“The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you’re not a traveler. You’re a fucking tourist.”
― Guillermo del Toro
Go-Date: Day 50 – 53, Wednesday thru Saturday. March 13, 14, 15 & 16
Lesson Learned: Nothing makes for a worse stay in a town/resort/village/city than a bad bed. Whether it’s a lumpy mattress, a pillow made of a sack of rocks, or scratchy, worn, or stained sheets that you are sure has and extended family of bed bugs in residence, if you don’t sleep well at night it doesn’t matter how pleasant the location is or how many fascinating archeological sites you may see. A bad bed will skew your perceptions and elevate your dissatisfaction during your stay.
Agios Nikolaos (Ag. N.) is a cute sea-side village of about 35,000 people nestled between the mountains on the east coast of Create. It’s a beach town, and we weren’t there in beach season so it was slow to wake up from its winter nap. Much slower than Chania was on the west coast of the island. Ag.N. was settled in the late Bronze Age by Dorian occupants of Lato, when the people got tired of living on top of a mountain and thought beach-front property was a much more attractive living option.
The name Agios Nikolaos means Saint Nicholas, but nary a red suited Santa or reindeer was seen our entire time in town. Of course Nicholas is a common-place name in Greece, since Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors. There are a lot of sailors and fishermen in Greece, at least that’s what the friendly lady with the short, short skirt on the corner told me.
We rolled into town at about 2 PM and found our hotel, The Porto Maltese Boutique Hotel. There was no place to park so we found a public lot about 2 blocks away and lugged our suitcases up the hill to check in. That was a little problem, but the room we had certainly made up for that small inconvenience. I’ll attach pictures, but it was a two-room suite, with a balcony overlooking the harbor. We were right in the old town and cafés were everywhere, the beach was half a block away, and the bed was really comfortable. The only problem was the wind was blowing out of the east at about 20 mph and it kept the balcony cold as there was no wind break. None-the-less it was great to lay in bed and look out over the bay and the city. It really is a pretty town, even though Ellen and I are not beachy type people by any stretch of the imagination. The other issue was there were about 8 flights of stairs up to our room, but we could sneak out the back alley exit and eliminate 6 of those flights. If you don’t mind rustic, this is a great place to stay. Also, a couple of doors up is the Molo Café & Bar. Reasonable prices, very good food, great staff and a nice view of the harbor.
This place has been around a long time. It appears to have been first settled in the Final Neolithic period, in about 3000 BC. People continued to live here throughout the Minoan Bronze Age and the Classical Greek and Roman periods, which adds up to about a total of up to 5,000 years. There aren’t any ancient ruins in the city that we found, and in fact the archeological museum here closed in 2012 and doesn’t look like its going to open any time soon. So there are only three types of entertainment in town, 1) go to the beach 2) shop and 3) eat and drink. We’ll pass on the first two, but I can do #3 quite well.
Agios Nikolaos is probably best known as a tourist town that serves as a hub to the twenty or so small villages and farms that make up that part of Lassithi. Tourist attractions include beaches, bars, beaches, marinas for boating types, bars, and cafés, and did I mention beaches. Interesting enough, just a short ferry ride away, or a short drive up the stunning coast north of town (and a 10-minute boat ride) is the island of Spinalonga, an old Venetian fortress turned leper colony in the beginning of the 20th century. It’s absolutely stunning to view from the road. Its so close you think you could swim out to it from shore. As a matter of fact, when the Venetians built it back in the 15th century, it wasn’t even an island. It was connected to Crete by a narrow isthmus. Those clever Venetians thought it would be more secure if they dug a trench and made it an island, so that’s what they did. It must have been challenging doing that without backholes, power equipment and Chinese laborers like the US railroads had back in the 1800s. It is an amazing sight. If we had not committed to be in Heraklion by 3 PM on the 16th we would have taken the boat to the island.
Strangely enough, I read, and a friendly bartender confirmed that Ag. N. tourism is mainly West Europeans. There are a lot of Brits, Greeks, Irish, Canadians, Germans and a considerable amount of Russian vacationers in East Crete. American beach nuts are missing out on this lovely pearl vacation spot. Agios Nikolaos became internationally well known during the 60’s, when it was “discovered” by famous cinema directors (Jules Dassin, Walt Disney etc.), BBC producers and many others. It was then that the rapid tourist development of the area started. Among the various productions filmed were He Who Must Die, The Moon-Spinners, and the TV series The Lotus Eaters. Daphne du Maurier’s short story Not After Midnight (never heard of it) was set in and around the town.
We took a day trip west of Ag. N, to see an old Minoan site, but the roads were rough and as always, we worry about damaging the rent car so we bailed out and found a bar. You may think we are faint of heart, but I promise that even decent country roads here make 4-wheel drive paths in Colorado look like divided highways. One-vehicle wide roads are the norm. Bridges look like they were built in 1922, country dogs don’t get vaccinated and are often not the friendly types, and there are as many boulders in the center of the road as there are spring bluebonnets in Austin. The road north along the coast is fabulous though. I’m pretty sure that’s because of all the rich summer tourists with villa’s clinging to the sides of the cliffs. After all, you don’t want to ding a rich guy’s Beemer, Benz, or Ferrari when he’s driving his mistress out to his summer villa.
The rest of our time in Ag. N. we just walked the town and got to know the city streets. Warning….stay away from the water-front cafés. The food is OK (only just OK), but the prices are way too high. Even after you look at the menus make sure the prices are right when you get the bill. Its nothing for those guys to kick in an extra 5 to 10 Euros on your bill. Just half a block inland makes all the difference in the world.
On the Friday night before St. Patrick’s Day we stopped in to an Irish pub for a drink before dinner at about 7 PM (19:00 in Greece). We took a table by the window and expected the crowds to begin to drift in, it never happened. Probably it was the weather, which was wet, cold and windy, but it may be because there aren’t too many Irish in Ag. N. There was room up at the bar so we moved to have a little conversation. There at the bar was Stephen and Anne Randles (from Milton Keynes, Great Britton), Lynn, from Scotland, and Michael, the bartender, from the Netherlands. We had a great time, talked a lot, watched Anne do a few Karaoke songs, and tossed down a few pints. We never did make it to dinner.
Anne and Stephen live on a 43-foot sail boat, and have for the past 13 years. They invited us to their boat the next day.
The boat was lovely. I think. I don’t know a damned thing about boats. They had it tricked out with solar panels, a water converter, satellite Internet, and USB plugs all over the cabin area. They had been in Ag. N. for the past 3 years, and before that were in Sicily, Italy for 5 years. They don’t plan on going back to the UK. They were a little concerned about Brexit since that might compromise their ex-pat lifestyle. We spent a nice hour on-board talking before we had to leave.
The clock was running out on our stay in Crete. On to Heraklion (Iraklio) for our last three days on the island.