We both awoke early this morning, while it was still dark out. Lying in bed, we rehashed yesterday’s setbacks. Suddenly Rachael broke out laughing uncontrollably and continued for several minutes. How funny that I bought two new items for the trip, and broke both of them on the first day out!
Ha, ha.
Once it was light enough to see out, I went downstairs to re-examine my bike. It looks to me like I damaged the shifter, alright - but not at the point when it malfunctioned. A bit earlier in the ride, I let my bike slip while balancing it between my legs to take a photo. The front wheel turned sideways and the bike fell to the ground. I can see that the top of the lever is slightly scraped from the impact, so it must have been then. Hopefully it’s something that the bike shop can deal with tomorrow - modern bike components have become so specialized.
On the good news front, at breakfast Antonio informed us that he researched the shipment of our suitcases to Ohrid yesterday, and confirmed that it will work (he’d expressed some concern about shipment to Macedonia). He’ll take them over for us tomorrow.
Not sure of how much riding I could get in with my damaged goods, I optimistically mapped out an easy 40 mile loop west of town. After 12 flat miles along the coast, it slowly gains elevation as it follows a small stream south into the interior, topping out at about 1300’. The grade is never more than about 4-5%, and I hoped my narrow range of workable gears would make the ride manageable.
As it turned out, I had no difficulty at all. I only have the use of four or five gears on the small chainring but they’re sufficient to bike about 13 mph on the flats and to handle some moderate climbing. The ride along the coast (which we’ll repeat tomorrow when we leave Chania and bike west to Kissamos) is safe enough but not really pleasant, with about half of the distance on the old, busy narrow coast road. Once we turned away from the coast though, we found wonderful cycling until the last few miles coming back to town. A rewarding if not too challenging outing.
Partway up to the summit, I stopped to take a photo of a swallowtail butterfly dining on a colorful lantana (identified by me, once Gain, by Andrea). While a Rachael biked on ahead, I stayed for several minutes taking about twenty photographs of the butterfly. Finally done, I was startled to see a man waiting patiently for me to look up, holding a pair of fresh oranges that he then offered to me.
Weather was a bit of a surprise though - as soon as we crossed the summit we encountered light showers that gradually picked up steam. At one point it began coming down more seriously, and we gratefully pulled off the shoulder to hide out beneath a freight trailer. Soon enough it died down and we resumed riding. It never fully quit though, and we experienced a pretty sloppy last few miles. We were happy to get back, both to dry out and to hit the sack for a few hours. Jet lag is taking its toll on both of us.
Whenever we come to Crete we stop to take a photo of this little fisherman’s shrine west of Chania. It’s a tradition!
The beach east of Agia Marina. The town looks much more romantic from a distance. Up close, it’s a rather unattractive continuous sprawl of beach hotels, groceries, rental outlets and so on.
We leave the coast near Maleme and almost immediately leave the sprawl behind. We follow very quiet roads for the next twenty miles, until we approach Chania again.
For much of the ride we cycled through orange and olive groves. A bit beyond this point, a farmer hailed me from the side of the road and handed me two oranges. They made a welcome addition to our lunch.
There are 30 million olive trees in Crete. The island produces more olives than all of the rest of Greece combined. The black netting is unfurled beneath the trees in harvest season to catch the falling crop.
Rachael was out cold for three hours, only awakening when I started groaning and screeching from a bad leg cramp. A few minutes later and we were out the door on our way to Tharros, the restaurant we had failed to relocate last night. Three minutes later, and we were there - it is only four short blocks from our hotel room.
For a day that started with such limited promise because of the problem with my bike, it was surprisingly satisfying. We enjoyed the ride much more than we expected, even though it was less exciting and dramatic than the one we had been planning on, a 60mile loop to the Omalos Plateau.
Surprisingly though, the evening was the best part of the day. Everything about our meal at Tharros was exceptional, making it one of the best dining experiences we can recall. The meal itself was delicious, but the extras were what made the evening so special. First of all was the setting. Tharros is an open air, second floor restaurant on a quiet minor street back a few blocks from the harbor. Almost feeling like a ruin, it fills an empty space between taller structures, and is very scenic. It was delightful to sit there for a few hours, watching the lighting on the walls change as dusk turned to night, and watching and listening to squadrons of swifts circling above and occasionally sweeping low through the open space above the restaurant, not far above our table.
Then there were the people, starting with Starros, our waiter. Very attentive, very good at his job, and quite personable. We especially enjoyed the show he put on deboning Rachael’s whole sea bream - I wish I’d had the foresight and nerve to record a video of the performance. And finally, there was the young couple from London sitting at the neighboring table, Kate and her friend whose name I unfortunately forgot. We struck up a very enjoyable, extended conversation with them after dinner and left the scene feeling like we had made new friends. Pretty much a perfect evening.
Rachael at the entrance to Tharros, modeling her new sweater
Waiting for the arrival of the first course. About five minutes after we were served it began to sprinkle, and all of the diners hurriedly relocated to the covered area.
I know I said yesterday that there wouldn’t be many food photos in the journal, but here we go again. Last nights meal was special because it was the first; but tonight’s is here because it’s special. For starters, we had gigantes and a delicious green salad with figs and sliced almonds.
