Next day we headed to Rethymno driving through the hills. To be honest, we were trying to avoid as much as possible the north coast which is heavily affected, to put it politely, by tourism development. We made a quick stop at the campsite ‘Elizabeth’ to take a look at the ground and then we drove to the city where we found a great, super convenient parking spot by the sea and very close to downtown.
Most foreign tourists visit Moni Arkadiou motivated by the beauty of the scenery highlighted in travel guides and postcards. They won’t be disappointed; it is exactly as shown in the photos, a mixture of Renaissance grandeur and rural charm. Cretans consider it a sacred place. What is odd is that they don’t venerate God or a Saint but freedom itself! Apparently the relationship between Cretans and religion is more complicated than expected
Elefterna is supposed to be the ‘next big thing’ on Crete’s archaeological map. A brand new museum is expected to be open in 2015 (or later, who knows?) along with the archaeological site itself. What follows is a sort of preview, as we had the opportunity to visit the site few years ago during a press trip. This time we had to content ourselves with a walk around the perimeter, where we found some interesting things to see. Not bad at all!