This photo (above) was taken at our former home in Kiotari, Rhodes in March of 2019, just a few months before we learned that the house was to be put on the market. It still chills me to the bone to think that the whole place was razed to the ground by fire last summer, and that beautiful garden that we’d spent 14 years developing was reduced to ashes. Wendy (our friend and former landlady) tells me that the valley is slowly turning green again, although it’s still full of charred pillars that once were the trunks of mature pine trees that forested a large part of the valley. Apparently work has begun on rebuilding, but I don’t know if the new house will resemble the old one or not. No doubt she’ll send me some photos as it develops.

On Sunday May 12th we went to the village of Pefkos and that’s where the next gallery of photos were taken. Of course, everyone who knows Greece well will also know that travelling around the islands you come across the same names again and again, and the Pefkos I refer to here is in the hills between Mirtos and Viannou, and not the one that we used to live near back on Rhodes, which is a holiday resort right on the beach. Also, as another example, if you know Kefalonia well, you’ll also know that there’s a famous beach called Mirtos there too, and it featured in the scene where the mine is detonated on a beach. It’s not much like the coastal village here in Lasithi, which, although picturesque, also gets a lot of visitors during the tourist season. Anyway, here are a few views of sleepy Pefkos in Lasithi…

The next few are from a walk we did in the hills around the village on May 10th…

…and the ones below are from the Town beach on Thursday 16th…

Although it looks like a damn fine job that’s being done to renovate the Venetian Fortress at the entrance to the Harbour, it’s getting us down a bit how long it’s taking to complete the work. The sign below is on display beside the wall, and it suggests that the work should have been completed four years ago. OK, so we’ve had a pandemic since, but still, it’s a little disappointing for visitors who have read about the place and who come here with a view to including a visit to it in their itinerary. It seems that the E.U. has coughed up almost €800k to carry out the job too. Flippin’ ‘eck, eh?

Another ‘place of interest’ in Ierapetra that quite a few visitors look for is what’s rather ambitiously called ‘Napoleon’s House.’ I’ve talked about it before, as it’s in the Old Town just one block back from the south beach, not more than a hundred metres from the fortress too. OK, so it looks old, and Napoleon did stay there incognito with a local family when his ship anchored in Crete for one night in 1798 en route to his Egyptian campaign. He apparently left a note revealing his identity, and it was only then (after his fleet had sailed away) that the house owners discovered who their guest had been. That fact aside, it still merits a visit out of curiosity, doesn’t it? After all, it is rather photogenic. The only problem is, since the local authority declared it open to the public last year, and placed a rather exciting-looking graphic outside the door, it’s been kept padlocked – incessantly. Here’s what it looks like from the outside anyway…

Below are three more taken in the Old Town a few days ago…

Finally, this first one (below) is the view from our ‘Xenonas” [guest room] door looking toward the lower garden. I just like it, that’s all! The other one’s the view from the picture window in our bedroom. It’s the view we wake up to every morning. Sorry about that (showing off again)…

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