The ferry trip from Paros took several hours and stopped three times before reaching Iraklio (or Heraklion), the capital of Crete, located about the midpoint of the north coast, and it's largest port. It's a city of over 500,000 and looks it. Several hundred people had to get their luggage and muscle their way off the ship. We waited a bit and avoided the main crush. Taxis are plentiful and we hired one to take us to our apartment in Agia Pelagia, a beach town about 25 kilometers west of Heraklion. The National Highway runs the length of the island's northern coast. We would use it almost every day of our 7 in Crete. Agia Pelagia is a small beach resort on a crescent-shaped inlet far below the main highway and reached by a winding narrow road. Since we had a flat rate fare we didn't have to think about the extra kilometers we racked up as we wound down the mountain to the town.

We arrived at about 8:00pm. Our apartment was very spacious with two balconies overlooking a pool. The larger of the two had a table, chairs, and a rack for drying clothes. We would have a couple of issues with the place, but they were resolved relatively quickly to our satisfaction. We made a grocery run and noticed a restaurant that looked inviting on the corner two blocks from our apartment. It was the restaurant of the Irini Hotel Apartments. We would eat here four times (out of the seven nights we were in Crete).

The weather was already quite warm and the beach filled to overflowing almost every day, with mostly day trippers. As each succeeding day got hotter, the number of beach goers grew as well. At night it was quiet and very peaceful. We had reserved a car for the week, which was delivered promptly at 10am the first morning, but we didn't even get in it until the next day, preferring to just relax. There is a lot to see and do on Crete and given the time we had, we concentrated on sites along the north coast. We took day trips out from Agia Pelagia to Knossos (site of the Minoan ruins), Phaestos, Heraklion, Rethymno, and Hania. We never did get to Agia Nickolaos or anywhere else much east of Heraklion. The ruins at Knossos were quite extensive. The individual buildings are well marked with explanatory signs. That, coupled with our Lonely Planet guidebook, was sufficient to eliminate the need to pay an English-speaking guide. We also visited the ruins at Phaestos, where the famous disc of Phaestos was found. Unfortunately, this site is poorly documented and the disc is in a museum in Heraklion. We would not recommend spending any time here. Other day trips included a drive to Rethymno, about 55 kilometers west of Agia Pelagia, and to Hania, another 70 kilometers west of that.

We were going to avoid visiting Heraklion and its congestion at all costs, but decided that a Sunday excursion would be the least hassle. We wanted to see how to get to the ferry and where we were to leave our car for the rental agency to pick up. They had provided us excellent directions to find our way through the city. While there we explored the old Venetian Castle on the waterfront and enjoyed a nice lunch overlooking the Sea of Crete. Afterwards, we set off to find the Archeological Museum of Crete to see the Phaestos Disc. There were almost no signs for it and it took some doing to locate it and find a place to park; only to find that the museum had been closed for several months and wasn't to reopen until November. We never did find out why.

All along the National Highway, we saw signs for Crete's acquarium ("CretAquarium"), located about 15 kilometers east of Haraklion. When we got there we found an empty parking lot (at 11:00 in the morning!!). We thought about the closed museum and began to wonder what was going on. We finally realized the lot was for a different building, after we spotted the acquarium about 1/2 kilometer away. The acquarium is quite impressive and we spent several hours there.

Our ferry back to Pireaus/Athens was the "Phaestos Palace", a huge ship! We had VIP seats (don't ask us why) in a private salon. This ferry had all the features of a cruise ship including overnight cabins, swimming pools, restaurants, etc. Not a bad way to spend 6 1/2 hours.

To get the most out of the photos below, we suggest you check out our Crete journal. Otherwise, just click on any photo below to enlarge it. (Note that they are not necessarily presented in the order they were taken.)