Moving on to Crete

Sunday, August 11

A driver picks us up at 9.15 and delivers us at the airport. There's a special line for attending disabled people, and while the desk person takes care of the check-in, a tall man in unform takes his place behind my chair. He is there to guide me though security. Saying "Yássas" (Hi!) to all he encounters, he gets us quickly through security, where they run scanner along my cast and all over the wheelchair,  and drops us at our gate. We're early and settle down to read. At some point I need the bathroom and find a separate and ample cubicle for disabled, spotlessly clean.

Yanni told us the reason Athens bathrooms are so clean - and they are - is they have inspectors who go around checking all the time. If they find a dirty bathroom the owner gets a stiff fine or the establishment gets closed down. Something to consider in Brazil, or at least at Galeão!

Two guys wearing flourescent vests pick me up and take me to a special van for wheelchairs already waiting on the tarmac (other passengers are bussed in later) and then deliver me straight into the back of the plane and wheel me to my seat. The are very careful, obviously well-trained - and so friendly.

Less than an hour later we have our first look at Crete from our turbo propellor plane.

The exit in Chania is more dramatic. Repeating "Don't be afraid" two men carry me down the long steep flight of stairs from the airplane into a waiting bus - just for me. Another driver is waiting and takes us to the Casa Delfino Suites in the old Venetian Harbor quarter. Turns out, in order to get there, he has to - in what one might call a Napolitan fashion - make his way up a narrow street lined with people lunching at sidewalk tables, some of whom have to move out of the way. This causes some intense exhanges through our open car windows. I try to show my cast ...

So yes, the hotel has many, many stairs and thus as many challenges for me. We also have a deep bathtub in our bathroom. Another challenge. I take a long nap and wake refreshed for an evening walk along the busy harbor area, filled with tourists and lined with restaurants.

We watch a young English girl have a foot spa - feet submerged in an aquarium, where little fish, she explains, nibble her hard skin away - it looks gross.

Then it's time for our "Happy Beer", which we enjoy from strategic seats near the waterfront where we can watch the passersby, one of which is a cute little dachshund that has barely time to pose for Julia :)

We walk along many busy alleys and by chance find the restaurant "Tamam," where the hotel has made reservations. Again we sit on the street, on blue chairs, and order a local Rosé, named Pink, and traditional Greek dishes, Imam Baildi and Boureki, one has thinly sliced zucchini and potatoes baked with white cheese, flavored with mint, and the other thin layers of eggplant interspersed with a richly flavored tomato sauce and crumbled feta cheese. Both are very good. We also have a salad of thinly sliced crunchy vegetables with a magnificent avocado and yougurt sauce.

This sign stops us short: perhaps made to entice tourists from the northern hermisphere?

The temperature is perfect, breezy and just a little warm after the long hot day. We're satisfied when we go home to face the various stairs before reaching our bed.

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/siric/sets/72157635049177853/