Неплохой отдых Good rest

12.06. 2008-22.06. 2008
What can you say about the hotel Minos Mare **** and the tour to Crete? Flight to Transaero without any problems. The airport in Heraklion is a waste. On the return flight - extreme. First, the queue for registration, at the same time you observe two huge queues for passport control, but one of them is for the eurozone, and the second for non-Schengens (Russians and Asians). But at the tail of the queue, you don’t know about it, because line across the room. Then you only see that you are standing in the wrong place, and it’s not funny at all. I recommend that you simultaneously take a queue for check-in for a flight and for the correct queue for passport control. After checking in and weighing luggage, luggage is not accepted (! ), It must be checked in separately in a special place. You drag your baggage, cutting through the queues for check-in flights across and learning a lot about yourself. The word khrenakl made me laugh very much. And the voice in the speaker is constantly blabbasing that this is the last warning for those who are late for such and such a flight. You understand how difficult it is not to be late under such a system.
About the hotel. We chose the hotel Minos, located in the village of Platania near the city of Rethymno. The exact name of the hotel is Minos Mare ****, there is a hotel with the name "Minos" in Rethymno itself, but there it is 3 stars and on the second line. True, the same 100 m to the coast, but across the road. The name of the hotel is very symbolic for Crete.

In Greek mythology, Crete is the most “mythically populated” island (all sorts of Hercules, Minotaurs, etc. , and in the Homeric Iliad, King Minos is mentioned, who ruled in the city of Knossos in Crete several generations before the Trojan War), but until the end of the 19th century, this there were only legends. However, Heinrich Schliemann, an adventurer by nature, in 1873 he discovered the ruins of Troy in Asia Minor exactly where Homer placed Troy. This inspired Arthur Evans, who decided that since Troy existed, Knossos could also exist, and in 1900 he unearthed a colossal palace and an abundance of murals, ceramics, and texts. The civilization discovered was clearly not Greek, and Evans named it Minoan, after the legendary king Minos.
Returning to the Minos hotel with such a sonorous name, I note that it almost corresponds to 4 stars with the caveat that the air conditioning system in the hotel is sluggish, and the owner prefers not to notice it. In this regard, it would be better to settle on the basement floor, in the rooms of which it is always more or less cool, but we could not quickly assess this and during the settlement we made a terrible fuss about settling in the underground and discrimination against Russian tourists, which eventually led to resettlement to the third (last) floor, heated during the day under the scorching sun to the temperature of a sauna and later regretted very much that they had shown firmness in their intentions to insist on their own.
The hotel stands perpendicular to the sea, on one side a view of a tiny garden and behind it a hotel under construction, on the other side, behind a hedge, the private land holdings of the Greeks. There is no other way to name these areas, since there is no noticeable cultivated land there. A couple of lonely pumpkin patches, a wreck for chickens, a rooster crowing in a hoarse voice in the morning, a fence for a couple of sheep, a rickety doghouse with an exhausted dog - that's all. It seems that the tourist industry has spoiled the Greeks a little. Women basically do not work, they are happy owners of excellent chicken legs and terribly yell at their husbands when they return from work, steamed from the heat, wine and the same Greek women as their own wives. I didn’t get used to the beginning of such showdowns during the days of my stay, if at that time I was on the balcony, every time I shuddered from heartbreaking screams and dropped a glass of Greek. By the way, about Greek. Greek wine has no astringency. At least for 8 euros you can buy a bottle of the prestigious Butari company, at least you can drink homemade for 2 euros - I didn’t feel the difference. This is a big disappointment. True, they have wine that is made from dried grapes and has a pleasant taste - this is a sweet red wine "Vinsanto", made in Santorini, I tried it, tasty, but the price does not inspire, as it corresponds to the elixir of youth, but not a drink for quench your thirst. Beach for FB - with free sunbeds and umbrellas, FB at the hotel is expanded to light inclusive, but drinks and alcohol in the form of homemade wine and beer are strictly at meal times. In a bar at an arbitrary time, as is customary in Cyprus and Turkey, it will not be possible to revel. The sea is warm (near the El Greco hotel, so there are underwater cold currents, an unpleasant contrast).
What excursions to visit? From a cognitive point of view, this is the island of Santarini north of Crete and Knossos.

There are serious reasons to believe that the island of Santorini is directly related to Atlantis. Plato refers the island to an ancient civilization that disappeared due to a sudden natural disaster. Historians of different times were interested in the myth, who defined the former location of Atlantis in different ways, but in recent years scientists have come to the conclusion that Santorini is the most likely location of the former Atlantis. The island is a former volcano that ejected megatons of lava 1.5 thousand years before the reckoning of Christ, after which it sank almost completely under water (by 300 meters), and the tsunami completed everything and buried the Cretan Knossos. A very beautiful island (there are actually several islands), but you need to get there on a large five-hundred-seat catamaran, (two go), a smaller one, which has 300 seats, is unreliable, threw tourists twice in two weeks (flights canceled allegedly due to weather ), the name of this scam catamaran is Super Jet. Knossos to visit - it is advisable to feel involved in the pre-Christian era, it’s still nice to visit the Preveli Monastery on the south coast of Crete, a beautiful gorge will be on the way, but you won’t see a waterfall in the sea and a unique palm beach - don’t believe the advertisement! There, the descent along the steep steps is not for the faint of heart and excursions are not taxied there. It is necessary to rent a car, and even more profitable - a small-capacity motorcycle, in fact a moped. Practical Germans do just that.
There are taxis to Rethymno (5 minutes), 6-8 euros, as well as a municipal bus, it is only four km from the hotel, and 4 km to the center, since Platania gently flows into Rethymno without any break and you can walk in an hour if would not be hot. There is a schedule available at every corner, as well as tickets for 1.2 euros per person (in any store). Buses run 3 times every two hours (on average), but the drivers do not follow the schedule, as the Greeks are big gouges.
The country is expensive, hotels and prices in Cyprus, for example, are cheaper and better (Golden Aches, the Cypriot trio, a cut above Minos Mare).
That's basically it. Good luck to everyone and have a good rest. Igor.