I set my alarm to go off early in order to check the weather report. As the report still indicated a high chance of rain all day, we decided to forgo the two hour bus trip to the beach and instead chose to have a quiet and easy day in Heraklion instead. We took our time getting ready for the day, then went down to breakfast in the lobby of the hotel – not nearly as good as the breakfast we had the day before! As we got ready and had breakfast, a sax player sat down across the street near the water and started to play. At first, this seemed like a nice touch. Four hours of scales later and we were all ready to scream!
After breakfast, we walked down to the harbor and out to the fortress, but then it started to rain harder, so we returned to our rooms and packed and took care of other things. We waited until noon exactly in order to check out of the hotel with its terrible but free wi-fi and clean bathrooms, then walked down to the history museum.
sirens, horns, dogs, street urchins, nerds
Comics by the kilo and Munchkins to rent. (@ Papercut cybercafe, comics & games
Camille and Rob went in to explore the museum while Chloe and I hung out across the street with the snails in a pretty garden. Chloe loved photographing the snails. She picked them up. She raced them. They kept her entertained. Yay, snails!
After Rob and Camille were done with the museum (fascinating, they say), we headed up the hill to have lunch. The girls like a number of the stores that we passed (for the third time – but now they were open!), but we said “After lunch!” We picked a “grill” and had crepes, paninis (toast), and gyros. The food was ok, but the owner(?) was quick to chase off the street urchins. There haven’t been many hawkers or panhannlers, but the “gypsy children” are quite persistent. Even more persistent than the stray(?) dogs everywhere. The dogs are not scared of a thing. They plop down where ever they feel like to take a nap. The only time we saw a dog get to barking was when someone flew an RC helicopter over the fountain at Lion Square.
After the girls had froyo(!) for dessert, we started to walk down the hill to go to the shops. That were now all closed. Poor girls. Instead of shopping, we returned to the game shop, where Rob and the girls played Munchkins for a while. The wi-fi there was not any better than an the hotel; perhaps it was because we were on Crete?
From there, we returned to the hotel to get our bags. A dog followed us from the game shop to the hotel and then all the way down to the ferry. He was not allowed to board the ship with us, thankfully. We got settled in our cabin. I fell asleep quickly, but Rob and the girls went to have a snack and play card games for a while before going to bed.
