Upon talking with the hotel reception we learned that there are no tours yet as it is not “season”. We went to find the tourism office, to learn that it is not where it is supposed to be as internal construction is going on in the building, but no one we talked to new anything about it. As we passed the various shops we noticed a book on Crete which had many driving excursions out of the larger cities. So, after talking with the wonderful man at reception, with him notating all the different routes we would want to take in a rental car over a 4 day period, we went back and purchased the book. After a couple hours of reading, we planned the days between his map and the book.

Since it was after 3pm and the museums were closed we walked around the largest town in Crete, over 100,000 people. While much of the city was destroyed during WWII, it was quickly rebuilt and has many sites from the medieval times. The Venetian harbor is surrounded by preserved wall with a wide moat and many renovated buildings of the time.

Dinner was at La Grande Trattoria, yes Italian in Greece. After we split a salad, a group of 12 women arrived and were having difficulty finding an area where enough tables could be joined to accommodate them. While Norm was off primping in the bathroom, I offered our table to them and said we could move. They were so grateful, that when we had finished dinner, a plate of three deserts arrived, their compliments. When we were done, we walked over to thank them. Only one of the women spoke English, and we learned they were part of a Lion’s group and had just had a lecture on the Olive Tree. Then they offered us a booklet, “In Praise of the Olive Tree”. Everyone smiled and we said our goodbyes.