos street the heavens opened. It rained stair rods. I stood under cover for 10 or 15 minutes, but the rain gave no sign of easing, so I just decided to walk the remaining half mile or so, and as a result I got soaked. The rain got through my waterproof, so my clothes were wet and my shoes were saturated. The rain also penetrated my suitcase and, worryingly, my laptop bag. By the time I reached the hotel I was soaked through.
After drying myself off and changing, things started to look up – after all, I was in Chania! So I went out for a walk and meal, and afterwards strolled around the harbour. It was largely empty of people – very different from my previous visits. I found an art installation/exhibit in the old mosque on the harbour which commemorated the young people – Allied, Greek and German – killed during the battle of Crete, and that was moving. In a year when the headlines have all been about differences it was good to see something that tried to bring people together.
Finally, I must say that the Casa Veneto was very good. It’s a basic hotel – in fact it doesn’t even do breakfast – but the rooms are clean and tidy and it has all the basic facilities. My room had a seating/cooking area with a raised platform with two single beds overhead at one end, plus a small shower/bathroom. It was plenty good enough, and in the circumstances was a bargain.
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