More food, glorious food – dinner …

Rested from our earlier excursion and having re-organised my father and brother’s weekends (more to follow on this) we decided to have a look down the back allies at the little shops and see what they were selling.

The first street seemed to sell nothing but leather, now given that we don't have many cows on the island I don't think I would be wrong is saying that the bags wallets, belts and shoes didn't come from Crete, walking down the street we were instantly transported to the Medinas of Morocco!

Further down the street Morocco spat us out and we were back in Greece, with shops selling olive oil and olive oil related products. I am a sucker for packaging and ended up splurging on some really nice olive oil shampoos and conditioner which are currently winding their way back to the uk for a birthday present - albeit a rather late present, I hope that I am forgiven!

By the time that we had had a look in quite a few shops and had been touted by more greasy Greek men than I care to admit - each one convinced that their restaurant was going to blow our minds away - we eventually found a back street one in the end of town which looked like it had never seen a tourist in its life before.  This we thought would be perfect ... Hmmm we were right and we were wrong. Mum was desperate for some calamari, as we had walked past we had seen a rather large plate which looked really fresh and tasty, the décor well, left much to be desired but we have eaten in some interesting places before and been pleasantly surprised so we thought why not?

A small bottle of ouzo later, a beer, some calimari and a cucumber salad and well we were done. The food was actually quite good, the service well ... it could have been better but what to do. I am not sure that I would return to the venue but that’s not the point, it did the job.

Having wandered around town earlier we had seen what looked to be the makings of a movie set and feeling somewhat nosey we thought we would have a look and see what it was all about ... this of course was what everyone else was doing and as the set was for a scene in what appeared to be the 1930's a heap of tourists in modern attire was not going to make great background material. In my mind this made me suspect that the director was going to wait until the wee hours when everyone was tucked up in their bed before they started filming.

So we thought we would have a cocktail .... a mojito later we headed off towards the hotel, it was after all almost midnight and ironically we walked passed a boat moored on the harbour front called Cinderella, I did wonder if it would turn into a pumpkin on the stroke of twelve.

Outside our hotel was what appeared to be a wine bar serving cheeses and meats alla italian style ... My eyes lit up at the thought of non Greek food and so we decided to have a glass of wine and a cheese plate. The glass of wine turned into a bottle (they didn’t serve the one we wanted by the glass) and the cheese plate turned into a cheese and cold meats plate.  The wine was recommended to us by the sommelier who was extremely knowledgeable, he was a very nice chap who had a lot to say about the area which we found very interesting.

The winery was called Vinerai, it stocked wines from all over Greece and offered simple plates of food – salads, cheeses and meats a bit more up market and with a slightly more European twist than most of the places in the area, it was very nicely decorated and all in all I would highly recommend it.

Eventually some time after two in the morning we made it back to our room and to our beds, tummy full, eyes closed.

Vineria Contact details:

36 Kallinikou Sarpaki, Chania

Tel: 00 30 28210 57590

facebook info

Food, glorious food - lunch

We made it to Chania in time for lunch and having found the hotel and thrown our bags into the room we headed out to feed our tummies.

We were immediately hit with options, almost everywhere we looked there was some sort of taverna or restaurant dishing out vast quantities of Greek food. This posed a problem as we were spoilt for choice ...

Eventually we had walked as far as our hunger pains would allow and we settled on a restaurant located in the ruins of a building. It had no roof or windows but did have a couple of reasonably large trees growing through the middle of what I assume was once a rather grand house, though instead of ancient oil paintings of rich merchant men there were rusty old bicycles hanging from the walls, which made us giggle and think of Dad.

Despite the fact the we thought we where hungrier than the whole African continent combined we new better than to order the whole menu as my eyes are most definately larger than my stomach.

In the end we had quite a simple lunch - some tzatziki, Dakos and stuffed vine leaves all washed down with a beer.

The food was very nice and all things considered ... we were in the middle of the most touristic town on the island … was not extortionately expensive. It was worth it just to sit in the ruined house/garden!

Ionas Hotel

If you’re going to drive for four hours to visit a town on the other side of the island let’s face it you’re more than likely not going to drive all the way back in one day ...  otherwise what would be the point of going in the first place?

So when Mum decided to come I went on tripadvisor and had a hunt for a hotel, given that it was a rather last minute plan finding a hotel was easier than I expected.  

We settled on the Ionia hotel, it seemed decent enough and was in the old town.  The plan being to park the car for the day and walk around and as Chania's old town is a pedestrianised zone there wasn't really much need for a car.

Now despite what seemed to be relatively good directions, finding the hotel took a little bit of time and a number of wrong turns. Eventually we made it, found a spot to park the car and set off on foot. The back streets of Chania can best be described as a rabbit warren full of lefts, rights and dead ends! We managed to take the left and a right a little bit earlier than we should have and ended up walking around in a circle for a while ... Eventually both of us gave in, now given that we are possibly the most stubborn creatures on the planet that is saying something. The lady on the end of the telephone was very helpful perhaps we were not the first people to have taken the wrong turn only a few metres before the hotel!

Once we checked in we were informed that we had been upgraded to the suite, which was a very nice surprise. We were escorted to our room, given an introduction to how everything worked and left to our own devices. Quite literally, the hotel is not manned twenty four seven, you are given an electronic access key and shown how the front door works and if you have any problems there is a telephone number to call where the lovely lady who I never met will try and help you out.  To be honest I rather liked the set up, open and free to get on with it as and when you liked.

The room we had had two levels the mezzanine floor was kitted out with twin beds. 

Breakfast was included in the price we paid for the room, it was a huge continental spread, jams, cheeses, cold meats, muffins, croissants, toast, eggs, cereal and much more it admittedly looked very nice. I say looked as we had managed to stuff ourselves silly the night before and the near sight of food was enough to make us feel like we were the size of the hotel itself!

There was a staff member ready to help you out with anything that you might need for your breakfast and even though her English was limited we managed with our charades and broken Greek.

All in all, the hotel was very good value for money and very conveniently located. If you didn't want to venture too far from the hotel there were two restaurants right outside the front door serving excellent food.

You can find the hotels website here along with all their contact details.

Chania

About twice a year my parents make their pilgrimage to see their daughter who lives in Greece ... not that they have another one or anything. This year they made it over in May but as fait would have it, there was a small hiccough that got in the way of their combined second trip - Dad had temporarily come out of retirement to fix a problem somewhere in the Mediterranean ...unfortunately not in my bit of the Med. This left Mum with the dilemma of what to do whilst the cat was away .... the mouse decided to play, hopped on an airplane and with a skip and a jump she was on the island.

This not being her first trip meant that, well, she had seen most of this end of the island and with itchy feet was raring to do a bit more exploring so we booked a hotel in Chania, at the other end of the island.

Chania is well known in the touristic circles, it had the good fortune of being ruled by the Venetians who used all their engineering and architectural know how to create a beautiful coastal town complete with walled city and port.

Depending on who you talk to the old town reminds you of different places, to me it could be Italy Mum argues that it's more Syrian.  Given that after the Venetians came the Turks, there is merit in both sides of the argument. The Venetians left their Italian architecture, the Turks left behind their beloved mosques – many of which have now been converted to churches.

Once an important port of call on the trading route between east and west, Chania is now awash with tourists of all shapes and sizes and of a surprisingly diverse mix of nationalities.

The old town has adapted from the merchants of old to accommodate the modern tourist and their needs. Despite its picturesque outlook the port is lined with bars, restaurants, and shops selling expensive food, drinks and tourist tack.  However, take a wander down the meandering back streets and the opportunities are endless. The shops are packed to the rafters with a huge variety of excuses to get the credit card out and start burning a hole in it! From stunning works of art by local artists to jewellery, hand made carpets and olive based beauty products.

Eventually having walked up almost every back ally and side street in the old town we managed to leave laden with Christmas gifts and well ... let's be honest now, one or two items of self indulgence!