When I was a lad growing up, even before I reached the ripe old age of ten, my dad, bless him, always tried to give the family a bit of a summer break, even though back then we didn’t have a great deal of disposable income. Times were ‘ard. The lack of riches was never really noticed in our family, because we were extremely rich in the most important way, the way of family love and security. Both of our parents made it their business to provide my sister Jane and I with a secure, loving family environment, and that included – I’m proud to say – a little ‘correction’ now and then. Why am I rambling on about this? I’ll tell you, because some of the best summer holidays we ever had were either spent on daytrips from home, or staying only thirty miles away, on Brean Sands in Somerset, for example. You’ll see where I’m coming from soon, promise.

Just before I get to the point, though, I should point out that back in the late fifties and early sixties, when we used to go to Brean, it was possibly a lot different place than it is today. I would imagine that it’s still a lot less commercialised than places like Weston Super Mare, but my abiding memory of the place is miles of stunningly beautiful sandy beach, backed by miles of wild sand dunes and bookended to the North by the wonderfully moor-like Brean Down which juts out into the Bristol Channel, and to the South by the rather elegant and low-key seaside town that is Burnham-On-Sea. I make no apologies for plugging this little corner of my home county of Somerset because, if it’s a part of the UK that you’ve never visited, you’d be well-advised to put it on your bucket list. Even today, after all these decades since my parents used to make a beeline for the area from our home village of Tunley, about six miles South West of Bath, it’s a part of the UK that is still stunningly beautiful and devoid of mass-tourism.

What I wanted to stress was the fact that the best holidays don’t have to be the most expensive, or involve huge mammoth journeys. Having done a fair bit of globetrotting in our time, I can well speak from experience when I say that we’ve been to places that involved epic journeys, changes of flight en-route, in fact all the usual things that travelling vast distances involves, and yet had breaks no better, no more restful or invigorating than those my Dad took us on back then, which involved a car journey (Dad strove very hard to run a car, even if his were often decades old) of no more than thirty miles each way.

So, and may I thank you for your patience at this juncture, I reach the point where I explain why we’re spending a fortnight in a modest apartment in Sitia (again!), not an hour’s drive from our own front door, rather than some other island that may have involved sea journeys, flights, lots of waiting around and carrying/dragging luggage this way and that. When you go away in the car, it’s simply brilliant how easy it is. You can just throw anything that you think you might need into the boot (trunk, guys) or onto the back seat, and leave most of it there when you get to your destination, only returning to the vehicle to retrieve it if you decide that you can use it. Because this year it’s a huge milestone for our marriage, and our anniversary was April 20th by the way, we sat down ages ago and thought about what we might like to do to mark the occasion, where we might like to go. The Seychelles, the Caribbean maybe, what about Rome? Perhaps any one of all the Greek islands that we still haven’t been to (and we’ve done a lot, I can tell you!)? We eventually pared it all down to an island that we’ve been to twice in the past, and on both occasions spent three weeks there, and that was Naxos. See, it’s all very well going half-way around the world, but when it comes down to what we really want out of a short break, it’s all right here on our doorstep, in our adopted home, Greece. Plus, speaking the lingo is a huge plus point.

We have very fond memories of Naxos, and thought that, OK, maybe it was the place to go back to for our fiftieth. In fact, had we carried on with our plans to go back, I’m sure we’d have had a lovely time. The other destination that vied very closely with Naxos was Patmos (an island that we’ve also spent around six weeks on), but since moving from Rhodes to Crete nearly five years ago, that’s now become a lot more difficult place to reach. The journey would have been fraught, to be honest. To get to Naxos from our home in Makrylia would have been fairly straightforward, although it would have meant our leaving the car on the quayside at Heraklion and taking the SeaJet as foot passengers but, after quite a lot of deliberating, we found ourselves staring at each other a couple of months ago and both thinking the same thing, and that was, “What we like to do when we’re away we can do in Sitia for a lot less travelling, not to mention a major difference in expenditure to get there, and indeed, stay there too.”

Over coffee on the terrace back in March, it was funny how the both of us stared at each other across the rims of our coffee cups and began at the same time to suggest that maybe we ought simply to go back to Sitia, where we’ve been for short breaks twice in the past two years, during May 2022 and May 2023. Yes, OK, the whitewashed Cycladian streets are pretty, and the buildings very photogenic, but it seems we have very basic requirements when it comes to what makes us happy these days. We no longer feel the necessity for photogenic places (usually well stocked with tourists as a result). We like to get up at leisure, prepare our own breakfast of muesli, yogurt and chopped fruit, thus ensuring that we get the nutrition that we need (I know, let’s not go there this time, I do go on a bit about how healthy we are), then venture out for a long walk that will inevitably involve stopping at a waterfront coffee bar for a spot of people-watching, before ambling around a little more and getting back to the room for a simple lunch on the veranda. Then it’s a sleep for the afternoon, before taking a few hours to get ourselves ready to step out at around 9.00pm for an evening meal at a taverna or restaurant, also beside the sea.

To be honest, we could do all that from home too, in Ierapetra, but it’s six kilometres from the house to the town, and so it would have involved taking the car every night. What’s better than parking up and forgetting the wheels for the duration? It’s amazing how relaxing it is to simply walk everywhere for a fortnight, not to say more healthy, and it doesn’t matter if one sips a glass of wine or three while out either. So, Sitia (I know, I know, in previous posts I’ve spelt it Siteia, you pays your money…) ticks every one of the boxes that we have on our ‘ideal holiday’ list. We’d be hard-put to think of anywhere that we’ve so far been in Greece that has as good a choice of waterfront eateries and bars as the harbour area in Sitia. OK, so it’s not as pretty as Paros or Mykonos, but at least here you are mainly amongst locals, the overseas visitors being very much in the minority. It’s not always what takes a good photograph when you come right down to it.

So, here we are, and here we’ll be for another week and a half yet. Since I’m a terrible sleeper, some of the photos I’ll be posting will be taken during the wee small hours too, when I have the whole place very much to myself, apart from the local cat population, of course. Here’s the first batch, taken between Saturday 20th and Tuesday 23rd…

Above: For the first night (our actual anniversary meal), we decided it had to be our favourite restaurant on the front at Sitia, and that’s the Limani. Not only is it ideally situated, it also has a an excellent menu for vegetarians, including a lot of ‘home cooking’ dishes that many restaurants don’t do. In the photo above we’ve put the kolokithokeftedes on to the plate with the grilled mushrooms in order to make room for all the dishes. There are gigantes too and a lovely green salad with fresh spring onions in the mix. They charge a very acceptable €5 for a bottle of Malamatina Retsina too, which is one of the best brands in Greece.

In fact, we’ve made the executive decision that we’re going to the Limani every second evening, and we’ll go elsewhere on the other nights to see what else takes our fancy. Thus, we were there again on Monday, when we ate courtesy of my lovely sister Jane, who gave us a nice anniversary gift of a wad of cash, much of which went on Monday’s meal, when we ordered gemista and fasolakia (arguably the best fasolakia we’ve ever eaten anywhere. The only place that rivals the Limani for fasolakia in my mind is the Odyssey in the Old Town of Rhodes). Here’s Monday’s meal…

That choccy dessert, by the way, was on the house!!! Very naughty, but boy did it go down well. We’re here a full three weeks earlier than we were in ’22 and ’23, so it’s really great to still be able to sit outside to eat after dark.

Lots more photos to come in the next post, but first, I wanted to just tell you something, if you’ll indulge me. Blogging is an odd kind of pastime when you analyse it. I mean, when one writes a blog, one is essentially spouting on about one’s own life and, frankly, when I see people doing that on Facebook (for example) I don’t much like it. Yet here I am, having kept a blog both on Rhodes and now here in Crete for a decade and more. I am very conscious of the fact that people out there in ‘internet-land’ have to give up a few minutes of their lives in order to read one of my posts, and for that I can’t find enough words to express my gratitude to one and all, believe me. I do hold out the hope that what I write entertains, informs and interests people who love Greece, and that’s my main motivation when I prepare a post. Please believe me when I say that I’m truly humbled when people give me feedback and I learn that they’ve enjoyed something that I’ve written, maybe learned something that they didn’t know before, or perhaps have been motivated to go somewhere I’ve written about. That’s what gives me the most joy.

I don’t think that any blogger should ever take his or her reading public for granted. We are in a very privileged position if we have followers, and I feel a deep responsibility to write what they’ll enjoy, and in a way that they find pleasurable to read. So, once again, if you read my ‘stuff’ and find it in any way worthwhile, I’m happy, not to say eternally grateful to you.

Oh, alright then, a couple more photos in this post…

That extremely attractive woman who looks like she’s just stepped off of a luxury yacht, I’m sure she’s following me…

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